The Thirty-Seventh Annual Traditional St.

Albans Physics
CATAPULT PROJECT!
IAL
Catapults are due C day Tuesday 5/21/19 at the start of your class period. For Periods 2
and 3, which don’t meet that day, catapults are due in the lab by 7:55a that day.
Catapults launch D day Wednesday 5/22/19. Juniors launch during their class period.
Seniors, who have Alumni Day that day, will all launch after Alumni Day has concluded.
There’s too much in this assignment for Mr. Segal to explain verbally. Part of this
assignment is reading. You’re responsible for reading and processing everything in these rules.
This isn’t the kind of information one remembers after reading it once; expect to have to reread
this document several times as the project progresses.

ENTRY
You may enter alone or in teams of two. An AP Physics student can partner with any
other AP Physics student (including partnerships between AP1 and APC). A Physics student in
Ms. George’s class can partner with any other Physics student.
Catapults must be homemade, mechanically powered, and designed to be able to fire
twice in five minutes. All catapults must be SAFE.

SPECIFICATIONS
Ball
The projectile will be a standard unmodified racquetball. You’ll receive your own racquetball
with your name on it from Mr. Segal. STA teachers have requested and been given authority to
confiscate racquetballs being bounced obnoxiously in the school. If the ball with your name is
confiscated, you’ll lose five points from your catapult grade.

Launch
Each catapult must have a mechanical trigger released by cutting or burning a string. Only the
string may be touched during triggering. Other than cutting the string, you may not hold or steady
the catapult while it is being fired. Intentional human action must be responsible for releasing the
trigger—hair triggers or accidental firings may disqualify your shot. You supply string and
cutting tool or ignition source.

Energy used to project the ball must be of human origin, transferred to the catapult on the launch
site in a reasonably short time period (maximum 5 minutes) preceding the firing of the device.
The catapult must be powered by mechanical energy. That includes stored gravitational potential
energy, stored elastic potential energy, or kinetic energy stored in a moving flywheel—not
chemical, nuclear, solar, electrical, magnetic, etc.

Each entry must complete two qualifying shots with a range of at least 5 meters each. More
info under “Grading / Qualifying Shots.” No part of the catapult may travel with the racquetball.

Size Restriction (Take heed! This is the most-frequent disqualifier)

The assembled catapult in the ready-to-fire position must fit in an imaginary rectangular prism
with maximum volume of 0.030 cubic meters (slightly larger than 1 cubic foot). You can
imagine this as a restriction on the volume of the box you’d need to ship your catapult in. The box
could be approximately cube-shaped, or it could be long and short and thin…your choice. Note
that this isn’t the same as the volume of the catapult itself.

Unlike with the egg drop, there is no size grade incentivizing you to make very small entries.
This is a size restriction, a requirement that must be met for a qualifying entry. The box could be
46 cm x 26 cm x 24 cm (V = 0.029 m3) or it could be 101.5 cm x 15.5 cm x 16 cm (V = 0.025
m3). Mr. Segal will be available daily before the due date if you’d like help checking that your
catapult meets the size requirement.

The imaginary box must have one face parallel to the ground and one face parallel to the direction
of firing of the catapult. All parts of the catapult in the ready-to-fire position must fit in the
volume. The mechanical device in which the energy is stored must be a part of the catapult and
included within the volume. Wrenches, levers, cranks, or other tools used to store energy in the
catapult must fit within the limits of the imaginary box in the ready-to-fire-position. No part of
the catapult may project into the ground before firing.

The catapult may exceed the maximum volume when not in the ready-to-fire position, i.e., while
energy is being stored or after the trigger has been actuated.

Materials
You must provide your own materials. Pretty much any material you want is OK, but I discourage
using steel because it’s hard to cut or drill through. Most students use wood. You should almost
definitely use wood. The physics lab has some wood and screws that you may have, but you
should NOT assume that what the physics lab has will suffice for your purposes—part of the goal
and the fun of the assignment is to experience shopping at a hardware store.

CONSTRUCTION
The finished product must demonstrate conscious effort in its design and construction, and may
not be an unmodified purchased device. You may receive technical advice and instruction on
tools use, etc., but may not have someone else build the catapult for you. The facilities of the
physics lab, including hand saws, electric drills, drill press, table saw, band saw, etc. are available
when supervised during the usual hours the lab is open, to the extent that such use does not
interfere with classes. These facilities will NOT BE OPEN on the day of the competition. They
WILL be open for a period of time the weekend before catapults are due, but you shouldn’t plan
to do all your construction in the physics lab.

Limited repairs may be made to catapults on the field, but entrants must supply their own tools
and materials for such repairs, and the repaired catapult must be ready in sufficient time to allow
for its competition within the class period. You may not leave the field to repair the catapult.

GRADING
The catapult counts as a 100-point test.

Due date and time

All catapults must be turned in at the beginning of class on the due date for measurement. In
cases of partnerships across class periods, catapults are due at the beginning of the earlier class.

I will ask you to take your hands completely off your catapult exactly five minutes after the
official start of class; catapults requiring modification after that point, or exceeding the maximum
volume at that time, lose 2 points. (If your catapult requires a total of 542 minutes to construct,
please do not bring it in having completed 534 minutes of that construction!) Catapults that are
not ready by 3:30pm on the due date lose 3 more points, for a total loss of 5 points for lateness.

Practice shots
You may take a reasonable number of practice shots on Catapult Day before attempting
qualifying shots. Practice shots must be declared as such to a presiding teacher; if a shot isn’t
announced as being a practice shot, it may be considered a qualifying shot.

Qualifying shots
For a shot to qualify, the ball must land with a range (i.e., “R distance” from
the catapult) of at least 5 meters. The ball must also land within 45 degrees of
straight downfield. The first two successful shots with ranges greater than 5
meters will be counted and graded.

Categories and scoring

I’ll calculate, for each catapult, a grade for distance and a grade for
precision. The catapult receives whichever grade is higher. Because greater
distance yields greater imprecision between shots, smart students plan for
either the distance or the precision grade to be high, but not both.

Distance scoring: The “distance” that’s used in the grading formula is the
average of the ranges (the “R” distances from catapult to ball’s landing point)
of the first two qualifying shots. The distance grade will be calculated in comparison with the
record distance for each category by the formula
Dist − 5m
DistGrade = 75 + 23⋅
Re cordDist − 5m

The “record distance” is the school’s record for your category of catapult. The record distance I
use is the one that stood at the end of last year’s catapult day. There are six categories:
1) elastic-powered throwing devices (record: 22.4 m, reset this year*)
2) elastic-powered impact devices (record: 57.9 m, Hennessey/Friberg ‘17)
3) gravity-powered throwing devices (record: 28.79 m)
4) gravity-powered impact devices (record: 10.49 m)
5) kinetic-powered throwing devices (record: 12.19 m, Sponseller/Suh ‘14)
6) kinetic-powered impact devices (record: 21.64 m, Heath/Giraudo ’13)

* The all-time record for elastic-powered through devices has been recorded at 92.6 meters,
which is extremely high. This year it’s been reset down to 22.4 meters, which was the greatest
distance seen from elastic-powered throwing devices since Mr. Segal began in 2012-13.

If your shot breaks the record, the formula is not used; your distance grade is 98.

Precision scoring: The distance between the two shots’ impact points is determined by the
spotters. The distance must be less than 1.5 meters to qualify for this category.

Precision grade = 98 − 18.67 × distance in meters between impact points

Bonus for prizes in special categories

For each of the following categories, the top two catapults in each group will receive special credit. AP
Physics 1 and AP Physics C are together as a group; Physics is a separate group. The minimum grade will
be 93 for the top catapult in each category; second place has a minimum of 88. Research bonus points may
be earned to increase scores from these minimum grades.
1) Mechanical ingenuity: Displaying conscious ingenuity in the design of mechanisms or choice of
materials. Ingenuity tends to relate to more complex or difficult constructions—provided the complexity
and difficulty are worthwhile—as well as a component of originality.
2) Aesthetic Design: Pleasingly well-done in design, operation and appearance. Aesthetics tends to relate to
carrying off a concept cleanly, plus, sometimes, a component of originality. Decoration doesn’t contribute
to this category.
3) Historical Authenticity: A successfully functioning reproduction of an historical catapult from the
classical or medieval period, qualifying in both size and minimum distance. Authenticity of design must be
supported by a written account of its design, including historical references, submitted with the catapult on
the due date.

Research Bonus (the best offer in the whole school)

All catapults can receive +3 points extra if turned in at the due time along with the following work:
1) a measurement record of 6 consecutive test firings, accurate to a couple of centimeters. The record
must include a spreadsheet with: a) x and y positions of landing points as measured from the
launch point (see figure on previous page), b) average x and y landing position, c) the range for
each shot, d) the average range, e) the standard deviation of range, f) the distance of each shot’s
impact point from the average landing point, and g) the average of those distances.
2) A spreadsheet-generated graph showing x & y positions of landing points and location of average
landing point.
3) Videos of the test firings reported in the measurement record. (Each video MUST show the cutting
or burning of the string; the fact that the catapult was resting on the ground without being held in
place; the landing of the ball; and the fact that another person was spotting the landing point fairly
close by.)
4) [Data, graphs, and videos must be shared with Mr. Segal by Google Drive ONLY.]

To receive a research bonus, the catapult must still function during the contest in a manner consistent with
the documented results. (Corollary: new distance records are only set by shots that occur on the field on
Catapult Day in the presence of a physics teacher).
If you complete the research bonus, your catapult grade will be based on the average range and
average distance from average landing points from your data (or, if your results are more favorable on
catapult day, I’ll use those more favorable results). In this way, the research bonus takes all uncertainty out
of your grade.

Logistics Bonus
The catapult project requires preparation and planning in the realm of physical objects (you have to gather
the correct tools and construction materials), in the realm of design, and in the realm of time. While you are
expected to make mistakes, there are specific types of mistakes I’d like to avoid. Among them are: being
unprepared to leave the lab, or participate in cleanup, when the lab is closing; discovering, after the lab
closes, that you have no place to continue construction with the appropriate tools; scouring the lab during
catapult-firing day to find the one drill Mr. Segal accidentally left out, so you can do some frantic
(dangerous) last-minute drilling… If you manage your logistics successfully, you’ll receive a bonus of +2.
If your catapult is late, you can’t receive a logistics bonus.

If it doesn’t work
If your catapult does not achieve two qualifying shots on catapult day, the grade is a zero. However, you
can raise it to a 70% by presenting a new or modified catapult and making two qualifying shots in Mr.
Segal’s presence. If the original launch day is “school day 0,” and the following school day is “school day
1,” etc., your relaunch must occur by 3p on “school day 3.” Your grade may be raised to a 75% by
submission of a 1-2 page failure analysis of the original catapult, submitted on paper or via Google Drive at
the time of the relaunch.