Results Fall Short, But Catapult Competition Brings Entertainment Value

Some launched a projectile a few feet. Some a few dozen feet. One even sent it backwards. But all the catapults and trebuchets built by Stephen Arico’s physics students put on a show on December 9 on the baseball field. The goal of the competition is that students will build a catapult or trebuchet that can launch a projectile more than 150 feet to earn extra credit.

“My hope is always that students will put some real thought into their design, and perhaps even research proper catapult design a bit, so that they show up with something that they can be proud of,” said Arico. “Some students also gain some valuable experience with using tools—something I wish I had had more of when I was in high school.” 

The inaugural competition happened in 2014, and it usually takes place around Halloween with the “punkin’-chunkin’ theme,” said Arico. Since this year’s competition was a bit later in the year than usual, students instead launched acorn squashes to more closely fit the timeliness of the season.

The first group, featuring juniors Andrew Meyer and Drew McGalliard and senior Marco Dumsky, built a trebuchet that fired roughly 45 feet.

“Compared to as expected, the challenge was much more difficult than I thought it would be going into it,” said Meyer. “There were a lot more moving parts that needed improvement before launch day.”

The second group, featuring juniors Chris Kelley, Ryan Fanning and Reid Moshier, built a trebuchet that, despite them “staying up till one in the morning making it,” according to Kelley, fired straight up.

The third group, featuring juniors Trevor Hall, Danny Gajewski and Alex Hogan, built a trebuchet that fired roughly 70 feet.

“I expected our catapult to make it further because when we tested it, we got close to 90 feet,” said Gajewski. “We probably could have benefited from using a sling rather than a pan to launch [the acorn squash], because the squash kept falling out.”

The fourth group, featuring juniors Joseph Surles, Bryce Mowen and Austin Pendergraft, built a trebuchet that fired 100 feet backwards on the first attempt, but then 40 feet forwards on the second attempt.

“It was absolutely phenomenal,” said Surles. “I expected it to go three feet. It exceeded my expectations by going backwards.”

The fifth and final, featuring juniors Gus Moseley, Jude Sojka and Graham Schaaf, and senior Tate Slaymaker, built a catapult that fired a disappointing five feet.

“The hours of work that we put on our catapult may have been minimal, but we had fun doing it in the long run,” said Sojka. “At least our catapult shot forwards.”

Although no catapults or trebuchets fired the desired 150 feet this year, there certainly have been some in the past. 

“Collin Nill’s [‘17] iconic metal monstrosity, which [still] sits in my classroom,” said Arico, “definitely holds the record for the racquetball launch: something like 300 feet, from the lower practice field, over the fence, to the upper practice field, making its true distance difficult to measure.”

Arico generally has one in-house competition per quarter, so stay tuned for what the next one brings!