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Whiteheat073 wrote:Does the 5 kg maximum mass include the string and projectiles?

Read the rules

Whiteheat073 wrote: Do you believe a trebuchet would be able to shoot perfectly straight? I am worried about it launching with too much velocity and that it will go too high and go over the target.

Keep in mind that the launching force has to come from air pressure or movement. It's going to be hard to do that in a traditional trebuchet design.

chalker wrote:

Whiteheat073 wrote: Do you believe a trebuchet would be able to shoot perfectly straight? I am worried about it launching with too much velocity and that it will go too high and go over the target.

Keep in mind that the launching force has to come from air pressure or movement. It's going to be hard to do that in a traditional trebuchet design.

I can think of a way. Id recommend against it though

Helpful website for trebuchet's. Overestimates a bit.
http://www.virtualtrebuchet.com/

I've been doing some research, and it seems that the ping pong ball has yielded the best results as a projectile. Would you agree?

Also, my mother just came in an asked if she will be able to come in and watch me perform in the school competitions. Would she be able to?

Whiteheat073 wrote:Also, my mother just came in an asked if she will be able to come in and watch me perform in the school competitions. Would she be able to?

That's up to the individual tournament, but in most tournaments Air Trajectory is a publicly viewable event.

Whiteheat073 wrote:I've been doing some research, and it seems that the ping pong ball has yielded the best results as a projectile. Would you agree?

From what I remember from last year, there were advantages and disadvantages of each type. Ping pong ball was usually the lightest so required the least energy to launch - easiest option if a team had trouble getting a projectile launched to the max distance of 8 meters. But lightness meant it might be affected more by surrounding air. Dimples on plastic golf balls were nice because they helped with issues with air currents while still being relatively light, again good if a team had trouble reaching 8 meters. Tennis and racquet balls would expectedly be affected least by air currents, etc. But also they are the heaviest so need the most launch force. Our team would have found it challenging to get racquet or tennis balls to an 8 meter target.

bernard wrote:

Whiteheat073 wrote:I've been doing some research, and it seems that the ping pong ball has yielded the best results as a projectile. Would you agree?

From what I remember from last year, there were advantages and disadvantages of each type. Ping pong ball was usually the lightest so required the least energy to launch - easiest option if a team had trouble getting a projectile launched to the max distance of 8 meters. But lightness meant it might be affected more by surrounding air. Dimples on plastic golf balls were nice because they helped with issues with air currents while still being relatively light, again good if a team had trouble reaching 8 meters. Tennis and racquet balls would expectedly be affected least by air currents, etc. But also they are the heaviest so need the most launch force. Our team would have found it challenging to get racquet or tennis balls to an 8 meter target.

Okay. Thank you!

Whiteheat073 wrote:I've been doing some research, and it seems that the ping pong ball has yielded the best results as a projectile. Would you agree?

What I have observed from teams at Nationals was that Ping Pong balls were the most common for the simple reason that they are the only plastic ball that will fit 1 1/2 in PVC. Finding PVC for plastic golf balls and the other balls is extremely difficult. unless you have found it, go with ping pong ball.