what would be the best gear ratios for a catapult to swing faster and far
Hi, welcome to the forum!
I’m not sure what you are asking for, since catapults don’t really use gears. They are more of a lever thing with rubber bands powering them. If you are going to “science one from scratch” the questions are what class of lever, how long is the lever, how many rubber bands and how far down do you need to pull the lever down to have enough force to move the ball into the goal.
There is enough force needed to move the lever that you will need to do some gearing. It becomes a balance between speed that you can pull the arm down and that distance. If I pick a Choo-Choo as my launch, and use a worm gear with a 24 pitch driven gear, I only get 4 launches in a minute.
Do the same for the winch (size of the drum is a factor) and the T-Fling mechanism.
Of course using two motors gives you more power so you also need to decide if you can spare the motors for that.
The other factor is “how far is far?” I built a catapult (well technically a trebuchet) that would toss the ball across the 8’ field. Accuracy is an issue at that distance though.
Hope this gives you some idea of the things you need to think about in your process.
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For one motor, try 1:2. For 2 motors, 1:1 is recommended unless you really know what your doing.
I can spare the motors because I am I a robotic class right now I asked my other class mate what should I build next because I just finish a elevator build and she gave me the catapult idea since I like challenges
I a whole lot better than the other people in my class because I am a fast learner