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catapult
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Diagram titled Components of a catapult labels its basket, throwing arm, frame, winding winch, fulcrum, and torsion engine, explaining how stored torsion launches a projectile. Illustration of a Roman-era catapult made of wood, featuring labeled parts such as the arm and winch, with two Roman soldiers in armor operating it and stone projectiles nearby. Medieval trebuchet
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Diagram titled Components of a catapult labels its basket, throwing arm, frame, winding winch, fulcrum, and torsion engine, explaining how stored torsion launches a projectile.
Catapult components diagram showing parts and how a torsion catapult works An annotated diagram detailing the key components of a torsion catapult—including the throwing arm, basket, frame, winding winch, fulcrum, and torsion engine—and showing how stored energy launches a projectile .

catapult

military weaponry
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catapult, mechanism for forcefully propelling stones, spears, or other projectiles, in use mainly as a military weapon since ancient times. The ancient Greeks and Romans used a heavy crossbowlike weapon known as a ballista to shoot arrows and darts as well as stones at enemy soldiers. The term catapult too can refer to these weapons, but more often it designates a larger engine that is used to hurl stones from a single long arm swinging...

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