Posted on 03/22/2008 2:00:04 PM PDT by KevinDavis
TOKYO (AFP) - In an unprecedented experiment, a Japanese astronaut has thrown a boomerang in space and confirmed it flies back much like on Earth.
Astronaut Takao Doi "threw a boomerang and saw it come back" during his free time on March 18 at the International Space Station, a spokeswoman at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said on Friday.
Doi threw the boomerang after a request from compatriot Yasuhiro Togai, a world boomerang champion.
"I was very surprised and moved to see that it flew the same way it does on Earth," the Mainichi Shimbun daily quoted the 53-year-old astronaut as telling his wife in a chat from space.
The space agency said a videotape of the experiment would likely be released later.
Doi travelled on US shuttle Endeavour on the March 11 blast-off and successfully delivered the first piece of a Japanese laboratory to the International Space Station.
I didn’t think they had enough room???
Its a nanorang
Now that I would like to see...
Any physics gurus care to explain how this could happen?
Interesting test of boomerang physics.
There has to be a force to impart energy on for this to work. As long as there is air in the space station, of course the boomerang will work, in any direction thrown, BUT if it is thrown in a complete vacuum, like outside the station.....it will go as far as the energy it was launched with will take it.
Interesting!
And back again.
I’m guessing it was thrown within the station vs on a space walk.
Sorta like a stick
The aerodynmic forces still apply even in zero G of course.
There is simply no gravity to counter against.
I suppose how you throw it would matter consderably, I would be interested if it produced “lift” and rose “up” relative to the way it was thrown. You could counter that by throwing it “down” some so to speak.
Clearly it was producing lift just like on earth to produce a turning trajectory.
I’m pretty sure the effect is dependent on air pressure on various parts of the device, not gravity. Maybe someone who knows what they are talking about will help us out!
Ok, still with me?
Any spinning object is subject to gyroscopic precession. Which simply means that any attempt to move a spinning object is translated at right angles to the original input.
For example - lets say your car is subject to gyroscopic procession (we will ignore the spinning requirement for the time being) and you drive it up on ramp to change the oil. As soon as the front end of the car lifts into the air, the whole car spins 90 degrees to the left and sits sideways across your driveway. Its either that or it flips over on its side, resting on the door forcing you to climb out the passenger window. I'm not sure exactly which way it would go but you get the idea, try and move it one way and gyroscopic precession makes it go another.
With a boomerang, gyroscopic precession makes it turn to the left, causing it to fly in a circle back to the thrower.
Okay, from what I gather looking around a bit, we'll discard the fact that there was any lift... But, it's "gyroscopic precession" would still be there causing it's return...
Don't fully understand why, but, taking this above text into consideration, I do understand where no gravity would not change things, other than it's wing weight needed for this gyroscopic precession...
Still scratchin the old noggin over it...
There's still gravity...just less of it, so to speak, because it decreases as an inverse square. What there isn't is air.
I told those guys it’s too early to take tourists along, but did they listen...
In the absence of air?
If the boomerang was thrown INSIDE the space station - then the author of this article should be fired for inferring it was thrown in SPACE..
A boomerang’s ability to return to the point launched, if thrown properly - is more a function of its aerodynamic design than the level of gravity inside/outside a space station....
In SPACE, absent a “force” acting against the surfaces of a boomerang - it is simply an object thrown with NO aerodynamic ability to “return” to the point launched...
(unless it successfuly completes an orbit!)
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