Puzzle Description:

The trebuchet was a ancient siege weapon. The huge counterweight would propel the much lighter stone in a sling great distances. Armies would set these behemoths up just out of reach of the castles' archers and would pelt the castles until the walls were breached.

#1: Norma Dee (norm0908) on Sep 15, 2013

Was not familiar with the term trebuchet. Just always thought catapult. Even though uncle Wiki says it is a form of catapult it is different. Always learning on this site.

yep...they shot fire balls also to burn it down

yeppers....Greek fire, later on.

Thanks for your entry Brain!

Was it the French Legionaires who used this weapon Brian? Cool image.:)

yes, very cool image. I like the castle in the distance, also.

It's a catapult. Trebuchet is it's part.
This isn't a modern weapon. It's written about in Ilias of Homeros and Moses's 2nd book of Old Testament, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trebuchet
Tells you everything you wanted to know about a trebuchet. Even more. According to this the trebuchet is a type of catapult.

They're still used in medieval reenactments, as well as for Punkin Chunkin. :)

I first learned about them in a NOVA program on PBS. Then I saw them on one of the Lord of the Rings movies. I've also built a few of various sizes. Nothing big enough to "chunk a pumpkin"

In medieval ages, when Chinese discovered and spread gun powder, catapults became forgotten.

It still sounds french to me,lol.:)

What would it translate to?

trebuchet (n.)
"medieval stone-throwing engine of war," c.1300 (in Anglo-Latin from early 13c.), from Old French trebuchet (12c.) "siege engine," from trabucher "to overturn, overthrow" (11c.), from tra- (from Latin trans-, here expressing "displacement") + Old French buc "trunk, bulk," from West Germanic *buh- (cf. German bauch "belly").

I looked up "trebuchet etymology"

Thx Kristen.:)

This is newer than the torsional type of catapults and had a few advantages. The first was simplicity. No stretched or twisted bands or bent wood to snap. It's powered by gravity.
Secondly, it was more powerful, thanks to the sling on the end. The heavy counterweight swung the much longer boom quite quickly, but when it reached the bottom of the arc, the boom would stop and the sling on its end would then swing forward at an even greater speed. Thus it was like the extra snap of a baseball pitcher's wrist.

If you would like to see some in action, check your cable or satellite schedule for a show called Punkin Chunkin on the Science channel. There is even a web site about the activity - www.punkinchunkin.com.

r/trebuchetmemes

In French, the verb trebucher means "to cause to fall or stumble".

A boulder to the head would certainly have that effect!

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