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04/22/2003: "eBay & Medieval launchers"

It has been interesting over on eBay. After my neighbor asked me to post their robotic lawnmower for sale, I started grabbing a few other things from around the house :) so far, we have sold some of David's un-used things - Nokia phone, Lego Mindstorms. Hey, this might be a better way of cleaning up. Pick it up and put it away, or else you'll find it selling on eBay.... a cleanup poem It's also interesting comparing the shipping charges from the US postal service, the UPS folks, and FedEx. For example, a 2lbs package was estimated : USPS=$4.90, Fedex=$7.20, and UPS=$8.88 another sample 5lbs package was USPS=$7.75, Fedex=$8.02, and UPS=$10.05

David needed a project for his social sciences medieval class. Several suggestions were listed on the takehome sheet, like posters, pictures, etc... but of course he needed something "unique". Well, he picked a "working medieval weapon". Not sure what the teachers had in mind, but David has built a "trebuchet". I had never heard of this, or really seen one. It is a combination of a catapult and a rotational slingshot. It is about 12" x 15" x 4" with a 20" throwing arm. Last night, we were launching jelly beans over the roof of our 2-story house :) Here is the Trebuchet site we used as a construction guide. We are only using 4lbs of pennies in a pouch as a counterweight, we can't imagine the launch using the author's 10lbs of lead weight.