Can someone please explain the slingshot effect in regards to a trebuchet (seige weapon)?
I can’t really explain it in physics terminology but I can explain it by analogy. And the best one I can think of is a cricketers bowling action. Imagine there is one bowler whose arm is 1m long (a nice standard number to think about). And imagine that his arm rotates at a speed of 100km/h around that 1m radius that the end of his arm (ie the hand holding the ball) travels. Now imagine a second bowler that has a (slightly less realistic) 2m long arm, and assume he also has an arm that rotates the same speed. That means that half way down his arm (his elbow) travels at 100km/h. Which means his hand needs to travel faster than that, otherwise his arm would bend backwards and snap off. I don’t know if the exact maths is right, but his hand would have to travel at 200km/h to keep up with his 100km/h elbow. C = (pi)d, someone else can do the math. Now imagine if the bowler had a flexible 1m long sling in his 2m long arm, with the ball nestled inside it. That now has to travel faster again t
