Friday, March 29, 2024

Why do beer mugs make a bad frisbee

Must read

Maria Gill
Maria Gill
"Subtly charming problem solver. Extreme tv enthusiast. Web scholar. Evil beer expert. Music nerd. Food junkie."

German researchers studied the aerodynamics of beer flasks made of cardboard and concluded that even a seasoned jug would not be able to fly with them for long.

You will also be interested


[EN VIDÉO] How many bubbles are in a beer mug?
Physicist Gerard Leger-Belair enjoyed observing how bubbles formed and exploded on the surface in a glass of beer.

What are the two essential holiday accessories (apart from lounge chair and jersey bath)? Answer: Frisbee and beer. Unfortunately, one doesn’t replace the other, as a new study has just shown that it investigated whether cardboard coasters can make a good Frisbee. To do this, researchers (naturally German) at the Helmholtz Institute for Radiophysics and Nuclear Physics and the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Bonn built a ship throwing device and conducted a series of experiments designed to studyAero dynamics These mini cardboard discs are 10 cm in diameter.

The beer coaster has been inverted making it unusable as a flying saucer

« You would expect a beer ship to fly the same way a frisbee does, that is, with an extension angular momentum Pointing up or down the stability of the disc, the researchers write in their study published in European Physical Journal Plus. Unfortunately, due to Mass Relatively thin from cardboard, the ship undergoes chaotic rotations about the two axes of the disc In addition, unlike Frisbee which has rounded edges and a coil center of gravity Near its center – which prevents its sudden rotation – the beer ship undergoes modification share, is not in the center of the disc, but is slightly offset from the leading edge. ” This calls for the extension making it unusable as a Flying Layer ‘, the authors testify.

Barely 0.45 seconds of stability

The researchers confirmed the result of their theoretical equations with their device for throwing the two-ship ship mills Electric causes the cardboard disk to accelerate at different speeds and angular moments. Result: whatever LAUNCH TERMS With initials, it always ends up tilting with respect to The axis of rotation vertically, so that it is braked and quickly falls to the ground or rotates in all directions.

Thus the coaster maintains its stability for only 0.45 seconds after launch, versus 0.8 seconds for CD Or 16 seconds for a frisbee. Note that the performance of the Frisbee varies greatly depending on the quality of the launch. ” With a poor launcher, the frisbee will turn into an unsteady state after just 1 second, while a professional bowler will be able to maintain a stable state for a while. Duration much longer ’,” note the authors. However, even an experienced pitcher will not be able to do much with a beer coaster. You can still try to start a contest in camping. Send us your records!

you love Articles and the popular scientific work Who are our journalists? Support us today by joining our Patreon subscriptions!

Two subscription formats are available with the following benefits:

  • « Futura is ad-free »: Take advantage of guaranteed access without advertising on the entire site for € 3.29 per month (+ VAT).
  • « Share in the life of Futura »: In addition to ad-free access, participate in our independent media life (votes, new content, polls, etc.) for € 6.29 per month (+ VAT).

Latest article