I found this amusing:
It’s a Pot-apult! Used to hurl weed over the border fence. OK, it’s not as good as the infamous Goat-apult discussed long ago on this very board, but still…I have high hopes for this bit of technology…
That lends a whole new meaning to getting high with their weed.
“Hey, ese, you know… we should build, like, a big catapult! And like, *catapult *that shit over the wall!” <toke>
Not to be pedantic, but…bah. Yes, I’m being pedantic, and I like it.
That’s a trebuchet, which does lend itself quite as readily to weed-related wordplay. Trebudchet, perhaps?
If only it had been used to smuggle alcohol in from Canada during Prohibition, however, it could have brought a whole new meaning to “slinging booze”.
One drug lord to another: “Hey! If we can hurl packages with this thing, if we make it just a little bigger, we can hurl people!”
A few months later: “You have the transit fee? Thank you. Now, just sit in this sling. Yes, the parachute is used; that’s how we know it’s safe; don’t worry about the spotches. There will be someone on the other side to pick you up. Keep your arms and legs inside the sling. Ready?”
“Loose!”
:: fwoosh :: AIIIEEE[sup]EEEEEEEEEEEE[/sup]eeeee[sub]eeeeee…[/sub]
thud
OK, now I have to ask - what distinguishes a catapault from a trebuchet?
Catapults work by the spring principle; either a spring is compressed or the arm of the catapult is bent, and that’s what provides the force applied to the projectile. Trebuchets on the other hand work using a counterweight on the other end of the bar from the payload; dropping the weight is what propels the shot. Trebuchets are also potentially much more powerful since catapults are limited by how much tension you can put on the spring or arm; while trebuchets are only limited by how much mass you can hang off the arm, and how much force you can apply to the trebuchet without it breaking apart; they can also be built more heavily since nothing needs to flex. Trebuchets were competitive with early cannon.
The spring tension versus counterweight is the chief distinction I make, yes. There are lots of things that people put in the catapult category (sometimes including, I will admit, the trebuchet), but as far as I know all of them other than the trebuchet rely on some form of spring. The only thing they all have in common is being designed to hurl large objects.
For reference:
A fairly classic catapult
A trebuchet.
A mangonel. (A catapult using a bow-like crosspiece to provide tension, rather than the main beam.)
A ballista. (A giant crossbow, essentially–distinct from the mangonel in that it fires projectiles straight down the body of the engine.)
I got my nephew a trebuchet for Christmas one year. Not one of these chintzy little desk things, but one with a main beam about 6 feet long. It took us a couple of days to put it together, but he was the only kid in his class with his own siege engine.
I bet this is how the urban legend about Mexicans getting over the border fence via catapult started. It looks big enough that someone who’s never built one would think “You could totally fling brown people over the fence with this thing”. An episode of Mythbusters tested it, it needs to be WAY bigger.
Something like this one.
Episode Trailer Tagline: “You will believe a man can fly…”
I want one.