Posted on 12/01/2021 6:20:08 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT
Have you ever sat down and thought “I wonder if a trebuchet could launch a projectile at supersonic speeds?” Neither have we. That’s what separates [David Eade] from the rest of us. He didn’t just ask the question, he answered it! And he documented the entire build in a YouTube video which you can see below the break.
How fast is fast? How about a whip-cracking, sonic-booming speed in excess of 450 meters per second! How’d he do it? Mostly wood and rubber with some metal bits thrown in for safety’s sake. [David]’s video explains in full all of the engineering that went into his trebuchet, and it’s a lot less than you’d think. There’s a very satisfying montage of full power trebuchet launches that make it audibly clear that the projectile being thrown is going well past the speed of sound, with a report quite similar to that of a small rifle.
(Excerpt) Read more at hackaday.com ...
Coming soon, calls for ballista and trebuchet control. Get yours while you can. Full plans at the link for DIY.
Meh. Uttered in the second paragraph: a whip-crack is caused by the end of the whip exceeding the speed of sound.
You’ll shoot your eye out!
Need to check out later!
Sounds like the projectile is supersonic in the video.
That was cool!
Whips tend to be supersonic.
I thin kI need to make another beanie troll... lost my previous one :/
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I hear the goal these days is HYPERsonic. Go for it!
That young man is a GOOD engineer. Impressive design work and build.
It scared me to death when he was cranking the winch to tension the rubber bands. All of his design work and he didn’t do any tensile limit calcs for the wooden framework! And he mentioned he was concerned about the creaks of the wood structure that he was hearing!
Near the end I could see that he needs to power wash his deck.
The Punkin Chunkin contest just got a little more interesting...
The trebuchet will be good once society collapses and you can’t purchase ammo or components. Be prepared. Own hand tools.
Did you watch the video? It is interesting.
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