Trebuchet Challenge

With so many budding engineers (and equally enthusiastic and practically minded dads) in our midst, the Easter trebuchet Challenge promised to be quite a spectacle. As trucks and trailers started to convene in the main school car park on the last day of term, it became quite apparent that the assembled crowds of spectators from Pre-Prep up to Thornton, would not be disappointed. (Virtually) all homemade and (virtually) all adhering to the underlying counterweight dynamic, the apparatus ranged in size from tiny (fitting into the palm of a Pre-Prep hand) to enormous (based on a full size pallet), and in material from Lego to bamboo! As the competition unfolded, it became apparent that size does not necessarily matter as some of the largest contraptions failed to reach the distances recorded by some of the more diminutive devices, the unpredictability adding to the excitement and suspense of the spectacle. Although not technically a trebuchet, full credit must be given to the enormous entry designed and built by our most senior physicists, Thornton pupils Antony, Ben and Grayson. Such was the force with which their catapult expelled its cargo that the humble egg disintegrated in flight! (Further attempts with an orange, whilst not permitted within the rules of the challenge, did demonstrate the catapult’s impressive trajectory.)
Thank you to everyone whose sterling efforts made for such an entertaining morning and congratulations to our winners – the Throup siblings and Wilkinson brothers.