this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 114 points 6 days ago (6 children)

To be pedantic, that's still covered under E

[–] [email protected] 51 points 6 days ago (6 children)

I don’t know of a single engineer who has never built a trebuchet.

I’m not even a “proper” engineer and I have like, five desktop trebs, 2 ballistae and some other odds and ends (3d printed, of course,)

It’s like, a right of passage or something.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I have a scar over my eye from a trebuchet I built in high school, then I went to college for engineering, so that checks out

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

yeah. Gotta be careful with them.

even the desktop variety has a lot of energy in the system.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

I’m a software engineer, but now I feel like I need to build a trebuchet.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago (5 children)

I’m a software engineer and I built a trebuchet during lockdown to launch Easter eggs at the neighbours’ gardens since we weren’t allowed to go see them.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I'm a machinist, which is kind of engineer adjacent. We make cannons.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

Cannons are just trebuchets with extra oomph

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

Cannons are fun too.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Mother, 33, stops being a scientist to do science.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago

~~science~~ engineering

Siege engineering to be precise

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Anyone else find it weird how articles often tend to add the parental status of the subject in the title?

[–] [email protected] 41 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Only if it's about a mother though.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

I guess being a mother is considered an important life achievement, while being a father is not.

[–] HenriVolney 4 points 6 days ago

You do get to be a father in news articles. Mainly when they talk about you being deceased though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

I think it's more that, for some, becoming a parent is their only life accomplishment, so "reader engagement" is literally, "hey, overlap these two circles, or the middle won't buy our crap."

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I guess it's bait for people who like to judge. The idea could be: it's not responsible to quit science for this and being a mother makes irresponsible choices even worse. That's not my point of view, but I know people whose life seems to be so empty that they feel a constant need to look down on others and the "mother" information gives them at least 5 more minutes of talking shit about how this is a terrible decision.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

I see it the other way around. Older people eat up clickbait news, and older people tend to be parents, so identifying the woman as a mother makes them go “she’s someone like me” while identifying her as a scientist is less likely to resonate. It helps some people imagine themselves in her shoes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It's been this way since the inception of the news paper. To sell papers they needed to get people invested in the subjects of the paper. That included giving information about the subject of the articles that other people might relate to. If you're a mother you're more likely to be inspired by a mom of 3 who went for a degree in science and ended up becoming a "Trebuchet Master".

[–] [email protected] 46 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Since they specified female, there is presumably also at least one male trebuchet master as well, meaning that the UK considers trebuchets important enough to have multiple trebuchet Masters.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The new alternative to Trident. It's cheaper to have trebuchets posted around the coastline than nukes scooting around on submarines and offers about the same amount of protection from the country being nuked.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

It’s the cheapest means of getting fresh beef from point A to point B. I am surprised burgericanos haven’t discovered it yet

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Now hear me out...Railguns

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

They said cheapest, not fastest. Ain't no UK business got railgun delivery money...

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Being "trebuchet master" without "Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics"... doubt

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

Sounds like multidisciplinary peak perfocmance to me.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I would, too. Which is the more exciting job? Unfortunately there probably isn't much call for a trebuchet bombardment these days.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Fun fact, only one trebuchet has ever been deployed for combat in the new world.

The conquistadors and coalition forces built one during the siege of Tenochitlan, they tried to fire it but the sling snapped, rock went up, rock came back down.

Thus ended the storied military record of trebuchets in the new world.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago

That's fascinating! You should update the Wiki on trebuchets.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Trebuchet

Clearly someone has pulled a Scots Language Wiki and has been writing bullshit on that article for years

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Interesting that "Mother, 33" doesn't have a name

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

Have you never read a newspaper before?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 days ago (1 children)

wait they did not ask for 10 years experience in the field?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago (2 children)

100 hours of aoe2 and we've got a deal

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago

As a retired toolmaker, I see your trebuchet and raise you the artillery piece I made for myself - a small Coehorn mortar of about 50mm/2" bore.

I've known 2 toolmakers that have built their own full scale full functional Gatling guns from scratch also.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago

The military will need skills like that once modern civ collapses later this century.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 days ago (6 children)

What's the distance on those things?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Over 300 meters. Truly the superior siege engine.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

But I still love the Ballista.

I've made several over the years for demonstrations using a couple 2x4s, 2 oak dowels, a steel rod, and nylon rope that'll hurl a "bolt" (tube used to separate clubs in a golf bag with a tennis ball on one end) 400 yards.

They're just fun.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Depends on the mass of the projectile, and how the throwing arm is tuned.

If its release is tuned for distance and they’re flinging period-accurate projectiles, tuned firmly distance a typical period tree could throw stones about 300 meters.

Depending on the kind of fortifications they were against (and if they had siege engines of their own, or other artillery- bow and arrows, whatever) they might set up a little closer and tune instead for more forward velocity rather than range.

The typical mass was about 200-300 kilograms, or a small sedan. You could go heavier, but that typically reduced range.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

200-300 kilograms, or a small sedan

A small sedan weighs about four times as much as that

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago (5 children)

Scientist in the UK wear surgical caps and carry stethoscopes? I guess doctors are a subcategory of scientists.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Building a trebuchet to hurl rocks is stem though

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

Probably makes more money as a trebuchet operator too

[–] HenriVolney 4 points 6 days ago

Behold the return of the Mighty Trebuchet Memes!

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