It was a smashing success! This December, six groups of physicists at Davidson numerically simulated medieval trebuchet siege engines using the Lagrangian Mechanics techniques they learned in Classical Mechanics. Then they built physical models out of K’Nex, and compared theoretical and experimental results. The course culminated in the Ye Olde Trebuchet Conference, where each group pitted their siege engine against the others in accuracy and range competitions.
I am very excited to share that I will be joining the Lafayette College Department of Physics in the Fall of 2025 as an Assistant Professor on the tenure track! Thank you to everyone in Read more…
My Classical Mechanics students presented their trebuchet final projects, and competed to throw projectiles farthest and most accurately.
This past summer my student and I developed a series of tutorials for my Classical Mechanics course. These tutorials use finite element simulations based my research to teach driven damped harmonic motion.