Abstract

There has been a lot of research done on the regular boomerang but little or none has ever been done on the straight boomerang. This not so popular toy does behave as a boomerang but the physics governing its flight are very different from those governing the regular boomerang's flight. In order to understand what makes the straight boomerang come back, high speed photography was used. It was concluded that the autorotation phenomenon played an important role during the flight. A mathematical model was then developed and the flight dynamics of the boomerang incorporating its actual behavior was simulated using MATLAB. The simulation results obtained were very close to those obtained from experimentation.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Boomerangs--Aerodynamics; Boomerangs--Aerodynamics--Mathematical models; Aerodynamics--Mathematical models; Fluid mechanics--Mathematical models; Rotational motion--Mathematical models

Publication Date

1995

Document Type

Thesis

Department, Program, or Center

Mechanical Engineering (KGCOE)

Advisor

Venkatarman, P.

Comments

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: GV1097.B65 R488 1995

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Download

Share

COinS