This project idea comes to you from REACH in Montreal, Quebec. |
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This is the same as what happens to an airplane wing because of how it's shaped. We have all experienced this lift when travelling in a car with our arm out the window. If we tilt our hand up while travelling along, we can feel our hand rising up. Like a wing, our hand is experiencing the force of lift.
It is lift that makes throwing a frisbee different from throwing a ball. Once a ball has left your hand, gravity is the only force acting on it. The force of gravity quickly pulls the ball down. A frisbee, on the other hand, actually flies because, as well as gravity pulling it down, there is lift pushing it up.
It is easier to understand angular, or spinning, momentum if you first understand linear momentum, for objects moving in a straight line. Linear momentum is the product of the mass of an object and its speed. This means that the heavier an object is, or the faster it is moving, the more momentum it has. If something has a lot of linear momentum it's hard to stop. It's a lot easier to stop a truck going at 1 km/h or a fly at 50 km/h than a truck at 50 km/h. It takes a lot of force to stop that fast moving truck.
Just as an object moving in a straight line has linear momentum, an object moving in a circle has angular momentum. The faster an object is moving in a straight line, the bigger the force needed to disrupt it. In the same way, the more spin an object has, the more torque or twist is needed to disrupt it. You can see the effects of angular momentum on a frisbee. The more spin a frisbee has, the harder it is to wobble it. Another example of this is a bicycle. It's very hard to sit on a bicycle that's not moving without falling over! It is a lot easier when the bike is moving because the wheels are spinning. Since they have angular momentum, it is harder to twist the bicycle to the ground.
To investigate how your Floppy Flyer Frisbee flies:
You can learn more about flight here.
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