How does a boomerang work?

Answer 1

A boomerang is a simple wooden implement used for various purposes. It is primarily attributed to Australian Aborigines, but other forms are found amongst peoples of North East Africa, Arizona Indians and in India. It comes in many shapes and sizes depending on its geographic/tribal origins and intended function. The most recognisable type is the returning boomerang which, when thrown correctly, travels in a curved path and returns to its point of origin. Other types of boomerang are of the non-returning sort, and indeed, some are not thrown at all but are used in hand-to-hand combat by Aboriginal people. Boomerangs can be variously used as hunting weapons, percussive musical instruments, battle clubs, fire-starters, decoys for hunting waterfowl, and as recreational playthings. The smallest boomerang may be less than 10 cm from tip-to-tip, and the largest over 2 metres in length. Tribal boomerangs may be incised and/or painted with designs meaningful to its maker. Most boomerangs seen today are of the tourist or competition sort, and are almost invariably of the returning type.

'To boomerang' has entered the English language, meaning akin to 'backfire' as in: 'this plan could very well boomerang on us'. This term has also been used to signify young adults who temporarily return home to live with their parents after several years away in a job or college, often for financial reasons.

Contents
1 History
2 Competitions and records
2.1 Events
2.2 World records
3 Design
4 Basic throwing instructions
5 Trivia
6 Boomerangs in Fiction
7 Boomerangs in Video Games
8 Boomerang quotes
9 Related terms
10 Further reading
11 Related links




History
Boomerang-like devices, including hunting sticks, have been used all over the world for hunting, religious and recreational activities. Their origin is still not fully clear. Research has shown that ancient tribes in Europe used special throwing axes. Also, in ancient Egypt a special type of stick was exclusively used by the pharaohs for hunting birds. However, the world famous "country of the boomerang" is Australia, where the Australian Aborigines have used both boomerangs and hunting sticks for thousands of years. The name of the boomerang comes from the Indigenous Australian Turuwal tribe of Aborigines who lived south of Sydney, Australia.

Modern sports boomerangsNote that the word "boomerang" automatically implies it is returning; a hunting, or throwing, stick (called a "kylie" by boomerang enthusiasts), is a different thing, and the two terms should not be used interchangeably. There is little to no evidence that returning boomerangs were ever used as hunting tools.[citation needed]

Today, boomerangs are most often used as sporting items. There are different types of throwing contests: accuracy of return; aussie round; trick catch; maximum time aloft; fast catch; and endurance (See below). The modern sport boomerang (often referred to as a 'boom' or 'rang'), is made of Finnish birch plywood, hardwood, plastic or composite materials and comes in many different shapes and colors. Most sport boomerangs typically weigh less than 100 grams, with MTA boomerangs (boomerangs used for the maximum time aloft event) often under 25 grams.


Competitions and records
In international competition, a world cup is held every second year, with teams from Germany and the United States dominating international competition. The individual World Champion title was won in 2000, 2002 and 2004 by Swiss thrower Manuel Schütz, in 2006 Fridolin Frost from Germany has won the title, Manuel Schütz finishing third.


Events
In the U.S., most competitions are comprised of six standard events as follows:

Accuracy 50/100: Boomerangs are thrown from the center of a bullseye and points are awarded based on where they land. The scores from either five (Accuracy 50) or ten throws (Accuracy 100) are then added.
Aussie Round: Boomerangs are thrown from the centre of a bullseye and points are awarded both for where they are caught within the bullseye and for how far they travel (up to 50 meters). The scores from five throws are added.
MTA 100: In MTA, or Maximum Time Aloft, boomerangs are thrown and must be caught within a 100 meter diameter circle. Generally, times are added from the best three of five throws.
Trick Catch: A series of progressively difficult trick catches is made with one boomerang, then with two simultaneously.
Fast Catch: Five consecutive throws and catches are made from the center of the bullseye in the shortest amount of time possible.
Endurance: As many consecutive throws and catches are made from the center of the bullseye as possible within five minutes.
Other events are possible such as long distance, GLORP (similar to basketball's HORSE), or juggling among others.

World records
(October 2005)

Discipline Result Name Year Tournament
Accuracy 100 97 points H.G. Hoffmann / Thomas Szartowicz (D) 2005 Lausanne (CH)
Accuracy 50 68 points Thomas Stehrenberger (CH) 2001 Lausanne (CH)
Aussie Round 96 points Fridolin Frost (D) / John Flynn (USA) 2005 Lausanne (CH) / Delaware (USA)
Endurance 81 catches Manuel Schütz (CH) 2005 Milano (I)
Fast Catch 14,60 s Adam Ruhf (USA) 1996 Emmaus (USA)
Trick Catch/Doubling 390 points Manuel Schütz (CH) 2004 Milano (I)
Consecutive Catch 1297 catches Manuel Schütz (CH) 2005 Aalen (D)
MTA 100 104,87 s Eric Darnell (USA) 1997 Portland (USA)
MTA unlimited 190.2 s Arnaud Tribillon (F) 2005 Dijon (F)
Long Distance 238 m Manuel Schütz (CH) 1999 Kloten (CH)

None-discipline record: Smallest Boomerang: Sadir Kattan of Australia in 1997 with 48 mm [1.8 in] long and 45 mm [1.77 in] wide.


Design
Boomerangs for sale at the 2005 Melbourne ShowA returning boomerang is a propeller. Though it is not a requirement that the boomerang be in its traditional shape, it is usually flat. A falling boomerang starts spinning and most then fall in a spiral. When the boomerang is thrown with high spin, the wings produce lift. Larger boomerangs are used in hunting, thus they drop on the ground after striking the target. Smaller ones are use in sport, and are the only boomerangs that return to the thrower. Because of its rapid spinning, a boomerang flies in a circular pattern rather than a straight line. It naturally returns to its starting point unless all spin is eaten up.

Now in more detail:

Returning boomerangs consist of two or more arms or wings, connected at an angle. Each wing is shaped as an airfoil, air travels faster over one surface of an airfoil than the other, as it follows the longer path, thus creating lift, along what is roughly a plane which intersects the airfoil at a near right angle along the long axis of the wing.

These wings are set so that the lift created by each wing opposes the lift of the other, but at an angle such that the flight pattern is constantly shifted as the forces of lift, drag, speed, rotational inertia etc. 'attempt' to reach equilibrium, see Boomerang engineer.

This is what makes the boomerang 'return gracefully to the thrower, fluttering to a stop in his hand'... when thrown correctly. This is also what makes the boomerang 'rocket straight up into the air before plunging to its shattered doom'... when thrown incorrectly. With the exception of long-distance boomerangs, they should not be thrown sidearm or like a frisbee, but rather almost vertically.

Fast Catch boomerangs usually have three symmetrical wings (in the planform view), whereas a Long Distance boomerang is most often shaped very similar to a question mark. Maximum Time Aloft boomerangs have one wing considerably longer than the other. This feature, along with carefully executed bends and twists in the wings, help to set up an 'auto-rotation' effect to maximize the boomerang's hover-time in descending from its highest point in the flight.

Prominent boomerang designer/builders include Bob Burwell and Tony Butz from Australia, Rusty Harding from the USA, Jerri Leu from Brazil and others.

Answer 2

A boomerang is shaped much like a wing, and as a result it generates lift as it moves through the air. A boomerang when thrown properly is made to spin at an angle such that the top of spin moves faster through the air than the bottom of the spin, this causes the boomerrang to accelerate more at the top than at the bottom, and combined with the angle it is thrown at it moves in an arc, thrown with enough force and at the right angle it will complete this arc and return to the person that threw it. If thrown into the wind the arc will be sharpest when the boomerang is furthest from the thrower, and so will return from appoximately the same direction it was thrown in. but it will never go straight out and come straight back as depicted in film.

Answer 3

Most boomerangs that are designed to return to the thrower are made of two wings brought together with a slight twist at the junction. The wing design (like an airplane wing) causes the necessary lift to make the boomerang sail through the air. The return is caused by the slight variation in wind speed between the two wing pieces. The result is a constant force to either the left or the right which makes the boomerang turn as it moves through the air.

Answer 4

The throw produces the thrust. Wings produce lift. The spinning produces gyroscopic stability. The lift and the spinning create gyroscopic precession that turns it until it is gently hovering in.
So next time you are throwing boomerangs and making momentary sculptures in the sky, consider the science involved, and envision Stone Age man working through technology that wouldn't be fully understood for thousands of years.

Answer 5

One side of a boomerang is shaped similar to an airoplane wing so if thrown correctly the air will flow over it causing it to fly in an arc and therefore come back to its starting point if it does not it's a stick.

Answer 6

A boomerang's extraordinary flight is
governed by centrifugal force;

when thrown, it spins ,
the shape causes it to return in the direction,
from which it was first thrown .
( it comes back on itself )

I t is an Aboriginal invention ,
made with great skill and accuracy,
designed to hunt game .

It is made out of polished hard wood .
Its is roughly triangular in shape

>^,,^<

Answer 7

Why a boomerang boomerangs
by Jim Mayfield

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To fully understand what makes a boomerang work, it is necessary to understand the basic principles of lift and flight as well as two other laws of physics. Lift is important because a boomerang is simply two airplane wings joined in the middle. The other two principles involve the spinning of the boomerang and how that spinning creates the return.

Aborigines are credited with the invention of the returning boomerang and the oldest one found in Australia is around 14,000 years old. The best theories surrounding the subject are that returning boomerangs accidentally evolved from the non-retuming hunting throw sticks. Returning boomerangs were most likely use for sport and recreation, but a large returner could easily injure a small animal, take out a bird in flight (with an incredibly lucky throw) or be used as a decoy to draw in birds and then net them.

Boomerangs are a wonderful fusion of Stone Age man and Space Age Technology.
MAIN FORCES OF FLIGHT:
LIFT - THRUST - DRAG
lst law governing lift is NEWTONS 3RD LAW OF MOTION:
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

This law implies that a wing is just an incline plane. So when you give it thrust, that deflects the air down, which in turn deflects the wing up. The air hitting the underside of the wing creates 30% of the lift of a wing. In the case of an airplane the thrust is obviously produced by the engines. In the case of boomerang the throw produces the thrust.
2nd law governing lift is BERNOULLI'S LAW:
An increase in air speed
reduces the static pressure.

Hold a strip of paper in your hand, let it hang down then blow over the top. Air produces roughly 14 pounds of pressure on every object from every direction. The paper rises, because the air pressure on top is reduced and the air pressure pushing up on the bottom is the same.
As the air moves across the wing of a plane it has farther to go over its curved surface than it does it's flatter underside. The air needs to meet at the same time on the other side, so it speeds up over the top. As it moves faster over the top than it does on the bottom it creates less downward air pressure. Bernoulli's law produces 70% of the lift of a wing.

You may be asking why the air needs to reach the back of the airfoil at the same time. Air is a fluid and occupies space - if you push a basketball down into a tub of water, the water level throughout the tub rises because the ball is taking up space. An airfoil is creating a similar effect in the air.

The preceding laws plus gyroscopic stability and gyroscopic precession complete the science of a returning boomerang.

Gyroscopic stability is something everyone has experienced. Try balancing on a bicycle without rolling forward and you understand the stability of spinning wheels. We have all spun a gyroscope or top, the simple act of spinning it creates stability. That gyroscopic motion keeps rockets on course and bicycles upright. It is the same spinning motion that gives the boomerang stability in the air.

Gyroscopic precession is definitely more involved and the short version (without any math) is: As the boomerang spins, the wing going over the top creates more lift.


This increased lift at the top of the circle begins turning the boomerang and it begins its return. As the speed of the flight decreases these forces decrease which result in finally laying the boomerang flat as it hovers in for an easy catch. For a quick simple example take a bicycle wheel off your bike and hold it by the axle while spinning the wheel. Turn it slightly and feel the force.

The very thing that creates lift, also creates drag. Flying an airplane especially landing and taking off, is a delicate balance of controlling lift and drag. At boomerang tournaments you will see boomerangs with holes drilled in them, rubber bands wrapped around the wings, spoiler flaps and coins taped on the wings. These things create drag to produce different effects in the flight like reducing the hover or keeping the flight lower. Controlling the lift using drag on a boomerang is also a delicate balance and something of an art. To boomerang fanatics DRAG is not a four letter word, it's a necessity.

The throw of a boomerang is an overhand throw exactly like throwing a football and at the moment of release the boomerang should be more or less straight up and down. The rate of spin of the boomerang is much more important to a good flight than a hard toss. To create lots of spin think of the action as an exaggerated knock on a door, or cracking a whip. The uninitiated thrower always thinks it's a sidearm toss, but because of the physics principles we just discussed, a boomerangs flight is perpendicular to the plane of the boomerang so it must be an overhand throw to produce the round returning flight. A sidearm throw will produce a straight up flight with a crashing return, usually resulting in a broken boomerang.


So why does a boomerang boomerang?

The throw produces the thrust. Wings produce lift. The spinning produces gyroscopic stability. The lift and the spinning create gyroscopic precession that turns it until it is gently hovering in.
So next time you are throwing boomerangs and making momentary sculptures in the sky, consider the science involved, and envision Stone Age man working through technology that wouldn't be fully understood for thousands of years.

Answer 8

It boomerangs back to you

Answer 9

1. hold it in ur hand at one end 2. piff the bugga as hard as u can. 3. hit the deck as it swings round n heads back for u. 4. Swear profusely as u dust urself off n hope to hell it hasn't got enuf moment to come round for another go. Good luck n happy concussion

Answer 10

Good question! I have thrown them, and can make them return, but I have always been able to do the same with a Frisbee - I caqn throw the really far, and they come right back to me, I don't even have to take one step to make the catch. You just have to put the right amount of wrist-break into it.

Answer 11

you throw it thus.. ( >>> holding at the bottom.. The flat surface facing outward of desired arc.. the boomarang is shaped with a twist so that it flies in an arc...