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ratings I'm shad and it's time I clear
up some misconceptions about the
catapult first of all when people hear
the word catapult they generally think
of what's more commonly understood as a
manga Nell or on agar and I'm pretty
sure I'm butchering the pronunciations
as I usually do all we need to
understand is that the word catapult
actually is a more umbrella term that
also encompasses trebuchet z' and
ballista the word itself has Greek
origin specifically in two words the
first word being cat up which means
downwards and pello which means to toss
or hurl and the most early devices that
were identified as catapults actually
have a bit more in common with what you
would understand as a ballista you don't
know what a ballista is it's basically a
giant crossbow but instead of using the
tension from the limbs it uses attention
from twisted ropes or sinews and indeed
catapult is even more of an umbrella
term because we still use in the modern
day to refer to something that launches
something else for instance the
catapults on aircraft carriers that help
launch fighter jets so that's the first
misconception catapult it's more of an
umbrella term and if you're wanting to
refer to what people more commonly
understand as a catapult in normal
language that is actually what is called
an earner der some might assume it's a
manga Nell and the term Mangan L is a
bit of a confusing one as well because I
have heard it applied to what you would
identify as an owner ger but also as
sometimes a madman Cannell has been
referred to a traction trebuchet which
is like a trebuchet but it's used with
humans pulling ropes on the counter end
rather than a fixed weight it does seem
when the word Manganiello arises in
medieval references that are referring
to traction trebuchet z' but on in
common language today and manga Nell is
more often identified
as an Oda Nagar but because attraction
trebuchet is to find his attraction
trebuchet would be too confusing to try
and tell people no no you meet you
should refer to that as a man canal and
the manga knows that people think of
when they refer to men can also be
referred to or Nagas so if the purpose
of this video going forward I'm just
going to refer to what people
classically think of as a catapult as a
manga no and attraction trebuchet can
remain as attraction trebuchet the first
thing that needs to be understood about
the manga Nell is that this type of
catapult was far more rare in the
medieval period than not when projectile
devices needed to be used it was
predominantly tributes not manga Nell's
though they were used on occasion they
just weren't that common the next big
misconception about the manga Nell
is the size of projectile that they
threw and what it was used for thanks to
video games like Age of Empires and
whatnot people generally look at the
manga Nell as a siege weapon designed to
bombard castle walls with the intent to
destroy them no the size of projectile
that the manga Nell it can effectively
launch is not large enough to threaten
castle walls
it'll threaten people absolutely not
castle walls this is not a device that
is capable of destroying castles there
seems to be a mechanical limitation with
the manga Nell system you can only get
so much tension power out of this rope
twisting system and to launch boulders
far enough and of the size to actually
threaten castle walls it simply doesn't
have the power to do that could you ramp
up the size of a manga Nell to give it
enough power to actually launch a large
enough projectile to threaten the castle
well the square-cube law isn't our
friend in this regard a boulder twice
the size of what a manga no can usually
launch actually has 8 times the volume
and weight and simply doubling up the
system to double up the power doesn't
mean it's an even conversion because you
are now trying to watch something that's
eight times heavier not a much better
system to launch large projectiles is a
system that actually works off the same
weight now a trebuchet is a cantilever
system in which it uses gravity to store
energy and then can
sat into kinetic energy and the
advantage in this is that you just have
to add additional counterweight to get
more power in it and you don't have to
try and get more power out of a rope
tension system so increasing the size on
a trebuchet actually increases its power
at a more proportional and even rate to
the size of projectile that you want to
launch this means that the more standard
size of Mangano is actually much smaller
than is often depicted in video games
and such now it does seem like there
were some decently sized manga mills in
history and some recreations have been
made and put to the test and it seems
like they can work okay ish I can launch
a projectile far enough but not nearly
as far as a full-fledged trebuchet and
it also seems like the smaller scale
Mangano's can actually launch same sized
projectiles at an equivalent distance to
the larger ones and it's all again
because of this square cube law and the
amount of energy you're able to get out
of this rope tension system so yes the
standard size Manganiello far smaller
than many people assume and not
effective at destroying castle walls and
the other side to this is that even most
trebuchet --zz aren't very good at
destroying castle walls now the largest
of trebuchet z' like say warwolf
the biggest trebuchet have been recorded
history that was ever built well that
could do some serious damage but most
trebuchet is were nowhere near as big as
walls at best the standard trebuchet
would be out and knock down some of the
Merlin's on the crenellations atop the
castle wall which of course gives the
defenders less cover to protect
themselves from assaulting arrow fire
and then of course the projectiles from
the standard trebuchet can be used to
try and hit the defenders on the wall as
well but destroying castle walls have
far more issues with it than people
think
oftentimes in movies video games you
just destroy a castle wall and can run
in and take over the castle that's not
actually the case if you were to bombard
a castle wall so much so to the point
that you could have it collapse there's
still rubble in the way there's still a
very large barrier preventing you from
getting inside destroying castle walls
does not mean overtake your castle not
at all in 1408 English forces under the
command of the future King Henry the
laid siege to holic castle and they
bombard it with cannons this destroyed
the south and east parts of the outer
walls yet it only fell when it ran out
of supplies and many of its defenders
had died of starvation
in February of 1409 so clearly
destroying a castle wall didn't mean you
could take it over and the other part to
this if you actually wanted to keep the
castle once you took it over meant you
probably didn't want to destroy it in
the process parcels are very useful and
expensive to build so the employment of
bombardment from catapult system such as
trebuchet x' would be a very carefully
considered action and the smaller types
of catapults such as manga Nell's and
such are completely incapable of
damaging castles so what were Mangan
ELLs and autogas predominantly used for
them well from what I'd be now to figure
out from my study they are more
effectively employed against soldiers
and infantry doesn't matter what armor
you're wearing a large rock half the
size of your head now I'm not talking
boulders from what Tribune Shay's can
actually fire Mangano's often I able to
shoot rocks about half the size of a
human head to the size of a human head
now I guess the person doesn't matter
what armor you're wearing that's going
to hurt so I'm gonna kill you and using
them on battlefields and launching rocks
into the infantry lines of your enemy
there's a very high chance you're gonna
hit someone and it's gonna be an instant
kill and in regards to sieges I can see
them being employed against the
defenders atop the castle walls just not
used against the castle itself with the
intent to destroy the castle so the
video games that show Mangan ELLs being
used to destroy castles and launching
these really big boulders and stuff like
that completely incorrect and lastly I
want to address a very anachronistic
type of design of catapult which is
often depicted in a similar design to a
manga Nell but it has this large kind of
borea attached to it like it's a real
oversized crossbow attached to what
people commonly understand as a catapult
which of course we talked about is a
manga now this type of catapult which is
called a patria our cattiness is from
what most scholars have been able to
deduce a complete
fabrication there are no known artifacts
on this weapon in existence there are
also no verified drawings or
descriptions from a reliable source from
the medieval period there have been
attempts to build a working petraea our
catalyst based on an honor guard gun
elbow combination but there's kind of a
contradiction in logic with the patria
our cattiness which in my mind might
explain the reason why this type of
catapult never actually existed
historically they're essentially trying
to increase the power out of a manga nel
tribute a by adding a bow to it and
thereby they can increase the size of
projectiles it can shoot yet there is
still a limitation thanks to the
square-cube law in this system something
that is overcome so easily with the
tribute a system as I explained before
and separate to that manga Nels have an
inherent weakness anyway due to the fact
that they're getting their power from
rope or sinew tension and it's the fact
that when these ropes or sinews get wet
you basically stuffed your siege weapon
rope and sinew you lose their tensile
strength when wet and it doesn't return
in full once a dry this limitation does
not exist with trebuchet z' and the last
logical inconsistency that undermines
the creation of the patria are our
catalyst is the fact that they're trying
to achieve a function being out of
launch large projectiles with more power
that they already had which is a tribute
a and the tribute a did it better so why
make this convoluted Frankenstein
catapult thingy if it's just going to
achieve something you already have and
that can do it better there's no point
in doing it and then you don't have to
deal with the inherent weaknesses of
using ropes and sinews for tension this
then leads us to a complimentary
conclusion which we are able to draw
from the fact that there's no artifacts
of this weapon in the existence and no
verified drawings or descriptions from
reliable source that this type of
catapult is anachronistic and doesn't
exist which is a bit frustrating because
many replicas have been made and it's
also appears in a modern artwork
depicting a medieval period as well it
is historically inaccurate and we should
stop this thing is a load of bull and
here we have it this has been the truth
about their catapult being out of debunk
the misconceptions but also share in
what context specifically tribute Shay's
a manga nozzle more often used thank you
very much for watching I do hope you've
enjoyed and I hope to see you again
until that time
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