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- The circulation about the disc and the free-stream flow of air past the disc causes a force in the direction of the cross product of V with the angular momentum of the disc. This is attributed to the Magnus Effect, which is caused by one side of the disc percieving a higher free-stream velocity than the other, causing a pressure gradient.
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Why do flying discs have gyroscopic stability and aerodynamic lift?
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- 2 A Review of Some Basics
- 2.1 Gyroscopic Inertia
- Iij = dm (δijxkxk − xixj) .
- H 1 ≡ 2ρu2 + p + ψ
- 3 How Frisbees Fly
- 3.1 The Basic Idea
- 3.2 The Effect of Turbulence
- 4 Frisbee Design
- 4.1 The Freebie Frisbee
- 4.2 The Long-Distance “Disc”
- 5 Conclusions
The two basic ideas that we will need are “Gyroscopic Inertia” and the “Bernoulli Principle”. We are somewhat familiar with both of these concepts, but I plan on expanding on some aspects which may be interesting. “Gyroscopic Inertia” is just a fancy-sounding term for what scientists call angular momentum. We will delve into some aspects of angular...
“Gyroscopic Inertia” refers to the resistance one encounters when trying to change the axis of rotation of a rotating body. We will show that this simply equals the magnitude of the angular momentum. Let us recall how angular momentum is defined. In rotational mechanics, there is always a special reference point about which objects are considered t...
(5) The inertia tensor is dependent both on the mass distribution and the orientation of the body. Equation (4) is the generalization of the more familiar equation L = Iω, where I is a scalar value called the moment of inertia about the axis of rotation. The inertia tensor contains information about the moments of inertia, as well as cross terms ca...
(17) is constant along streamlines. For systems in which the body forces are negligible or irrelevant, this means that regions of higher velocity are regions of low pressure, and vice versa. This is usually what is called the Bernoulli Principle. As an application of the Bernoulli Principle, we will now discuss how an airplane wing generates lift. ...
We finally discuss how the Frisbee actually flies. We combine the ideas in the previous section to form the basic explanation for Frisbee flight. We will then discuss how turbulence plays a role.
Frisbee is basically a plastic disc that is curled down at the edges. The point to note is that the cross section of a Frisbee roughly approximates the cross section of an airplane wing. Since the top surface is convex, the pressure on top of the disc will be less than the pressure below the disc. Thus the Frisbee will experience lift. But a Frisbe...
So far we have seen a somewhat simplified description of the problem. There is one major difference between the cross section of an airplane wing and the cross section of a Frisbee. The airplane wing is streamlined, whereas the Frisbee is far from it. This means that turbulent flow is much more prevalent in a Frisbee than in an airplane wing. In hi...
Now that we understand the physics behind Frisbee flight, we may ponder the possi-bilities of variations on the basic design.
Flying discs can be produced relatively cheaply because they are made out of plastic. It seems, however, that some discs can be made even more cheaply if they have a constant thickness and sharp bends. I am referring to the cheap Frisbees given to people for free by some corporations and organizations. We will use our understanding of flying discs ...
Frisbees are usually thrown from person to person. The discs are thus designed to have a limiting velocity so that they may be more easily caught. This limiting factor, of course, is the pressure drag from the turbulent flow generated by the disc. What if, however, all we wanted from a disc was that it fly long distances? There are a few factors th...
The basic physics of Frisbee flight turns out to be quite a bit simpler than one might initially expect. It consists of two concepts which are more or less familiar to most people. The first is the gyroscopic stability of rotating objects. Using some new tools such as the inertia tensor, we argued that the “gyroscopic inertia” was in fact simply th...
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data, provide details on the well-known “S-shaped” ground-path traced by a flying disc. Findings – This study reveals two key parameters to evaluate the flight performance of a disc: its coefficient of lift-to-drag ratio (C L/C D) and, more importantly, its coefficient of pitching moment (C M). The latter influences the tendency of the disc
Sep 8, 2023 · The 'S-curve,' for example, involves releasing the disc on a hyzer angle but with enough speed and spin to make it flip to an anhyzer angle mid-flight. This results in a flight path that resembles the letter 'S,' allowing for maximum distance with a predictable landing.
Jun 21, 2016 · During its flight the discus is influenced by gravity and the aerodynamic forces of lift, drag and pitching moment. Those forces act on the center of pressure (CP) which does not necessarily coincide with the center of gravity (CG) of the discus and is located somewhere in front of the CG.
Aug 9, 2012 · Two key forces that act on a Frisbee during flight are lift and drag. Lift is the force that allows the Frisbee to stay airborne, and in flight it opposes the force of gravity on the disk's...
Why does a flying disc fly really well, say compared to a disc that doesn't rotate when it flies? Well, the real answer is that physics in the name of lift, angular momentum, and gyroscopic precession become involved.
