Expert: Jeanette A - 11/13/2009

Question
Dear Jeanette,
I am not sure if you will be able to help me with my problem, if you cant it would be appreciated if you could point me in the direction of someone who can.  i need to build a catapult, trebuchet or ballista out of 40 popsicle sticks, 4 rubber bands, 1m of string, 5 paperclips, a wooden skewer, lead weight, material strip, 1m sticky tape and wood glue.  I am having problems finding ratios for the arms in catapults and trebuchet. The Internet is very unhelpful because there are plenty of sites that have instructions on how to build a catapult but there are none that actually explain the theory behind it. If you could give me some tips on how to build any of the above siege engines with the materials listed it would be greatly appreciated.

yours sincerely
Dylan

Answer
Hey Dylan,

Apologies I had exams and was not able to respond. Unfortunately I do not know much about the construction of catapults, however I have tried to research some links which might be of some use to you:

http://building-a-catapult.com/16719.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_4865688_build-catapult-popsicle-sticks.html
http://www.stormthecastle.com/catapult/the-rubber-band-powered-pyramid-catapult....
http://www.stormthecastle.com/catapult/popsiclestick-catapult.htm
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-make-a-popsicle-stick-fireball-la...

Sorry, thats about all I found helpful. Once again extremely sorry for my late response. Goodluck catapulting.


Warm Regards,
Jeanette