Physics of Boomerangs - 638 Words

Boomerangs are one of the first throwing machines invented by humans. Boomerangs first developed as an improvement of the carved throwing sticks. Usually made of wood and they were banana shaped; both arms were carved into curved surfaces. Typically 3 ft long and weighing 5-10 lbs. they were effective hunting tools. When thrown, boomerangs traveled parallel to the ground as far as 650 ft The physics of a Boomerang can be broken down into three simple reasons: 1. A boomerang has 2 arms or wings, similar to airplane wings, which created lift. 2. In flight, the top rotates in the directions of the boomerang and the bottom rotates in the opposite direction– creating an uneven lift and tilting, which is prevented by torque 3. The torque doesn’t flip the boomerang over, but instead creates angular momentum or gyroscope precession. 1. The boomerang’s arms being shaped like wings are very important. Each wing has both a flat side and a curved side, like an airplane wing. The purpose of the design is to create an airfoil shape therefore creating lift. This lift is created when the thrower thrust the boomerang; that air foils deflects the air down which in return propels the wing up. The air being pushed to the underside of the wing creates 1/3 of the lift of a wing. So if the boomerang doesn’t have a strong airfoil shape, it will not have enough lift to overcome the downward pressure. As the air is moving across the airfoil it has to go farther on the curved surface than it does onShow MoreRelated The Physics of Boomerangs Essay1379 Words   |  6 PagesThe Physics of Boomerangs The successful flight of a boomerang looks as though it never should happen. Its more or less circular flight path comes from the interaction of two physical phenomena: the aerodynamic lift of the arms of the boomerang and the spinning boomerang’s maintenance of angular momentum. Briefly put, the airfoil at the boomerang’s forward rotating edge provides more lift than its rearward rotating edge. This elevates one side of the boomerang. The spinning object maintainsRead MoreCompare And Contrast Batman Of Dc And Iron Man925 Words   |  4 Pagesintellect and enormous amounts of money to create technology for their powers. Iron Man, whose true name is Anthony â€Å"Tony† Stark, entered MIT at age 15 to study electrical engineering. He received a master’s degree in electrical engineering and physics. Using this, he developed weapons for the military. While driving back from a weapons test site, he and his military escort were attacked by terrorists. After getting kidnapped by the terrorists, they wanted to use him to create a weapon of mass destructionRead MoreA History of Roller Coasters Essay2453 Words   |  10 Pagessubcategories of roller coasters that go with them. For steel roller coasters the subcategories are hydraulic launched, air launched, multi-looper, catapult, inverted, hyper, spinning, four dimensional, traditional, corkscrew, impulse, boomerang, and gigantic inverted boomerang. When it comes to wooden roller coasters there aren’t nearly as many subcategories of roller coasters. Subcategories for the wooden roller coasters are the outback, wooden twister, terrain, M oebis, racing, dueling, looping, andRead MoreAnalysis Of The Unconstitutional 40 Year War On Students Essay1641 Words   |  7 Pagesstimulus will elicit some sort of response. Similarly, Isaac Newton taught us that one force provokes another, in direct opposition to it. Although various life experience may â€Å"elicit† a response, our emotions tend to gravitate towards the laws of physics rather than biology. It may seem counterintuitive, but the pressure of provocation is arguably the best method of impelling us to act. Adversity, after all, stimulates, coerces, and sharpens people in ways that prosperity simply cannot. Indeed, itRead More beach erosion Essay examples3156 Words   |  13 Pagespermeable they are, the more energy will dissipate before it reaches landward development or natural resources.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;. Simple solutions boomerang Cities like Miami Beach that built ri ght up to the bluffs above the beach soon noticed that the bluffs were eroding, bringing the ocean a bit too close for comfort. The city responded by reinforcing the bluffs with sea walls. But the walls reflectedRead MoreInnovators Dna84615 Words   |  339 Pagessister â€Å"thinking big thoughts†; she played girls’ cricket avidly and was lead guitarist in an all-girl rock band (it’s no surprise that she still performs on stage at PepsiCo events). She ï ¬ nished a multidisciplinary undergraduate degree in chemistry, physics, and math before getting her MBA in Calcutta. Nooyi then worked in the textile industry (Tootal) and consumer products industry (Johnson Johnson) before getting a master’s of public and private management at Yale. After graduation, she shiftedRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pagesgraphics say that by viewing images instead of numbers, a fundamental change in the way researchers think and work is occurring. People have a lot easier time getting an intuition from pictures than they do from numbers and tables or formulas. In most physics experiments, the answer used to be a number or a string of numbers. In the last few years the answer has increasingly become a picture† (Markoff, 1988, p. D3). To illustrate the differences among thinking languages, consider the following simple problem: