Shooter Track Material - grippy or slick?

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Ether

You've got that backwards. You want the rail to be grippy if you want greater spinning.




That's backwards too. If the frisbee grips the track without slipping, your exit speed will be limited to half the tangential speed of the wheel, but you'll get the greatest spin.

No if the rail is slick the Frisbee will spin more and it's exit speed is lower. The slick rail allows the Frisbee to spin without moving down the track while the grippy rail causes it to advance at 1/2 the tangential speed of the shooter wheel (assuming no slip between the Frisbee and wheel). This is based not only on my gut feeling but our prototyping.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Mr V

The slick rail allows the Frisbee to spin without moving down the track

Hmm. Got an video? I'd like to see that.

[IndySam]

No I'm with Ether, if the frisbee is against a slick surface it will slide along that surface and not get as much spin. If the surface is sticky it is forced to spin because it can't slide.

In all our testing the sticky surface always spins more and gets more distance than a slick surface.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by Mr V

No if the rail is slick the Frisbee will spin more and it's exit speed is lower. The slick rail allows the Frisbee to spin without moving down the track while the grippy rail causes it to advance at 1/2 the tangential speed of the shooter wheel (assuming no slip between the Frisbee and wheel). This is based not only on my gut feeling but our prototyping.

This is going to require some hard data before I take it as fact.
Video, Chronograph, anything with solid numbers.

I'm only challenging this statement because it is opposite of what our analysis showed.

Originally Posted by IndySam

No I'm with Ether, if the frisbee is against a slick surface it will slide along that surface and not get as much spin. If the surface is sticky it is forced to spin because it can't slide.

In all our testing the sticky surface always spins more and gets more distance than a slick surface.

Exactly!

The spin causes the Frisbee to fly more stably and for a greater distance because of that stability. "Muzzle velocity" is not the only factor involved with Frisbee flight. Try hitting it with a tennis racket. You'll see very quickly the impact spin has on the flight of the disk.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by IndySam

No I'm with Ether, if the frisbee is against a slick surface it will slide along that surface and not get as much spin. If the surface is sticky it is forced to spin because it can't slide.

In all our testing the sticky surface always spins more and gets more distance than a slick surface.

Originally Posted by billbo911

This is going to require some hard data before I take it as fact.
Video, Chronograph, anything with solid numbers.

I'm only challenging this statement because it is opposite of what our analysis showed.



Exactly!

The spin causes the Frisbee to fly more stably and for a greater distance because of that stability. "Muzzle velocity" is not the only factor involved with Frisbee flight. Try hitting it with a tennis racket. You'll see very quickly the impact spin has on the flight of the disk.

I wish I had video that I could share, unfortunately I am a "floater" mentor this year helping the various sub-teams as needed. So despite multiple suggestions to video each of the changes that were made, so we could analyze them in slow motion, only a few cell phone shots were taken. . The lead mentor for our shooter team did not think there was any value in taking detailed video (nor making sure that the results of each change were recorded). Those few cell phone shots that were taken were always focused on where the disc was going, not the interaction between the wheel, disc and fence, nor did anyone describe the shooter's exact configuration during that shot.

The other thing to consider is a linear shooter vs a curved shooter will react differently since the force vectors are at different angles to the path of the disc.

[slijin]

Originally Posted by Mr V

No if the rail is slick the Frisbee will spin more and it's exit speed is lower. The slick rail allows the Frisbee to spin without moving down the track while the grippy rail causes it to advance at 1/2 the tangential speed of the shooter wheel (assuming no slip between the Frisbee and wheel). This is based not only on my gut feeling but our prototyping.

Did your prototyping consider compression? When we say "grippy," we're really just referring to the friction between the disc and the rail.