Sometimes pumpkins fly
Pull, drop and a pumpkin shoots out.
The College of Engineering: group one’s flying squash makes it 72 feet across the Tower Field – about one third the length of the field.
Snap.
Aubrie Mema, a senior majoring in art and president of the Student Art Guild, pulls the line from her team’s trebuchet (or what some might call a catapult) and the pumpkin launches, spinning in the air, falls down and smashes to pieces as it meets the ground.
Next up – the College of Engineering: group two. Their floating arm trebuchet is ready for action. The line is pulled and the arms fall to the ground, wood cracks apart and the pumpkin rolls out the backside. They’ll have to give it another try.
There’s nothing like pumpkins soaring through the air to get into the spirit of Halloween. More than 100 spectators showed up to see the pumpkin launching Friday afternoon.
Adam Jones, a senior in computer engineering and the Associated Students of Utah State University Engineering Senator, hosted the event. He said the Art Guild came to him with the idea.
“They said, ‘we want to challenge you to a pumpkin launching contest’ and I said ‘booh yah!'” he said.
All together, there were three teams competing – two from the College of Engineering and one from the Art Guild club. Each team had very unique catapults, but none as bizarre as engineering team two’s.
“Its a floating arm trebuchet,” said Grant Roth, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering and member of the engineering team two.
Roth said the reason for a second engineering team was that there was already enough people on team one and his group just wanted to build their own.
Their contraption stood about seven feet high and had two separate counter weights on both sides that were raised before launching. For added weight they had everything from crowbars to a barstool.
Engineering team one and the Art Guild team’s trebuchets were a little more refined.
Team one’s trebuchet looked like it was ready for war with its burnt wood style and camouflage made of vines and leaves. A square metal bucket held bags and chunks of lead for the machines counterweight.
Matt Capell, a sophomore majoring in aerospace engineering, said they got their lead from tire stores.
The Art Guild’s trebuchet had an even more refined style, but also had a very medieval look with its huge 130-pound cog or what might look like a machine crank with several removable weights on each side.
Each team had three chances to launch.
Marv Halling, a faculty member in civil engineering, was a judge for the event. He said they were judged on distance, accuracy and style of the trebuchets. Engineering team one wore colorful velvet sport coats and styled their hair.
“They said style points, and we got confused,” Capell said.
There were four judges: Two from the College of Engineering and two from the College of Hummanities Arts and Social Sciences.
In the end, the engineering team one took first and won in distance and accuracy, but not by a long shot. Team one’s farthest shot was 72 feet, while
the Art Guild team, who took the prize for style, made it 71 feet on their second try.
Scott Savage, a senior majoring in print and graphic design and treasurer of the Art Guild, came up with the original idea and was proud of his team’s performance.
“I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out,” he said. “It was a good excuse to have fun.”
As far as engineering team two goes, they made a worthy attempt but only got their pumpkin to go backwards on their third try.
“It would all work if we had the right materials,” Roth said.
The prizes were everything to candy bars to hair gel for the team who won in style.
-joelfeathers@cc.usu.edu