What is the difference between a backpack and a rucksack?

Question

I am going camping next week and wonder which one to take?

Answer 1

a rucksack is bigger

Answer 2

you should take da rucksack

Answer 3

A backpack is small with just enough room for things you might need for a day out.

A Rucksack will be a lot larger, with a stabilising belt around the waist and many different pockets. It will also have loops for attaching sleeping mats etc.

Answer 4

whoa, you've gotten some WRONG answers so far but your question is a little vague...3 types of packs--daypack, rucksack, backpack

--daypack and backpack used interchangeably--but a "backpacking" backpack is BIG, with supports, straps for tents, sleeping bags, up to 5000 cubic inches, room for up to a week of gear...example:

http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Prod...

daypack---small, room for enough gear for just the day, example:

http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Prod...

rucksack--somewhere in between, room for about a weekend of gear--not as rugged as a full backpack

http://www.ems.com/catalog/product_detai...

--and thats the breakdown of packs

Answer 5

a backpack is smaller for day time use ( sandwiches flask water bottle wet gear  ) a rucsack is bigger for week treks .

Answer 6

Some pics to look at, rucksack bigger.

http://www.blacks.co.uk/Rucksacks-and-Ho...

Answer 7

Apparently in the UK there's some different meanings to the terms, so I'll give you the USA perspective if you're interested. Here, a backpack is what a person wears backpacking where you camp overnight in the wilderness, whether it has an external frame, an internal frame or uses a sleeping pad, either folded or spread out around the interior, for a frame.

There are also smaller "day packs" for day hiking, but those could be called backpacks as well, though you wouldn't say you were "backpacking" for just a day spent hiking. And kids at school carry their books in basic and often colorfully designed backpacks which they often call backpacks or book bags, but they too aren't "backpacking."

You rarely hear the term rucksack, which to us is an archaic design, a backpack used by canoers in the north who have to portage overland from one lake or river to the next. A rucksack is usually heavy canvas material and lacks a waist belt, so most people used to modern backpacking would consider it painful to wear and avoid them.

We don't say "trekking" here in the US either and avoid any kind of hitchhiking, so the term "backpacking" is strictly for people hiking in the woods. Backpacking from town to town we call being "homeless"  or "vagrant" and it's quite frowned upon.