Post-Competition Reflection

Our Trebuchet did excellent in the accuracy portion of the competition, we scored first in the event! All the other teams did very well also, it was a close event and we didn't win by much. During the practice runs we were getting very good results and we felt extremely confident going into the challenge. Our first of three shots took the lead in the first round, but once the second round came along other teams were starting to pull ahead. In the third round we miraculously made a shot that was only 50cm away from the hoop which led us to victory. If there was any changes I could make to the trebuchet to optimize it's performance i would probably shorten the throwing arm and adjust the weight slightly. These minor changes could have made all the difference in the world causing us to succeed even further, but on the other side of the spectrum this could have proved fatal and cost us the win. All in all I was pleased with the trebuchet we created. If I were to build a completely new trebuchet I would most likely make it taller rather than shorter, and narrower rather than wider. Theses alterations would've proved for optimum distance giving us the win in that category. I also would make the angle of release adjustments easier to be done and read. This should've still allowed us to have a fighting chance in the accuracy competition. To make our current trebuchet better we would need to strengthen the frame and make it taller/narrower. I believe that these alterations would've proved valuable in the performance of our trebuchet. All in all I a extremely pleased with the performance of my trebuchet and team members!