Throwing a frisbee (on a conveyor belt?)

[King Herald]

Don't worry, the conveyor belt bit was just a ploy.


My daughter and I bought a Frisbee recently, but when I throw it hard it rotates over and crash lands.

Only when thrown very softly will it stay flat enough to be caught by the young 'un.

So, I deduced that due to the Frisbee spinning quickly air will be passing over one side a lot faster than the other side, ('side' as in left and right, not top and bottom) thus the very law that makes air planes take off will increase the lift, thus producing the death roll/dive into the ground.

So, how do you throw a Frisbee long and flat and far successfully?

[Digger]

I got fed up with standard frisbees as they never flew straight. Buy a 13" Aerobie Pro Ring. The distance that thing can be flung is awesome, and you can tune it to fly straighter. I have three of the things. Great fun!

http://www.play.com/Gadgets/Gadgets/4-/606579/Aero...

Edited by Digger on Sunday 9th August 19:02

[Urban_Ninja]

spin it while throwing.

so as you let go, theres a little flick of the wrist and is flys for miles.

[trooperiziz]

King Herald said:

Don't worry, the conveyor belt bit was just a ploy.


My daughter and I bought a Frisbee recently, but when I throw it hard it rotates over and crash lands.

Only when thrown very softly will it stay flat enough to be caught by the young 'un.

So, I deduced that due to the Frisbee spinning quickly air will be passing over one side a lot faster than the other side, ('side' as in left and right, not top and bottom) thus the very law that makes air planes take off will increase the lift, thus producing the death roll/dive into the ground.

So, how do you throw a Frisbee long and flat and far successfully?

The friction of the spinning disc on one side rather than the other will be minor in the great scheme of things. The frisbee is doing a death roll because it isn't spinning enough. It's the spin that keeps the disc stable and allows it to act as an aerofoil.

[Famous Graham]

trooperiziz said:

It's the spin that keeps the disc stable and allows it to act as an aerofoil.

What, lose two and a half grand on some dodgy strippers?

[North West Tom]

Use old discs/records.

[wiffmaster]

It's all in the wrist. Forget about putting all your arm muscles into throwing it, the secret is to get as much power into the wrist-flick as possible.

Of course, the cheapo fisbees tend to flip however well you throw them. Try an Aerobie as mentioned above (Halfords used to sell them). They go absolutely miles. Make sure you have a huge open space when throwing it at full pelt - climbing up trees to fish them out soon gets tiring!

[OllieWinchester]

Digger said:

I got fed up with standard frisbees as they never flew straight. Buy a 13" Aerobie Pro Ring. The distance that thing can be flung is awesome, and you can tune it to fly straighter. I have three of the things. Great fun!

http://www.play.com/Gadgets/Gadgets/4-/606579/Aero...

Edited by Digger on Sunday 9th August 19:02

This. Aerobies are astonishing. You'll never go back to a normal frisbee again.

[King Herald]

Hmmm, I thought the spinning would create enough gyroscopic force to stop it rotating sideways, so maybe I'm not getting enough spin. But, the faster it goes, the more aerofoil effect it'll have, surely?

Might have to move on to the Aerobie I guess.

[Digger]

You'll love it. Make sure to get the 13" as the 10" one has the traits of a standard frisbee and curves in flight. Oh and buy a spare as you are bound to get one stuck up a tree!

[trooperiziz]

All Frisbee's are not the same http://www.frisbeedisc.com/

The cheapo ones you buy from a crappy shop will all be too light and won't fly straight. You need something weighing at least 160g to fly well. A solid 200g disc will fly fast and long, but can hurt when caught

Go for an official 175g Ultimate Frisbee disc for the best all rounder, only the mince-wristed buy Aerobies

[tribbles]

I play disc golf, and there's different discs depending on what you're doing - the ones with the longest distance are reasonably heavy ("ultra-stable" are the variety). You can also get "putters", ones that corner nicely, and ones that are designed to roll when they land.

Back in my Uni days, we tried playing with (plastic) dinner plates, but they don't have the weight - nor do the ones you buy at the seaside. They're light to prevent injury to catchers.

[s3fella]

With a conventional firsbee, you need more spin on the disc to get over the faster forward speed. So to throw it further, you need to throw harder, and to throw harder, you need to throw it with more spin, (to provide the lift needed to keep it flying).

[King Herald]

tribbles said:

- nor do the ones you buy at the seaside. They're light to prevent injury to catchers.

Well, we bought this one in Barmouth

And even though it is a lightweight 'tourist' model it still skunted over and hit the top of my 7 year olds head with sufficient clonk to draw tears.

I tried not to laugh, honestly, but it was a shot to be proud of; 50 yards out, and bunk, straight vertical descent dead-centre onto her head.

Shouldn't laugh really, she was rather upset.

[Juffled]

I play ultimate frisbee (cue the sniggers) anyway the way to throw it far (approx 80m) is to throw it at an angle, for right handed people if you imagine hands on a clock then you want them at about 07:10, this will keep it flat as you throw it..theres alot of body coiling and movement of shoulders etc like in golf to try and get the arm speed at its max but basically if you throw it out at an angle it will become flat pretty quickly and stay that way for longer without turning over.

You may also have bought a cheap disc/frisbee without much weight in the rim which will not help