The concept …show more content…
Geometry was first conceived in early mesopotamia with basic formulas of geometry and algebra. as time progressed the ancient Egyptians perfected the mesopotamian geometry and used their new understanding of math to construction the pyramids and lay out their intricate temples and palaces. the Chinese were the first nation to use the mostly simple geometry that had been relatively well known throughout most early nations and apply it to war engines such as the traction trebuchet. When designing the trebuchet, the engineers needed a way to make the projectile fire at incredibly high velocity and range, in order to do this they adopted the principle of mechanical advantage. the principle of mechanical advantage in regards to a trebuchet is where the counterweight pivots around a much shorter distance than the firing end, in an experiment done by Kyle Carpenter and David Torbect they discovered the most optimal ratio of arm length is three to one, so for every three measures of length on the projectile side you put one measure of length on the side with the weight. The advantage of this is that the firing end of the beam reaches a much higher linear speed than the counterweight end of the beam, this is what allows the payload to reach a high launch speed. However, because the counterweight pivots around a much shorter distance, its weight