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A catapult uses a spring of some sort.

A trebuchet uses a falling weight.

The idea of the long barreled cannon is that it can spread out the acceleration of the object over its travel down the length of the barrel, rather than relying on a short rapid acceleration that would be likely to cause damage.

it is a bit more complicated. the trebuchet uses a falling weight, but it also uses a sling- like attachment, which makes it far more efficient. Moreover, it is more precise, since the structure does not have to stop the lever.
For more infirmation, see http://www.trebuchet.com/

A catapult uses a spring of some sort.

A trebuchet uses a falling weight.

The idea of the long barreled cannon is that it can spread out the acceleration of the object over its travel down the length of the barrel, rather than relying on a short rapid acceleration that would be likely to cause damage.

it is a bit more complicated. the trebuchet uses a falling weight, but it also uses a sling- like attachment, which makes it far more efficient. Moreover, it is more precise, since the structure does not have to stop the lever.
For more infirmation, see http://www.trebuchet.com/

That's no catapult. It's a TREBUCHET , you insensitive clod!

rocks that fall from the sky can only be meteorites

Hmm. 50 GB on a CD seems like a no-brainer considering what I just bought today.

I got one of those new "chocolate" cell phones. Cool. It takes a Micro-SD memory card, so I went to my local computer superstore to get one.

A one GB micro-SD memory card cost me $74.00. I'd never seen one before, and when I opened the package I was afraid the wind would blow it away. It's litterally smaller than my little fingernail and about as thick as a potato chip. A 7x7 grid of these cards would be 49 GB, and easily fit within the bounds of an ancient 1.44 MB floppy disk case. Hell, you could fit three or four layers of 7x7 grids of these things in that case.

Ok, so $3626 might be a bit pricey for a movie disk, but the technology is there. It's just a matter of price. Remember, all the features in this $149 cell phone would have cost well over $Ten Grand thirty years ago and would have required a suitcase full of hardware too.

I predict than in 20 years or less, we'll have terrabytes on disks the size of a quarter.

-----

http://www.trebuchet.com/ - where the past opens doors to the future.

I've read all these posts, and they almost exclusively focus on the music business and a little on the book business. But what about the rest of us little businesses who would not, could not exist without the Internet?

In 2000, I shocked my friends when I told them I was going to start a business selling catapult kits ( http://www.trebuchet.com/ http://www.catapultkits.com/ http://www.mangonel.com/ http://www.trebuchetplans.com/ and more). "Who needs a catapult kit?" was the reaction I got. "People do." was my response. I told them I'd sell my kits on the Internet- this was just after the big dot-com stock market meltdown. Because of that meltdown, all too many people believed that e-commerce was a doomed business and that I was a fool.

Maybe I am a fool, but I started my business with about $200 (not a typo- two hundred dollars), a digital camera and a fistfull of open source software. I spent zero dollars on marketing, zero dollars on advertising, and after a few months, I was already profitable.

Now I employ myself and some other people too. It's a very small niche market. So small, that it's actually NOT cost effective to manufacture these things in China (I tried). It's such a small niche market, that if I had to spend any money on advertising, I wouldn't survive. I tried actually- Radio, magazines, direct mail (not spam!) even a few appearances on TV. None was cost effective. Not even Google's AdSense is cost effective for my product line.

So, I live by the internet. I do no advertising other than a simple affiliate model. It's a widely distributed market, impossible to target. Thanks to the search engines, I don't have to find my market, they can find me.

Without the Internet, I wouldn't be in business. I am a cell in the long, long tail of niche businesses that simply do not make sense for a brick and mortar world, but thrive in cyberspace.

The long tail is real. My business is proof of that.

http://www.rlt.com/

Patent #13,378,008,135: Method for trebuchet-Barcalounger-based propulsion.

The present invention propulsion devices for software developers, developers, developers, and, more particularly, to a method involving the combination of a trebuchet and a chair...

I've personally been on TV as an "expert" on the shows: Junkyard Wars, Monster Garage, Modern Marvels, Mail Call, Urban Legends Revealed and In The Name of Science. I've also consulted to shows like Nova and others. Why? I'm one of the world's leading authorities on ancient catapult and trebuchet technology. It's a silly thing, but hey, it got me on TV. (and I was suprised that the MythBusters didn't call me when they did their catapulting shows. Wassup wit dat?)

Anyway, my experience has been that all TV shows- even a "science" show like Nova, are first and foremost a form of entertainment for the masses. It's astonishing how much real science and real (and interesting) educational content is disposed of in favor of dumb comedy or adversarial content in the shows I participated in. Knowing what goes on behind the camera helps one to "see" what's going on behind the camera in other shows too. And I can see it happening in MythBusters- good and interesting informative content that should be there was cast aside in favor of the cheap gag.

TV producers always seem to think that the currency of "good" television is conflict. In other words, people love to watch a good fight, or at least an argument. People also like to think that they are learning something, but hate to really learn. ("If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but, if you really make them think, they'll hate you." -- Harlan Ellison) The TV show MacGyver is an example....

In educational television, fail to entertain, and you lose the student. But it's all too easy to lose the education in favor of the entertainment too.

We live in a time when the US is falling behind, and may even lose its lead in the global science and engineering disciplines. School science programs are suffering, fewer and fewer kids in the US are studying science and engineering in colleges. We need to inspire our kids to study more science and engineering, and develop a stronger interest in these fields. This is not an issue of global competition, I view it as an issue of the US not living up to its responsibility as the wealthiest nation on earth. Shouldn't we also be capable of producing and distributing more and better scientists, engineers and technologies for the benefit of everyone?

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?" - Hillel, 1st. century BCE.

So my question is this- Is the show just another stab at entertaining the public and making a few dollars off of advertisers, or are you really interested in helping inspire people (especially kids) to think, and to learn something new, and if so, do you think you could/should be doing a better job, or are the realities of producing a popular TV show just too much of a barrier to that?

By the way, my money is where my mouth is. I gave up a lucrative career as a CIO to design and sell catapults and trebuchets to schools and students. The most common feedback I get from teachers is: "Nothing has inspired an interest in learning math and physics more than building and tuning the trebuchet!" I take credit for sending dozens of kids off to engineering schools who would otherwise not have gone that route. I'd like to reach more kids too. Any pointers on getting my own TV science show?

Oh, and get your own catapult today!
    http://www.catapultkits.com/
    http://www.trebuchet.com/
    http://www.mangonel.com/
    http://www.trebuchetplans.com/
    http://www.thehurl.org/

Sure, you could use big, strong, non-geeks to build them.
But the geeks would have to design it!!
The International Registry of Hurlers (and Chunkers)
http://www.trebuchet.com/registry/display.php

Who needs robots to dispose of ordnance when you can just throw stones at it?

(To dispose of ordinance, you need a lawyer. On second thoughts, that would work with ordnance, too...)

"Can this technology used for making weapons?"

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You just have to learn to think like this guy
and turn yourself into a human one of these.

Convince the destructive little buggers that if the learn the principles of building it from you, you'll give them the materials to build their own trebuchet.

After they've learnt enough engineering to build it, then let them learn enough ballistics to accurately destroy stuff.

(Yes, I'm emphasizing engineering over science; tinkering and getting one's hands dirty cements the memory a lot better than simply trying to remember something. More fundamentally, most people and nearly all kids learn to value science for what it can do for them. Valuing knowledge for knowledge's sake alone is the province of a tiny and despised minority of really annoying poindexters like myself.)

However, you'll have to find a hardware company that delivers, or for those without a good set of tools, you can look into kits and I'd suggest changing to heavier trash bags.

But really, in the whole scheme of things, one trip outside to make your own would save countless other trips.

My other thought was to dig a tunnel to the edge of my property, and installing an elevator there that I can lower, put the trash on, and raise back into position, but I still need something to dispose of all of the dirt that I'd accumulate.

For now, I just take out my trash in the middle of the night, when that big glowy thing isn't in the sky, trying to burn me.

Only during testing did they find that thermonuclear hand grenade's blast radius was further than anyone could throw it.

May I suggest a trebuchet.

Seriously... what would happen if everyone here went rogue, said "fuck it", and just actively blew away spammers (online, mind you, we don't need any gun-toting geeks for the love of god)?

What about Eric Raymond?

On second thought, guns are too subtle.
How about we attack spammers with Trebuchets?
Or fling spammers into walls with a Trebuchet?

India wants only to reach Pakistan. No race there either.

Israel has so much foes just around the corner that trebuchet will suffice.

Brazil? What would they hurl in the ICBM nose cone at ... Albania? A letter containing portuguese harsch words?

Your list missed the most obvious ICBM race.

With his recharge time of 25 seconds, I reckon my trebuchet and I would stand a good chance against his gauss gun. Plus, by replacing the payload with my baggage, it could easily get through airport security as a slightly complex baggage trolly.

[Yes, OK, I know, it's still not quite big enough to launch cats. But you could launch kittens.]

[And no, I'm not really that disturbed. Probably.]

The Wright Bros didn't try to traverse the Atlantic to test their first plane, fellas.

I work in two different buildings on the same street. Heck, my whole campus (Boston Univ) is a mile long down a single street...but we'll just concentrate on my two buildings.

They're separated by about 2 city blocks. I would be willing to test a vacuum-based system that could send me from rooftop to rooftop at my desire. I would also be willing to test any Star-Trekkian transporters, maglevs, camels, resynthesizers ala The Fly circa 1986, and any glide-wires.

No trebuchets or catapults, please. I'm lazy...but not crazy.

(Disclaimer - I've never seen either of these shows)

Ron Toms built an air cannon on Junkyard Wars, and you can read about it both on his own site (whole site makes for good reading!)

http://www.trebuchet.com/story.php/jyw.html

and also on a teevee.org interview:

google cache of interview

Here's an excerpt from the second interview:

The big secret about the show is that there is an extra day between the build and the contest. They call it a "safety" day. The teams get the day off, but the experts and some real professional welders and mechanics come in and make sure the machines actually will work and no one will get hurt or killed. In some cases I heard that they will actually deconstruct a machine and re-build it from scratch all over again.

• THIS

Full disclosure: If you follow any of the Backyard Artillery or Puttyworld links in this review and then buy stuff, I'll get a cut of the profit. This fact has not influenced the content of this review at all. The booze and prostitutes these nice people sent me, now they influenced the heck out of me. But the percentage of the sales? Not at all.

Methinks it's time someone shot Dan from a trebuchet.

The site links to another site where they got some inspiration from. The first product listed is a desktop trebuchet for $49.00.

Vegas should just skip the monorail phase and go straight to transporters.

Or Segways . Close the strip to cars and fill the city with Segways. It'd be the perfect commercial for both the city and the Segway.

Or Trebuchets . Boy, I'm full of helpful ideas tonight!

Mortar shells cost a fair bit more than that, artillery shells still more. Particularly the newer ones. But there is a cheap way to overwhelm such a system. :)

I think a trebuchet for Christmas would be fantastic! ~$100 USD. Ahh, the power to smite mine enemies from afar... what more could a geek ask for?

When this story was first posted, an alert Slashdotter pointed out that the 200-year figure was not generally agreed upon, because using Venus as the gravity slingshot (actually, it's more of a trebuchet , isn't it?) would allow launching a mission in any year. Plus, there's no real compelling evidence that the atmosphere will freeze out during the Plutonian winter.

Don't get me wrong—I do want to see a mission to Pluto in my lifetime, but I just want to get the facts straight. Anyone with supporting data either way?

Those who haven't read it yet should read this link where Ron L. Toms launches people with a trebuchet. (You can also find him jumping the grand canyon if you look around.)

after I launch it/me into space with a trebuchet

Thanks to memepool's links, you can Buy a nice trebuchet for only $89 !!!

I read your http://www.trebuchet.com/articles/ron/ web page a few years ago. It was great, and motivated me and my son to build a little (18" arm) trebuchet for a school project. It could throw a Hot Wheels car about 30-50 feet. Squash balls were better ammunition - they were reusable.

Junkyard Wars had featured a pumpkin-hurling contest between two teams, on operating an air powered cannon and the other a trebuchet.
A veteran of the show has a site which is *Dedicated to the art of hurling *