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Trebuchet contest pits high school engineers against gravity

Trebuchets in the middle ages could hurl projectiles weighing 100 to 200 pounds up to 200 feet.

BETTENDORF -- Medieval weapons of mass destruction were deployed in a field adjacent to Bettendorf High School on Friday, April 21, but fortunately they weren't launching anything more dangerous than raw eggs.

The event was BHS's 10th Annual Trebuchet Competition, which pitted teams from several area high schools against each other to see who could build the best, most accurate trebuchet as a way of showing off their engineering prowess. A trebuchet, for those who don't know, is a fancy French word for catapult.

Each trebuchet team was given four shots at a target, using raw large eggs, over a time period of 30 minutes. Teams were scored on a combination of accuracy and distance.

Participating schools included Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley, Moline, North Scott and Durant.

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