had a chunk of game design work itself out in my head involving classifying melee weapon designs by the types of machine involved. they're mostly lever-wedges, i guess. i'm kinda reaching the conclusion that a flail or whip is a pulley, though, which is fascinating
i was basically thinking that the flail or whip was using the target to alter the direction of the kinetic energy involved and that made it a pulley. but it's not really right, the KE is moving in the wrong direction and the important part of what it's doing is lever behavior