Here is a stick that I drilled a hole into and placed the paperclip through. If you want to get creative you could use a paper clip by drilling a hole in the capapult arm and putting the paper clip through it so it moves freely then taping the other end of the paperclip to where the three triangles meet. Think of the tape as being a kind of a hinge. This is a bit tricky to do but do your best and try to secure the catapult arm firmly. Using a couple of pieces of tape connect the other end of the catapult arm to the place where the three triangles meet. Now wrap one end of the rubber band around the catapult arm just under the cup and tape it firmly in place. Use plenty of tape and make it nice and strong. Here is the paper cup taped onto the end of the catapult. Don't tape it to the end of the arm, affix it about an inch from the end so you have room to press down the arm with your finger. Then tape it to the arm of your catapult. Fold it along the dotted lines to form a cup and tape it into shape. All dimensions are either one inch or one half inch. the pic shows the two top sticks like this just so you see the five sticks, you place the two sticks right on top of the three then tape them. Put three end to end then put two right on top of them. We use five popsicle sticks and this picture shows you how to arrange them. Here is the completed triangle, now all that remains is to tape all the shapes together. Now lay one triangle down on the table and splittling the legs on the two you taped together slide them right over the one on the table. Our Geodesic triangle is going to tape shape now. The red arrow shows the side that I have taped together. Now hold two of the triangles together side by side and tape them only on one side. Do this process two more times so you have three triangles. Now fold the length of sticks into a triangle and tape the end together. Use at least three wraps of tape at the joints to make it nice and strong. Now, as in the photo shown below, place these three popsicle stick assemblies end to end and then tape them together. This is the basis for your first triangle. Do at least two full revolutions of the tape. Now you can wrap the tape around all three. Place a third stick on top of these two sticks, right in the middle. But just press the sticks down firmly on the tape, don't wrap it up yet. You lay out your tape with the sticky side up then place two sticks end to end right on it. Here is the basic process for taping sticks together. Here is what you need to make this Catapultģ2 Popsicle sticks, some masking tape, pencil, rubber band, scissors, X-acto knife (optional), piece of paper about 6 inches square. The Geodesic dome is a series of triangles that are formed together so the triangles are now in three dimensional shapes like this catapult. It is what is used to make geodesic domes which is what Epcot center is made out of. I have this project in a Microsoft Word Document if you need to print it up: How to Make a Popsicle Stick CatapultĪ little About the Triangle - The thing that makes this catapult so easy to build yet so strong (You can use quite a potent rubber band on this catapult and fire your projectiles a long way) is the use of the triangle which is the strongest geometric shape and is used in everywhere in architecture. You can see the project and the game here. It is part of the Storm The castle catapult game. Note: Some people want to build this version of the popsicle stick catapult. Want to see a video of it in action: The Popsicle Stick Catapult firing off! (Quicktime MOV) This catapult is pretty strong and really fires a projectile so in order for the whole thing not to go flying I had to nail it down. I used a strong rubber band so this catapult actually fires a little projectile quite a long ways! Thirty feet in the air! And you can make adjustments to this and get it to fire further! It also shows you a fundamental concept of engineering - the strength of the triangle. It takes about thirty minutes and it uses 32 popsicle sticks, some masking tape, and a rubber band. This catapult project is an easy and fun project. My name is Will and if you have questionsĬontribute projects or ideas you can contact me How To Build A Catapult
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