Matt Whiting wrote in news:wN7og.35$Pa.5633
@news1.epix.net:

Skywise wrote:
Matt Whiting wrote in news:Fj%ng.29$Pa.4943
@news1.epix.net:

Snipola

Then how do you explain how well a simple flat disk such as a CD will
fly? It certainly has no airfoil shape.


They don't. At least none of the CD's that I've ever thrown went
very far. They all roll immediately and change direction.

I used to work at a CD plant, so I had a few to throw around.

You need better technique. I can get 50' out of a CD. A larger and
heavier thin disk will go a lot farther even.

Well, the clean room was only so big.....

My take on it is that a CD simply has insufficient mass to
maintain gyroscopic stability. If you spin it fast enough,
yes, but by hand it's not easy. If it were metal I'd expect
it to fly just fine.

BTW, the CD's came out of the pressing machine with a small
plug in the center hole that had what amounted to a small
axle through it. This was punched out automatically by the
machinery. But, I had a few sample discs with it still in
place and you could actually make it spin like a top if
you could get it spinning fast enough. I usually used a
blast of compressed air, since it was handy. I mean FAST
fast. Twirling it by hand was not fast enough.

Brian
--
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism
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