Engineer's Flywheel Trebuchet Can Toss Tennis Balls At 180 MPH

You wouldn't want to be on the other side of this flywheel trebuchet.
Derya Ozdemir

Flywheels are definitely interesting in the way that they can store up enormous amounts of energy as they are spun up to speed. Engineer Tom Stanton, who was always fascinated with them, decided to combine the flywheel mechanism with a sturdy aluminum trebuchet, and in this video, you can watch him create it, enabling a brilliant demonstration of energy transfer in the process.

By mixing the two, he builds a pretty durable machine. He uses a hand crank to spin the flywheel, and once spun up to sufficient angular velocity, the trigger discharges the tennis ball from the sling and sends it running at speeds over 180 mph (290 km/h).

This video is so awesome that you can even see ex-NASA engineer, now YouTuber Mark Rober in the comments. He wrote: "Dude. Well done on so many levels. Not sure how I’ve never seen your channel till now but [I’m] glad the algorithm made the suggestion."

So what are you waiting for? Definitely, worth a watch!

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