Frisbee flight data request (for an IB extended essay)

FIRST General Forum
1

Hello,
I am working on my extended essay this summer. My essay deals in physics, more specifically the flight of a frisbee (or flying disk).

I know many teams out there performed tests on the flight characteristics of our game piece this year. My request is for you to share that data with me. It can be qualitative or quantitative. Both sets of data would be quoted in my conclusion section. The basic idea is to compare my conclusion with data and conclusions generated by a third party.

If I decide to use your data I will send you a PM later in the summer asking for information from which I can write a citation :slight_smile:

Thanks
Garrett

2

This might be a little in depth for high school physics, but see what sense you can make of this paper. It can at least give you a basis of how to calculate theoretical data. I’m sure some people on here can help you through it; or PM me and I can.

As for actually plotting frisbee flight from a robot I can’t help you because I wasn’t heavily involved with a team. Best of luck I’d be interested in reading the paper when you’re done.

3

Thanks!
This is actually quite perfect for what I’m writing. Mine is a little more specific (angle of release vs where the disk lands). This paper looks like it will give me a good reference to compare my results with. I’ll have to give it a close read :slight_smile:

I’ll check and make sure that I am allowed to share my paper (I think I can, but IB is weirdly picky). If I am allowed to I will share it in its entirety, if not then I will still share my results in this thread.

4

The equations in that paper are incorrect. I can elaborate if anyone is interested.

I posted a corrected version here:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2783

5

Thank you Ether,
I’ll read through your paper as well. If I have any questions I’ll post them in this thread.
Elaboration on the equations would be appreciated.

Thanks again,
Garrett

6

Equations 12 and 15 on page 5 of Morrison’s paper are not correct. The X (horizontal) component of force Fx on the frisbee is not equal to F[sub]D[/sub]. The Y (vertical) component Fy is not equal to F[sub]L[/sub]. All the subsequent equations derived from 12 and 15 are therefore not correct.

The correct equations for Fx and Fy are given near the bottom of page 2 of the paper I linked.

7

Thanks again Ether, I’ll keep that in mind as I review the papers.

8

Just a note, as far as our school informed us, EE submissions are property of the IB and aren’t allowed to be published publicly.

9

A team member sent out an email at the beginning of the season to us about the physics of Frisbees. I have not read through every link inside, but in case it may be of help, here is a link to it: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1DcF7WsgVysLXBxMktmSDhYdVE/edit?usp=sharing

10

Thank you Dan. I’ll meander through the links over the weekend :slight_smile:

Garrett

11

Makes sense, I’m going to shoot an email to my school’s IB coordinator and confirm this. The IB has made a lot of changes in the past two months and I want to make sure that I have the proper info.

Thanks for the heads up,
Garrett