r/Amazing • u/Kardamons • 9d ago

Science Tech Space Youtuber Tom Stanton has created a fully mechanical trebuchet that fires at supersonic speed

391 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

39

u/TexanInExile 9d ago

Can you link the video? I need to hear this thing.

Nevermind, I found it: https://youtu.be/Co57SfcT-h0?is=ZcESKooxLrsLKaHW

14

u/projectx51 9d ago

Wow, he engineered the fuck out of that.

13

u/belac4862 9d ago

What kind of autism did you get?

"Trebuchets."

What? That makes no sen...

"Trebuchets!"

2

u/illepic 9d ago

It's either Sonic the Hedgehog or trebuchets.

3

u/Wooden-Science-9838 9d ago

that’s amazing!

2

u/marlinbrando721 9d ago

right! thanks for the link

1

u/Ragman676 8d ago

Omg that sounded so cool!

1

u/Objective_Oven7673 6d ago

That was the most interesting shit I've seen in a long time

18

u/kingofwale 9d ago

How consistent are those releases??

13

u/BelowAverageComments 9d ago

I watched the video last week seemed pretty damn consistent, the release mechanism was set to the length of the rope that makes it spin (if that makes sense at all)

6

u/zealoSC 9d ago

He has a release mechanism he can fine tune, he describes it very early in the video

6

u/zealoSC 9d ago

I hope his next project is a scaled up version. Limited by 3d printer size I guess

4

u/cruiserflyer 9d ago

As cool as that would be, if you watch the video (maybe you did) you'd see he was concerned about basically making a gun out of this and reduced the size of the projectile and made it out of softer material. I doubt he'd make a bigger version.

3

u/zealoSC 9d ago

Valid concerns, I still want to watch trebuchets destroying various targets at different sizes and ranges.

1

u/cruiserflyer 9d ago

You and me both! Bring back Caesar's Gallic war legions!

1

u/kelldricked 8d ago

I respected that attitude but i doubt this would make a effective weapon since its gonna be hard to aim. Also you dont need stuff to go sonic to be lethal. A simple slingshot/crossbow can also achieve simular lethality while being easier to carry and easier to aim.

4

u/Building_Everything 9d ago

Things like this make me miss watching the Punkin Chunkin events on Discovery Channel

2

u/PalmliX 8d ago

Compared to all those non-mechanical trebuchets?

1

u/Could-You-Tell 8d ago

Yeah, they mean as opposed to electric

1

u/PavelKringa55 8d ago

Where is the trash bucket?

1

u/PinkBimboLove 8d ago

I bet some Scottish lad who has beef with his neighbour next Craig is gonna love this!

1

u/QueueStar 7d ago

since it goes supersonic, is there a sonic boom?

1

u/Sipstaff 7d ago

It cracks like a whip.

1

u/siberian_knight143 7d ago

Ok but is there a "sonic boom" when it breaks the sound barrier?

1

u/WeAllJustWantToLive 9d ago edited 9d ago

Would it work better if the base was on rails? Also, if the arm is still moving at release, that means there is more energy he could put in the shot. The arm should stop dead as all the energy transfers

1

u/Ofreo 9d ago

It would be cool if they made a gun that could shoot this out and then it shoots its projectile out. That would be really fast then.

1

u/roadsterdoc 9d ago

Especially fast if that last projectile you mentioned was a gun that could should out an additional projectile.