The Trebuchet Challenge | Space Time

Do you have what it takes to calculate the awesome power of the trebuchet? Get your own Space Time t­shirt at Tweet at us! @pbsspacetime Email us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] com Comment on Reddit: Help translate our videos! Previous Episode: Death of the Sun Kinetic and potential energy are defined as combinations of more basic quantities: position, velocity and mass. These combinations are chosen so that their sum is conserved. It’s actually remarkable that there’s any such combination of quantities that is conserved. This fact gives us insight into the fundamental symmetries of nature. It’s something we’ll get back to. Today I want to highlight the power of energy as a tool in calculation. We could get into fluid or stellar dynamics, or even quantum mechanics. But no, we’re going talk about something cooler – the trebuchet. If you’re not familiar, shame on you, but here’s the deal: the trebuchet is, I suppose, a type of catapult, but it’s so much more. The internet agrees that the trebuchet is the greatest of all medieval siege engines. Opinion is divided on whether Chuck Norris would win a fight against a trebuchet. The hyperbole is kind of warranted. The trebuchet is incredibly efficient at converting the potential energy of a massive counterweight into the castle-destroying kinetic energy of a projectile. It relies on the mighty power of the lever. Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Matt O'Dowd Produced by Rusty Ward Graphics by Grayson Blackmon Assistant Editing and Sound Design by Mike Petrow and Linda Huang Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com) Big Bang CoolAsCats David Nicklas Faisal Saud Anton Lifshits Joey Redner Quasar Tambe Barsbay Mayank M. Mehrota Mars Yentur Mark Rosenthal Dean Fuqua Roman Pinchuk Frank Secilia Hypernova Shaun Williams Edmund Fokschaner Matthew O’Connor Eugene Lawson Martha Hunt Joseph Salomone Chuck Zegar Jordan Young Ratfeast John Hofmann Barry Hatfield Craig Peterson Kris Fernet Jane Myers Brandon Cook James Flowers Greg Allen Denys Ivanov Nick Virtue Alexey Eromenko Nicholas Rose Scott Gossett Mark Vasile Patrick Murray Sultan Alkhulaifi Alex Seto Michal-Peanut Karmi Erik Stein Daniel Lyons Kevin Warne JJ Bagnell J Rejc Avi Goldfinger John Pettit Florian Stiglmayr Benoit Pagé-Guitard Nathan Leniz Loro Lukic Brandon Labonte David Crane Greg Weiss James Hughes TJ Madison