While we were building our catapult the main goal was to fire a clay ball as far as we could, and make it as consistent as possible. To do this we were given a number of materials. Any wood, string, rubber bands, and any other trinkets we needed. Our project was not aloud to be 1 meter long at anytime which limited us to an arm length shorter than we would have preferred.
The overall design of our catapult was the same from start to finish of the project, however we made revisions in various parts of the project such as:
THE NAIL:
The first nail we used was short and had a fat head. The first change we made to this was finding a longer nail with a similar sized head. Finally we found a longer nail with a small head which benefited the launch of our project.
RUBBER BANDS:
During the beginning stages of our project we used few rubber bands. Later on we figured out that more rubber bands would add more tension thus making the ball go further.
AXLE HEIGHT:
Our axle initially low enough so our arm could not complete a full rotation. We changed this by making a new, higher slot for our axle to go in. This allowed the arm to travel a greater distance quicker, creating higher velocity, making the ball go further.
CLAY BALL:
We shot a small ball at first but we figured out that this ball was affected too much by wind resistance. We switched to a middle ground ball to combat air resistance. We made sure the ball wasn’t too big though because obviously a heavy ball won’t go as far.
To get our machine to shoot the farthest, we found that the height of the axle should be 10.5 inches. Usually when the height increases, the ball gets sent flying farther. There was a shoot up in distance when the height of the axle was at 10.5 inches. The average was 5.5 meters past the second highest average we had. The average distance the ball flew in meters for 10.5 inches was 19.8 meters, for 8.5 the average was 14.3 meters, 9.5 was 14, and lastly 11.5 was 13.7. If it weren’t for the jump to 19.8 there would have been a slow and steady decline of how far the ball went when the axle was raised. So either this is an outlier of luck or human error, or 10.5 inches is the perfect height.
Total Distance
23 meters
Time in Air
.85 seconds
Horizontal Velocity
60.4 mph
Vertical Velocity
7.8 mph
Angle of Release
7.4 degrees
Spring Constant (k)
157.5 Newtons/meter
PE of spring
36.2 Joules
KE of ball
2.5 Joules
Total Velocity
60.8 m/s
During this project I did not do too much for the project. I made a poster and helped Tak and Nihal with getting supplies. The work was not split up very well and I will work on having my group make progress as a whole. I learned that I can get along well and work together with people I don't really know. I enjoyed working with everyone and we did well on the project.
The overall design of our catapult was the same from start to finish of the project, however we made revisions in various parts of the project such as:
THE NAIL:
The first nail we used was short and had a fat head. The first change we made to this was finding a longer nail with a similar sized head. Finally we found a longer nail with a small head which benefited the launch of our project.
RUBBER BANDS:
During the beginning stages of our project we used few rubber bands. Later on we figured out that more rubber bands would add more tension thus making the ball go further.
AXLE HEIGHT:
Our axle initially low enough so our arm could not complete a full rotation. We changed this by making a new, higher slot for our axle to go in. This allowed the arm to travel a greater distance quicker, creating higher velocity, making the ball go further.
CLAY BALL:
We shot a small ball at first but we figured out that this ball was affected too much by wind resistance. We switched to a middle ground ball to combat air resistance. We made sure the ball wasn’t too big though because obviously a heavy ball won’t go as far.
To get our machine to shoot the farthest, we found that the height of the axle should be 10.5 inches. Usually when the height increases, the ball gets sent flying farther. There was a shoot up in distance when the height of the axle was at 10.5 inches. The average was 5.5 meters past the second highest average we had. The average distance the ball flew in meters for 10.5 inches was 19.8 meters, for 8.5 the average was 14.3 meters, 9.5 was 14, and lastly 11.5 was 13.7. If it weren’t for the jump to 19.8 there would have been a slow and steady decline of how far the ball went when the axle was raised. So either this is an outlier of luck or human error, or 10.5 inches is the perfect height.
Total Distance
23 meters
Time in Air
.85 seconds
Horizontal Velocity
60.4 mph
Vertical Velocity
7.8 mph
Angle of Release
7.4 degrees
Spring Constant (k)
157.5 Newtons/meter
PE of spring
36.2 Joules
KE of ball
2.5 Joules
Total Velocity
60.8 m/s
During this project I did not do too much for the project. I made a poster and helped Tak and Nihal with getting supplies. The work was not split up very well and I will work on having my group make progress as a whole. I learned that I can get along well and work together with people I don't really know. I enjoyed working with everyone and we did well on the project.