Trebuchet Throwing Balls of Fire ///. Homemade Science with Bruce Yeany

The ancient trebuchet was a massive weapon that was most commonly thought of as throwing boulders at the walls of a castle under siege. However, it is also believed that it was used to also throw other materials as well. One of the favorite themes in movies have portrayed them as throwing fire over the castle walls, or towards the enemy encampments. In modern times the trebuchet has recently become a source of entertainment in the form of tossing pumpkins held during annual competitions. It was in this format that we build our large trebuchet and have managed to throw quite a few pumpkins in the 550-600 foot range. However, ever since we build it, we've always had the desire to fling flaming projectile across the sky. With an upcoming visit from Steve Spangler and the DIY SCI crew coming to film a few programs for his tv show, it was decided now is the time to do it. This video is the result of our test flights in preparation for that visit. The show's recording can still be seen on Steve Spangler's. DIY SCI program shown on the Fox channel, Hulu, Amazon or any other media that hosts his reruns. The two episodes shot at my house are part of season 3, shows titles are geek garage.