Upland High School physics students use homemade trebuchets to launch pumpkins

The 37 foot-tall "Scriven & Shafia" trebuchet sat like a giant on the outskirts of the Upland High School soccer field Wednesday.

The trebuchet, built by 17 year-old Chris Shafia and Zack Scriven, launched pumpkins more than 600 feet across the pumpkin cluttered-field.

"Go big or go home," Scriven said.

A trebuchet is a lopsided see-saw with a weight on one end and a sling on the other, and dates back to the Middle Ages. 

About 200 physics and engineering students armed their trebuchets around the soccer field as part of the 4^th Annual Pumpkin Launch.

Scriven and Shafia's monsterous project was brought to campus on a trailer.

"It barely cleared all the lights," Shafia said. "We had to check them all last night to see if it'd clear all the street lights and telephone wires."

There were trebuchets of all shapes and sizes. Some launched pumpkins into the air, while others used smaller fruit such as oranges.

"It teaches you a lot about all the different physics you have to use," said Brad Schroeder, 17, who built the trebuchet with a group of other physics students.

This is Schroeder's first time launching pumpkins across the field.

"It's been launching pretty well," he said. "The first two launches we had, the first one went backwards and the second one went straight up, but since that we've fixed all those problems."

The trebuchet project allows students to actually apply physics theories in reality, said David Geller, physics teacher.

"I love this project because we spend all year studying abstract physics theories that take place with no air resistance, no friction, and sometimes no gravity," Geller said. "When you troubleshoot a trebuchet that is not working, you usually make small adjustments to the friction. For example, you might bend a nail a few
degrees. It is not a law of physics that can be derived from the textbook." It is not a law of physics that can be derived from the textbook."

Home Depot on Mountain and 8^th Street, the Cal Poly Pomona farm store and the University of La Verne donated money for supplies, making the event free to the school, Geller said.

All of the pumpkins are being composted in the school's garden.