Recommendations

         Some of the things that went very well for us during this challenge were ease of operation and the adjustments for angle of release.  Our trebuchet was really easy to operate and it was very consistent and because of this we were able to just concentrate on our accuracy and getting as big a distance as we could.  Our release was also very well built and we could easily adjust it so we could make it release at just the right angle in whatever situation we are in.
         Some recommendations I would make to future builders would be to make sure that your pouch is the right size.  If it is too big then the ball won't release properly and it will just fail.  Also it is important to make sure your trebuchet is very stable and able to withstand repeated uses consistently.  This will make a solid base for you to start altering the performance accurately.

Post-Competition Reflection

During the accuracy part of the competition I think we did fairly well.  Our closest hurl was 1.3m from the center of the ring.  We had some problems with the angle of release when preparing for the challenge after we adjusted the weight but we were able to get it pretty good again by the time the competition started.  If I had a chance to improve our trebuchet I would make sure that the weight was easier to adjust and the base was properly pegged down so it doesn't shake at all.  If we were to build an entirely new trebuchet I would want to make the drop of the counterweight larger as I feel this would greatly improve our distance.  I would do this by shifting the arm on the axle so the side with the counterweight has a greater length.  In order to make our current trebuchet perform better we would need to adjust the angle of release and peg the whole thing down so it doesn't shake.  A cover on the counterweight to hold the weights in would also be good so that they don't fall out after every toss.

Distance Comp Reflections

During the distance part of the competition we were kind of satisfied with our distances.  We were using a cracked ball for most of the competition and believe this may have had an affect on the distance as we used a new ball for the last toss and it went 5m farther than all the other ones.  Our average distance was 37.34 and our farthest was 43 with the new ball mentioned above.  Some changes we will make for the accuracy part of the competition will be to lower the amount of counterweight and adjust the angle of release accordingly so it is still consistent.

Theoretical Range

The theoretical range that we calculated for our trebuchet is 515m (using the formula- range=2(height of drop)(mass of counterweight/mass of payload).  Our actual distance was nowhere near this and came in at an average of only 37.34m with our farthest hurl coming in at 43m.  Some factors that might have kept our trebuchet from performing as well as theory suggests would wind, friction, air resistance, non-perfect angle of release and having a less than perfectly stable base.  The wind was constantly a factor as it was always gusting from different directions as we were shooting.  The friction where our arm rotates in the axle also would have slowed it down as in theory there would not be any friction.  The air resistance on the ball would have slowed it down dramatically and was not accounted for in the theory.  We also had a less than perfect angle of release and unstable base, both of which would take away power that could have otherwise been transmitted to the ball in a perfect flight arc.

Trebuchet Test Day

       I was very happy with test day, though it had a few minor problems, it went very well.  We started off going for the distance part of the challenge and with minimal angle of release adjustments we were able to get an average of 45m consistently.  The pouch worked great and the trigger worked well by releasing the pouch consistently while being a reasonable and safe distance away.

        After the distance trials we did some alterations and started working on the accuracy part of the challenge.  It went ok, but we had problems with the pouch not releasing the ball at these lower speeds.  We were able to fix it a bit but we still haven't completely solved that problem but we will work on that.  When the ball did release we would land about 1.m away from the target that was 15m away every time.  Overall i think it went great but we still need to work on the accuracy part a bit and we have to try to solve the pouch problems.