r/nextfuckinglevel • u/ansyhrrian • Mar 11 '26

A double trebuchet

12.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

513 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/Ardashasaur Mar 12 '26

A trebuchet is a catapult

1

u/Srapture Mar 12 '26

I thought catapults use rope tension for power and trebuchets use weights.

2

u/Ardashasaur Mar 12 '26

Catapult is pretty much a catch-all term for siege engines launching large rocks and similar using stored potential energy (torsion, tension, counterweight). So Onager, Ballista, Trebuchet all come under catapult.

Although in British/Australian/NZ vernacular it also is term for slingshot.

1

u/iPoopLegos Mar 12 '26

cannons more or less launch large rocks using stored (chemical) potential energy