Students Use Catapults To Give Pumpkins Airtime

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, OK -- Physics students at Tulsa's Union High School Thursday morning flung pumpkins into the air using trebuchets they built themselves. 

'They were originally used in warfare during the middle ages,' said physics teacher Dan Bloom, 'they would launch huge stones to knock down walls around towns or castles.'

As part of their physics class, students were tested on the accuracy and distance of their antique seige weaponry. They also attempted to catch the flying pumpkins with a big bucket.

'I love working with physics, it's always interesting,' said student Kate Hehmann, 'in our trebuchet we had to make it stable, so we could have the counter weight and just make sure it was alright so we could build an a-frame and and have the weight down there, just pull the trigger and it flies up.'

The experiments were conducted on the track field the high school at 6636 South Mingo.