Merced College students practice a castle siege – sort of

With clear skies and cool weather, Wednesday was a nice day to storm a castle at Merced College.

The annual Siege Weapons Competition, an 18-year tradition in Lana Jordan’s physics classes, had a school practice field covered in an arsenal of catapults, trebuchets and other medieval firepower.

Jordan said the slinging of projectiles fits into what the three classes cover, concepts like kinetic energy, transfer of energy and simple mechanics. The students are charged with tossing a basketball at least 15 meters.

Jordan said she delights in the “genius” designs the students come up with every year. The weapons may date back to the first century, she said, but new interpretations are endless.

“Creativity. Engineering. Coming up with ideas that work and don’t work,” Jordan said. “(There’s) new stuff all the time.”

Some students designed ballistas, which amount to giant crossbows. At least one went with a torsion-power design, using twisted ropes and a bent wooden board to store the kinetic energy.

Students agreed that traditional catapults are the easiest to build, but it’s the trebuchet that has the greatest potential for distance. A trebuchet has a heavy weight on one end and a sling on the other.

“It’s essentially a seesaw with one end being longer than the other,” said Auli Refendor, 21, of Merced.

The bioengineering major, who has participated in two sieges, said the best part of the process is watching newcomers get their hands dirty. “For a lot of us, it’s the first time making something,” she said.

A couple of weapons over was a hulking metal beast that looked like it should be chasing the title character from “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Tolleman Gorham, 19, of Mariposa said he and teammates built the 9-foot tall trebuchet on wheels from scrap metal.

About 500 pounds of cement acted as a counterweight to send the ball more than 50 meters.

Gorham, a civil engineering major, said he’s built tree forts and siege weapons at home, but this was his first go in any official capacity. “We kind of went a little overboard,” he said with a smile. “We’re pretty happy with it.”

He said the key to getting distance is finding the “sweet spot” between 30 degrees and 45 degrees to release the projectile.

Another competitor, Erica Preciado, 25, of Livingston, designed a floating arm trebuchet, a variation of its cousin. “I just didn’t want to do a regular one,” the engineering major said. “(I wanted) something different and good.”

As backup, she brought her brother, Jacob Long. The 17-year-old, of course, donned his Norman-style knight’s helmet, complete with chain mail.

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Merced College students practice a castle siege – sort of."