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Stone Skipping the Scientific Way

Posted by michael on from the hop-skip-and-jump dept.

Quirk writes "National Geographic has a bit on the scientific analysis of stone skipping. Using a machine launching aluminum disks Lyderic Bocquet, a physics professor at the University of Lyon, and his colleagues discovered the 'magic angle' of 20 degrees as that required to maximize skipping. 'Jerdone Coleman McGhee of Wimberley, Texas, holds the current Guinness Book of World Records title for a 1992 toss that yielded an impressive 38 bounces across the Blanco River in central Texas'"

3 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Umm why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why do a scientific analysis of something when you ignore the #1 variable: The Stone.

  2. Stone initial conditions? by mod_parent_down · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The article mentions varying the initial conditions of release angle, velocity, angular velocity, but never talks about using different shapes of stones (discs).

    Any disc golfer or ultimate frisbee player can tell you that changing the shape or weight of your disc can very significantly affect its dynamics. It could be that they've only found the ideal release conditions for the particular disc they were testing with.

  3. Re:Proving yet again.... by CodeMunch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It isn't entirely uselsss. "skipping stones" was the tech behind the bouncing bombs in WWII that the Allies used to destroy German dams to deprive their industry of water. A couple weeks ago there was a great documentary about it on t.v. but i can't find a link - wuz on discovery or history channel i think - might have been one of those "dangerous jobs" shows. The bombs would bounce across the water & timed so that they would sink when they got up close to the dam and then detonate deep under water against the structure. Unfortunately, my words do not do the program justice.