Flywheel Trebuchet 

Dude. Well done on so many levels. Not sure how I’ve never seen your channel till now but i’m glad the algorithm made the suggestion.

That's really fun.

I feel bad for the farmer that kept getting bombarded for several hours under Medieval Siege

The flywheel coming to a near deadstop left me speechless. such a good representation of the conservation of energy

Somewhere in the distance someone is getting constantly bombarded by tennis balls

Alternate title: "Local man launches tennis balls into next village."

Imagine, you’re making yourself a morning cup of coffee, looking out the kitchen window hoping to see birds and deer, but instead you see your neighbor building a trebuchet. Thinking to yourself, I wonder if this house can withstand a siege? Also contemplating and calculating on when to return and how long to have borrowed a weed trimmer.

Battle of Neighbor Field. Result: tactical Stanton victory; Neighbor's sheep startled and routed from the battlefield. Casualties: 1 pulley

"My old trebuchet hasn't aged very well...". As a conversation-opener, that takes some beating.

Your videos are consistently excellent, Tom - that high speed camera was an awesome investment!

"That is gonna kill somebody when it lands in boston."

i was thinking 'man that'd be awesome if he put a motor on this thing" right when you said "perhaps i'll put a motor on the crankshaft". can't wait for THAT video lol, thanks for the great content

people 30km away from tom: "why are here so many tennis balls?"

Not going to lie, this was a brilliant demonstration of energy transfer. Hats off to you.

I think this is one of your best videos. It's just really interesting to see how flywheels can store energy like this.

couple general trebuchet questions: 1) are launches/launch speeds consistent? 2) can you actually "aim" a trebuchet? (i guess these questions apply both historically and for this modern rendition)

You had me at Flywheel, awesome video

That is one wicked uppercut machine

Excellent! Really. Especially impressed by the energy transfer with the heavier projectiles.

I love the way nearly all the energy is transferred from flywheel to ball. Splendid!

Super clever concept.

"maybe I need to put a motor on it" Yes, yes you do.

Thank you for the inspiration and absolutely incredible proof of concept, Tom. Over the last six months or so, I built a scaled-up flywheel trebuchet with an arm diameter of about 16 feet. It almost works and hopefully will be competing at the Rapid City Pumpkin Festival on September 25th. I'll make an actual video of it eventually. Keep up the fantastic work on your channel!

"I don't even know where that went..." It's going to orbit the earth and hit you in the back!

he understands quality not quantity and that’s what makes him such a great youtuber

"A crank handle" NO MOUNT A BIKE THERE Legs are better than arms. EDIT: You in the replies are all missing the point - this is cool because it's human-powered. If you can get more power out of the human, it will shoot further and be cooler. "Put an engine on there lmao" is no longer cool, you may as well just make a vaccuum cannon or something (which is also cool, but for very different reasons).

Make it leg powered like frome a bicycle sprocket you could even keep the adjustable gearing to REALLY get it moving :D

Really great stuff! Genius interpretation of a trebuchet and look forward to seeing more!

Seeing it almost come to a complete stop when the projectile is released is just awesome and prob one of the neatest things I’ve seen pertaining to physics.

“I run away to stop the high speed camera” has the same energy as “I move away from the mic to take a breath”

Me at the intro: "That doesn't look very safe..." Intro: "This video is sponsored by SimpliSafe!"

Fantastic project, communication of physics, editing, camera quality. Awesome.

Could you imagine launching a tennis ball several kilometers hearing a tennis racket and being domed by an even faster tennis ball XD

Can you please lend me that beast so I can throw tomatoes at a Nickelback concert?

i love your explanations. keep the good work tom

Fantastic. Did anybody else also catch the build by David Eade of his supersonic trebuchet? Really fun and even more of the engineering side. Love your channel. Scott

"Playing fetch with a friends dog in another Postal code."

*heard intruder downstairs* “Honey get me my trebuchet”

I like the way the wheel stops when you let it go. I considered using two train wheels and axle to launch pumpkins. I was going to leave the pumpkin still while the wheels spin up to 500 rpm and use a clutch to engage the swing arm. You have an advantage spinning the ball with the flywheel since it starts with a lot of speed before swinging out on the string.

Bro, can't believe I've not seen your videos before today; especially since I'm such an avid fan of davincis mechanical innovations. Superb video: it provides entertainment, scientific data, means of invention and operation, and so much more in a manner that an average person (no in depth education or study) can comprehend. Instant subscriber

I love the part where you try to drain the flywheel off all of its energy.

Quick Summary: Red-headed menace slaughters a field of sheep with some aluminum and a physics textbook.

love it, gratz for the design and effort man!

Wow, this is a really brilliant design. So beautifully simple in its construction. This would be right at home as some sort of Renaissance age light artillery piece.

The intro: A big heavy fast-spinning metal wheel right in front of his face. "This video is sponsored by SimpliSafe" Me: "That didn't look very safe to me"

Burglar: sneaks into a shed full of cnc and other expensive machinery. "jackpot! What is that sound?" *trebuchet revving up*

Your segways are so good… kudos. Im more than happy to hear ads from you given how smooth your segways are

Just happened to see your thumbnail and it looked interesting. Just subscribed from the United States near Chicago, Illinois, USA. Fantastic details. Excellent video structure also. to the point, with no extra video shoved in. Brilliant!

Neighbors be like: “WHY IS A TENNIS BALL EMBEDDED IN MY TREE?!”

Imagine being this guy’s neighbor and wondering where your dog is getting so many tennis balls

That is amazing mate. Great job! Really fun to watch.

Hi Tom, excellent video. The last part, where you tuned the trebuchet to extract more of the kinetic energy, was a really nice touch, and shows how well you understand the physics behind what you do. Another option could have been to create a semi-automatic trebuchet by leaving it "sub-optimized", and changing the design a bit so that you can feed the balls from the center as you keep turning the handle to recharge it, (maybe an idea for a future project?!?;). Thank you for your interesting (and often amusing) videos.

"I run away to stop the highspeed camera" has the same energy as "I move away from the mic to breathe in"

If only you had some old ebike motors you could stick on it.

Well done. A mystery tennis ball hit the ISS a few years ago, it must have been Tom managing to increase the speed a bit further. Jokes aside, perhaps you can spin it faster by attaching it to a stationary bicycle frame, spinning it up using the bicycle crank.

Always been fascinated in the Trebuchet. To think man came up with this so long ago. Devastating war machine in it's day. Well done.

worlds only "defense" trebuchet, for when some one builds an attack-castle next to your castle with out you noticing

8:45 Destin Sandlin: "Did someone just talk about accelerating baseballs?"

Bruh, this guys smile makes me so happy. Love these vids

Amazing! Another design could be to have both a high-rev flywheel and the standard trebuchet release. The trebuchet is released, and it gains a massive thrust of energy from the flywheel. Could provide an easier way to load the trebuchet and charge the flywheel.

Tom: "... but nowadays there's a more effective solution..." Me: "GUNS?" Tom: "... from SimpliSafe." Me: 😞😅

Lets just whip up a machine that tosses tennis balls at 180 MPH. You are my kind of neighbor. Nicely fabricated and presented. Thumbs up from me.

You guy,s go all in on these experiments and I love it,awesome vid

I love your vids and experiments! Just brilliant!

Next video: Breaking the sound barrier with an electric flywheel """trebuchet""" Love it

99% of other DIY/tinkerer RU-vidrs would have taken three times as long to make this video half as informative. Mad respect - you seem like a genuine and humble dude.

Love all the content, Keep up the great work.

Such an elegant design. No more complex then it needs to be and does what its deigned to do happily. Nothing superfluous and arbitrary. There’s something special about something that isn’t designed to be beautiful but is beautiful as a result of its necessary design elements.

>minor adjustment to the release timing and angle +40 mph w h a t

Tom: "Maybe I need to get some baseballs and stick a motor on this thing!" Me: *checks time left* Me: Ahhhhh

That transition to the ad was quite good. I didn't see it coming... Also very cool trebuchet !

Good work on the build and video editing. Now to the momentum efficiency you could perhaps use a longer string, momentum is also affected by the arm length let's not forget.

Wow, watching the arm just STOP because of how perfectly the energy transfer being "optimal" was really unsettling!

Seeing the flywheel almost stop was really impressive. Definitely a bit of physics that doesn't look intuitive straight away.

Very cool project! I bet you could easily connect the crank to a stationary bike and use your feet to power the flywheel. The handbrake on the handlebars could release the trigger to launch the projectile 🎉

Great video! Motors and flywheels thats a lot of energy to be messing around with

Him standing next to a massive pole spinning fast enough to (probably) kill him is making me nervous.

I've seen this video so many times, it's so satisfying to see the flywheel stop, there's something of beautiful in seeing an almost perfect transfer of energy, like you are operating in the border of what the rules of the universe allow you to

Brilliant engineering and machining!

0:33 *HE HE HE HA*

6:18 Intense Trebuchet Warrior Face

The mutton counterattack was as swift as it was terrible.

To increase velocity and distance, with only a minor modification to that rig, think fishing rod. The dynamics of casting a fishing rod is similar to the combination of a trebuchet with the stored energy of a catapult. A well made casting rod is designed to deflect and load up stored energy on the forward swing, and release that energy into the momentum of the cast weight at the end of the forward swing. The line is released precisely as the stored energy in the rod is released as it recovers to its original straight state. Casting distance is a result of not only the swing, but also the "fling" at the end of the casting cycle. A properly made 12' tournament casting rod is capable of sending a 3oz lead sinker well north of 200 yards, while towing line off of the reel behind it with far less moment energy demonstrated with that trebuchet. Ive had the line break during casts and the sinker, without the drag of line behind it, will fly several hundred yards beyond line if sight at lethal velocity. If the rigid arm on that trebuchet was replaced with a high modulus tapered carbon rod blank (or a recurve bow arm or similar) rated to deflect and load up with the weight being launched, when the ball is released, the rod will load and store energy, and release that energy rapidly just before the sling releases from the pin. The combination if the immense moment velocity of that trebuchet and the sudden rapid release of the stored energy should amount to a longer acceleration time imparted on the ball, creating higher speed and longer distance. Up the anty with an additional flywheel geared 3:1 to eliminate the momentum stall as the ball swings outward and loads the carbon rod blank, you will have a cannon on your hands.

Using the slots in the frame to help adjust the belt tension was an absolute genius move.

This was officially the smoothest segway to an ad ever on youtube. Hats off to you sir!

Someone’s going to end up with all of their windows shattered and all their dogs satisfied

Instant subscribed. Didn’t even watch all the way through; this stuff is just amazing

What a great experiment! Congratulations.

Tom looks over the fence at the sheep with rage in his eyes. Tom, "soon"

Imagine you’re breaking into this mans house, and all you hear is “now where’d I put my trebuchet?”.

Genius. Thanks for sharing~

That's why Engineering knowledge is needed. Cheers and thanks for sharing!

There is a very happy golden retriever hiding in those woods chasing every tennis ball and really enjoying himself

Imagine Trojans had this They'd go through that wall like *EZ*

Great job. I love trebuchet designs.

That was a fun video to watch! BOY OH BOY did you get that wheel turning. Now you need to upscale the design to chunk a pumpkin. Now that would a great video!

Imagine being a sheep in a field then getting hit by a tennis ball going as fast as a pro tennis serve.

Have you considered putting tracking devices into the trebuchet projectiles and convert that into a visualization? It would be neat to see 10 shots done and to see its accuracy/grouping.

Totally blew my mind, awesome! I've been think I've been thinking about making a traditional one but, now I'm thinking in a different direction!! Wax on, wax off!

Smoothest transition into the ads :D The energy tracking from 8:25 seems automatized, which is also insane.