Im a highschool student who needs to build a catapult for my physics class, there arent any specifics to the build of the catapult(no air cannons) but it just needs to be able to launch a superball 2 meters. I was wondering if anyone could offer me some advice on a good design to use, i was thinking of a trebuchet but i think that might be to difficult to build on this fairly small scale. Like I said other then compressed air, anything goes.

a hand powered trebuchet, instead of having it powered by a mass on one end of the leaver you have a rope tied to it around some pullies and you pull the rope which pulls the leaver down and launches your projectile. A very simple and powerfull design that can be scaled up and you have people holding a rope and get them to run as fast as they can...

i can't conceive of anything that could throw it only 2 meters now if you want to get 20meters then i'm sure i could think of something

Im a highschool student who needs to build a catapult for my physics class, there arent any specifics to the build of the catapult(no air cannons) but it just needs to be able to launch a superball 2 meters. I was wondering if anyone could offer me some advice on a good design to use, i was thinking of a trebuchet but i think that might be to difficult to build on this fairly small scale. Like I said other then compressed air, anything goes.

 

 

Nah! I have a trebuchet kit for a "tabletop" device that tosses stuff 8-10 meters, and it wouldn't be too hard to do it yourself. I saw pictures of one completely made of popsicle sticks. Here are plans for one.

 

This one looks like you make it out of paper or cardboard

 

 

other small catapult plans

my brother and his friend built a trebuchet for our backyard... it's awesome.

I downloaded some free software to calculate the expected range...

http://www.algobeautytreb.com/

thanks all for your help im sure ill do fine now