According to Medieval Life and Times, The trebuchet dates back to before the Middle Ages believing to be invented in 300 B.C. China. It was brought to Europe during the middle ages. (Alchin) However, Byzantium and Middle Eastern armies made use of the trebuchet design during the 6th century (Farrell). The term “Trebuchet” derives from French origin. They used it exclusively and are responsible for introducing it to the English when they used trebuchets and other siege weapons in the attack of Dover castle (Alchin).

Design Ideas
The image above was used to allow the group to have a sense of how big the trebuchet was going to be for this lab. We did not use it as the initial design, instead it was used as a starting point. We chose this design because of the size and the idea of the trough was helpful in pinpointing accuracy.

Work …show more content…
One support on each side would hold the axle from which the arm would swing. After cutting the arm we realized that the supports were too tall and would have put more stress on the axle when the arm swung. After that we reduced the length of the arm because we thought it would perform better. The trough was nailed to the platform with one nail out of the hole in order to change its direction of fire and in regard with safety, a trigger pin soon followed, it could allow a person to launch the projectile at a safe distance. The issue of the counterweight arose and the main concern was ensuring that it would stay attached to the arm. After multiple instances of the weight crashing down on the trough, it was decided to build a basket to hold the weight in as it swung. After the arm was swung with the basket attached, we noticed that the main supports needed bracing, so we screwed a brace to the front of each