Fredericksburg, Virginia — Central Rappahannock Regional Library is hosting Launch It!, a trebuchet contest, for the second year. Launch It! will begin at the Fredericksburg Branch on Saturday, October 27, with registration at 9:30 a.m. The contest will take place at Old Mill Park, 2201 Caroline Street.
New to trebuchets? A trebuchet is a kind of medieval siege engine. Full-sized trebuchets were used to smash down castle walls. This contest will be a fun, family event, and you can join in by bringing your handcrafted trebuchet and testing it against your competitors!
Our final trebuchet construction lesson is this afternoon, 3:30-5:30 p.m. in the Fredericksburg Branch MakerLab.
Contest entries may be submitted in the following categories:
- Middle School
- High School
- Adult
- Family
Entries will be judged on the following criteria:
- Distance
- Accuracy
- Most Creative Trebuchet
Rules:
- You must have a name for your trebuchet. For example, King Edward I’s trebuchet was called Warwolf.
- The dimensions of your trebuchet may be no larger than 2 x 2 x 2 feet.
- CRRL will provide projectiles which are less than 2 inches in diameter.
- Projectiles must remain intact until they hit the ground.
- All trebuchets must be propelled by gravity (no springs, no elastics, no compressed air or water, no explosives).
- CRRL judges are the final arbiters on safety.
