How powerful are catapults? #army #militaryeverything #warfacts #viral

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Do you know what humanity's most powerful long-range siege weapon was before cannons existed? That's right, the counterweight trebuchet. The same machine that people today are literally using as a giant diving launcher. But for safety reasons, the version that use is not the full power design. A real counterweight trebuchet includes an extra sling mechanism that massively increases range causing the projectile to whip forward for a second burst of acceleration at the end of the launch.

[00:00:24]The structure looks simple, but the power is insane. [music] It could throw stones weighing hundreds of pounds over 600 ft. Medieval castle walls basically had no choice but to absorb the impact.

[00:00:34]Compared [music] to torsion powered ballistas and other elastic siege weapons, the counterweight trebuchet was far more reliable. It was not heavily affected by material wear or weather because the entire system worked purely through gravity. The mechanism itself was also straightforward. A massive counterweight hung beneath the short arm. When raised, it stored gravitational potential energy. Once released, the counterweight dropped spinning the long arm at high speed and launching the projectile. But the real secret behind its massive range was the sling at the end of the arm. If the stone was fixed directly to the wooden arm, it might only travel a few dozen feet. But once attached to a flexible sling, the projectile would whip outward like a cracking whip gaining a second acceleration boost and dramatically increasing its range.