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>And what you have ended up with is something that looks like.... A whip!

Had a similar feeling come to me as I watched this video a few weeks ago. It made me really want to see someone make a whip-based trebuchet that uses a big spring like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkQZU-CBwhk

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Whips work because they gradually get lighter and lighter along their length meaning the same energy as it propagates down the length results in higher and higher speeds. Strapping a projectile to the end throws all of that off unless you make the whip extremely heavy to compensate.

Not sure if you watched the video, but the chain they're using is extremely heavy. I would think the projectile would be on the order of one of the single chain links at the end of the small side.

A 3d printed ball like in the OPs video would only be less than 3grams I imagine.

Either way, the weight of the whip is hardly important right, as you are just doing an energy transfer from the falling weight into the small ball, the lighter the whip the better, as long as it doesn't break. If the whip is heavier, it will soak up the energy budget in momentum

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