Sam Sokalzuk

Period 6
11/17/17

Proof of Efficacy Document

The Challenge
The idea for this project was to create a trebuchet that could launch a projectile 5
meters or farther. Also the trebuchet could not be larger than one meter in length and
width. The first thing we did in this project is to make a functioning trebuchet that could
shoot at least a meter. Then afterward everyone got to choose one modification to their
project in order to make it better. We had to record the results of the one modification
and present it to the class. Afterwards, everyone chose eight modification that they were
going made to their project. But if youre project already had one of the modifications
listed then it counts as one of your eight. Then after my group did that we did all the
calculations for our trebuchet

Description
My groups trebuchet is made out of plywood. The base of our trebuchet is 62.5
centimeters in length. The length of both of our trebuchets legs is 47.5 cm in height.
Also the arm which launches the projectile is 51 centimeters in length. So our project
also meets the requirements which is a meter by a meter. Our trebuchet also has a
stopper that is 3 inches at the top in between the two legs of our trebuchet. The stopper
is there to make sure the arm releases the projectile at a good angle. The axle we have
to hold the arm in place so it can launch. The axle is a metal rod. We drilled holes in the
arm and both legs for the axle to go through. At the end of the arm we have a finishing
nail at a sixty degree angle which was apart of our modifications. Then to launch the
projectile we have 3 chains of two rubber bands together to make the force to pull the
arm down and make the projectile go forward.

Modifications
My group and I made eight modifications to our trebuchet after we compiled all the
information from the different single modifications that the other groups did for their
trebuchets. Then we chose eight of them that we thought were the best for our
trebuchet. The first modification we made was to have six rubber bands in three chains
of two. We decided to make this modification because the group who made this
modification to their project had a significant increase of horizontal distance during their
tests. Also with the three chains of two rubber bands would create a good amount of
force to launch the projectile forward and far. The second modification my group and I
made was to change the mass of the projectile we launched. My group and I used a
modification of another groups to change the balls weight to 10 grams. We chose this
modification because if the projectile was too heavy then when launched the string
attached to the ball would just be ripped out and the ball would not go anywhere. In
other words the force of the rubber bands pulling down on the arm was too strong for
the projectiles sturdiness to keep the string inside it. The third modification we made
was to change our string length to eight inches. We chose this modification because
before our string was not coming off the nail and the bball was not going that far. The
fourth modification was a finishing nail at 60 degrees which we already had so the angle
the projectile came off on would make it go far. The fifth modification that my group and
I made was a 1:1 arm ratio to make sure that that there arm was lopsided during the
launch of the projectile. The sixth modification is to make sure the arm was staple. But
since we had a thin metal rod and made the holes with the drill just the right size our
arm was already pretty stable. The seventh modification is that we used rubber bands
instead of weights which everyone in the class agreed worked better. Then our final
modification is making the legs stable by drilling screws in instead of nailing the legs to
the base.

Clear Paragraph
It may seem that when you are throwing or launching something the higher the better.
But with trebuchets that is not the case. The lower the axle is the farther the projectile
travels. So, in this project our class is building trebuchets which are basically catapults.
The dimension we had to build the trebuchet with is one meter by one meter. After
everyone in this class finished building the trebuchets we all came up with modifications
for our trebuchets. My groups modification was changing the axles height to see which
height gave us the most horizontal distance. When the axle was at seventeen inches,
sixteen inches, and fifteen inches the projectile went 0m.The projectile did not go
anywhere but straight up or backwards. But when my group and I moved the axle down
to fourteen inches the trebuchet started to have some distance. At fourteen inches the
average horizontal distance travelled by the projectile is eight meters. Then when the
axle was moved down to a height of thirteen inches the horizontal distance grew. The
farthest our trebuchet launched was ten and a half meters at a height of thirteen inches.
The average for thirteen inches was also greater than the average of fourteen inches.
The average for the axle height of thirteen meters was eight and a half meters. The
reasons why the lower the axle is the farther the ball goes is that when our arm hits the
stopper the higher the axle height is the larger the angle of release is. For example if the
release angle was a 180 degrees horizontally the ball will go straight up and not
forward. But when the axle is lowered the angle of release becomes smaller so the arm
becomes more vertical. Which causes the ball to travel more horizontally. So an
example piece of data is that if the axle height is twelve inches the more vertical the arm
is which means the projectile will go farther. So this shows why the lower the axle is the
farther the projectile goes.

Calculations
Time in air: 1.34 seconds
Mass of projectile: 10.7 grams

Horizontal distance: The horizontal distance of our project is 20 meters and we got
that answer by seeing where the ball landed and measuring how far it went.

Vertical distance: 1/2 2 I used this equation to find the vertical distance. I plugged
in .67 sec for t which is the half of the total time the ball took to hit the ground. For a
which is acceleration I plugged in 9.8m/s^2. Then I solved for vertical distance and got
2.19 meters for the vertical distance.

Horizontal Velocity: / So to solve for horizontal velocity I used

the equation shown above. For the distance I plugged in 20 meters and for the time I
plugged in 1.34 seconds and then I divided. After I divided I got Velocity Horizontal is
equal to 14.92m/s.

Vertical Velocity: ( )() So to solve for this velocity I

use the equation above to solve. Since acceleration due to gravity is 9.8m/s^2 I plug
that in for that part of the equation. Then since I am finding the vertical velocity I use half
of the total time for the time part of the equation which is .67 seconds. Then when I
solved for velocity I got 6.56m/s.

Total Velocity: 2 + 2 = 2 So to solve for the total velocity of the projectile I need to
use pythagoras's theorem. For pythagorass theorem I plugged in the horizontal and
vertical velocity for a and b. Then I just solved for c which is the total velocity. What I got
for the total velocity is 16.32m/s.

Spring Constant: = / To find the spring constant we used the force of 9.8N
because I used a 1 kilogram weight to find the spring constant. For the distance I used
.045m for solving for k. Then I solved for k by dividing the force by the distance which is
217.7N/M.

Initial Potential Energy of Spring: 1/2 2 To find the potential energy of the spring I
used the equation above. For k I used the answer I got for spring constant and plugged
it in. For the variable x I used the distance the spring stretched which was 33 cm or
.33m. Then I just solved for the potential energy and I got 11.84 Joules.

Kinetic Energy of Projectile: 1/2 2 To find the kinetic energy of the projectile I
used the equation above. The variable which means mass is m. The mass of our
projectile is 10.7 grams which converts to 0.0107kg. Then for v I plugged in the total
velocity and solved for Kinetic energy. For kinetic energy I got 1.43 Joules.

Percent of Energy Converted: To find the percent of energy converted from kinetic
energy to potential energy I just divided the kinetic by the potential. What I got for my
answer was that only 12% of my potential energy was converted into kinetic energy.

Conclusion
Even though our trebuchet was not the best in the class. After the eight modifications
that were made our trebuchet was very consistent on how far it fired the projectile fired.
Also when we launched our projectile our trebuchet and the rubber bands did not break
so our design was very sturdy. So all in all the trebuchet design was very dependable
and consistent.