When you go to the beach, or attend a family picnic, you probably bring one of those plastic saucers called Frisbees along. Part of the fun of the day is flying the bright disks through the air. Summertime and Frisbee-playing just seem to go together.
You may find it hard to believe, but when Frisbees were first invented they were kind of a flop. An inventor named Fred Morrison made the first Frisbees after World War II ended. But he called his invention "Morrison's Flyin' Saucer." The earliest ones were made of metal. They were too heavy to fly well. Making the saucer-shaped toys out of plastic worked much better.A California company called Wham-O bought Morrison's invention in 1955. Wham-O also manufactured the Hula Hoop. Wham-O employees called the toy a Pluto Platter. In the '50s Hula Hoops were much more popular than Pluto Platters.
Pluto Platters just didn't catch on. Then the people at Wham-O heard about an East Coast college fad. Kids on college campuses loved playing a game with pie tins from a factory in Bridgeport, Conn. The Frisbie Pie Co. made the pie tins and stamped their name on each one. College kids called their game "Frisbie-ing" after the name on the tins. To keep up with the fad, Wham-O changed the spelling and named its flying saucer toy the Frisbee.
In the 1960s, playing Frisbee caught on. And people have been playing it ever since. Frisbee experts - and there are lots of them - estimate that some 80 million kids and adults have sent Frisbees whizzing and floating through the air. Today, the results of Frisbee tournaments are published in sports magazines. Thousands of people turn out to watch international Frisbee competitions each summer. An experienced Frisbee player can throw the disk more than 200 feet! A champion can send the saucer zooming over 400 feet - although that's a rare feat. People play Frisbee golf and Frisbee soccer. There's also a challenging, football-like game called Ultimate Frisbee.
So how does it work? The secret is in the pushing power of air, combined with the Frisbee's design and the player's throwing technique. Like an airplane, a Frisbee flies because of two forces: lift and thrust. Lift comes from air pressure underneath the Frisbee. A Frisbee is saucer-shaped: smooth curve on top, slightly flat bottom. Scientists call objects shaped this way airfoils. Air that passes above an airfoil moves faster than the air below it.
The faster air is at lower pressure than the slower air under the Frisbee. The higher-pressure air underneath the Frisbee lifts it up. The science of studying air's marvelous ability to lift things that move through it is called aerodynamics. "Aero" means air; "dynamics" means movement.
When an airplane flies, its thrust, or forward movement, comes from its engine. Your skillful toss provides the thrust for a Frisbee flight. Moving forward keeps a stream of air flowing around the Frisbee, providing that lift you just learned about. Only things that are moving can be lifted. They also must be shaped in such a way that lift can happen. You can't throw a round rock and expect it to float gracefully through the air. The thrust is there, but the lift isn't.
A Frisbee floats back to earth after a while because gravity pulls it back down. A force called drag caused by friction in the air also slows the flight down. The saucer's aerodynamic design is what makes it land gently rather than crashing to earth (that is, if you threw it well).
A player makes the Frisbee go straight, skip, hover in the air, or fly straight by controlling the angle of release. The angle of the Frisbee in space determines the rate at which air flows over and under its curved surfaces. Frisbee players like to say "Flat flip flies straight." That means giving the disk a sharp, backhand flip with your wrist. There are lots of other ways to throw the Frisbee. Experiment until you find the throws that work best for you.
- TRY THIS:
Frisbees became popular after college students invented games to play with the flying disks. Players have already come up with Frisbee golf, football and soccer. Can you invent a game using a plastic saucer (it doesn't necessarily have to be a brand-name Frisbee)? If you do, send a description and rules to Catherine O'Neill, c/o HOW & WHY, Universal Press Syndicate, 4900 Main St., Kansas City, Mo. 64112. Make sure your game is safe and fair. Great ideas will be published in a future HOW & WHY column.