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by foota 2897 days ago
It does, another commenter posted the same person's explanation. But, the idea is that it doesn't matter how much GPE is released, it matters what the velocity of the projectile at release is. If the trebuchet can't move then the weight starts to slow down before all it's GPE is used up. When it can move, it coincides with the time that the projectile is at maximum velocity.