By Shannon Lukens.

 

Tennis balls were flying across Gardner Field Thursday as engineering students from Steamboat Springs High School did product testing on trebuchets that they made.

 

The trebechut was invented as a war machine in the Middle Ages, used to throw heavy stones and destroy the great walls of enemy palaces. But the ones the students created are wooden, and used to throw tennis balls for dogs. Here’s their teacher, Dan Brabec.

 

“We built it around the classic design of a trebuchet. It uses a maximum of a 10-pound counterweight to provide the propulsion to make the ball travel as much distance as possible.”

 

Twenty-nine students are taking the two engineering classes that are offered. One is junior Gabriela Garcia-Arnendariz.

“I want to study architectural engineering in the future so therefore having a class like this at the high school really benefits exposure like this to girls especially so I think that’s incredible.”

 

Here is more from Dan Brabec on the trebuchet design and how the classes chose which type to build.