The Effects of Newton’s Law on a Catapult

By: Jonas Exey, Bjorn Grong, David Dininger, Donald Kjornes,

Tyler Hamann

Purpose

• To design and build and adjust a catapult that can accurately fire and hit a target. Use the scientific method and physics, as we figure out everything like an engineer, mathematically and algebraically.

Equipment we used

Dimensions

• We used 2×6 frame for better support. • The height of our design is 3’ 5” tall• Pivot point of our throw arm is 3’ 2” from the

ground.• The whole design is 3’ long by 2’ wide.• Our throw arm is 6’ 9” long

Trial and error • We thought the more force you added would make the ball go

farther. That is not the case Newtons law shows that vary well. We added springs with the bungees and this is how we came to look at Newtons law a lot closer.

New design

• We took out bungees and added height and changed the angle of or design. We also changed how far our throw arm swings. This helped us with our distance on how far the ball will go.

The force of our design

• The springs we are using have 25 pounds of

force a piece. There for we have 50 pounds of pull force with just the springs.

• We are also using a few bungee cords each bungee has 10 Lbs of force.

The angle of the throw• We had to adjust our

stopping mechanism so we could get the right angle for our throw arm to stop. If we stopped it to soon our ball would go high in the air. If it stopped to late the ball would drive right into the ground.

• We figured on a 45 degree angle for the arm to stop to get the best distance.

Tweaking our catapult• We also added height to the front

of our catapult to get a better angle.

• For our accuracy we used a metal pipe for our throw arm to pivot on. First we had to make sure the base of our catapult was square and then we started tweaking.

• We put clamps on the pipe to hold our arm in one spot. This made for better accuracy.

Conclusion• In conclusion we had to much force and it

broke our catapult. • So we have learned that its not all about

power. To get your desired distance you need height, angle, and the right amount of power.

• We all agree this is a great way to learn physics. Everyone of us had a great time working together with this hands on project.

• And by working together we can come up with a solution for any problem that comes our way.