- #1
toneboy1
- 174
- 0
This might seem a bit weird at first but it raised an interesting question to me about power, work and energy.
I watched this show about how the trebuchet is so much more efficient than previous designs and then I sort of thought of it as a way to store energy and I wondered to myself, if you had one that was geared from the fall to be a speed multiplier connected to a 240V motor (so the long and short arms fell very slowely and the motor spun quite fast) "how long would it run for, 1 min, 1 hr?"
(to be precise I mean like the rate of which it was falling is equal to that necessary to make the motor put out 240V, approximately no more or less)
Then I realized I didn't know how much energy was stored in it. So I'd like to ask anyone, if you had a trebuchet with a mass in it (half a tonne, a tonne, whatever you want) and the height for the short arm to fall was 1m, 10m, 20m, whatever you like, and the lengths of the short and long arm were whatever you specified. How could you know how much energy was stored in it once the mass was raised to full potential (probably a bit over 90degrees) ?
If anyone is interested enough, or knows already could you share?
Thanks!
I watched this show about how the trebuchet is so much more efficient than previous designs and then I sort of thought of it as a way to store energy and I wondered to myself, if you had one that was geared from the fall to be a speed multiplier connected to a 240V motor (so the long and short arms fell very slowely and the motor spun quite fast) "how long would it run for, 1 min, 1 hr?"
(to be precise I mean like the rate of which it was falling is equal to that necessary to make the motor put out 240V, approximately no more or less)
Then I realized I didn't know how much energy was stored in it. So I'd like to ask anyone, if you had a trebuchet with a mass in it (half a tonne, a tonne, whatever you want) and the height for the short arm to fall was 1m, 10m, 20m, whatever you like, and the lengths of the short and long arm were whatever you specified. How could you know how much energy was stored in it once the mass was raised to full potential (probably a bit over 90degrees) ?
If anyone is interested enough, or knows already could you share?
Thanks!