how does a boomerang work well it relies
on three fundamental principles lift
relative velocity and gyroscopic
precession now a traditional Australian
boomerang is basically just two wings
stuck together and both generate lift
that keeps the boomerang in the air but
the thing is as the boomerang is
rotating the top actually rotates with
the direction the boomerang is moving
while the bottom is rotating in the
opposite direction so air flows faster
over the top of the boomerang creating
more lift than over the bottom
so those unequal forces generate a
torque and you might expect that torque
to flip the boomerang over but it
doesn't and that's because the boomerang
is thrown with a very fast spin so that
spin means that the boomerang has
angular momentum a significant amount of
it and if you want to figure out which
direction that is you put your fingers
of your right hand in the direction of
rotation and your thumb points in the
direction of the angular momentum so as
it's spinning that torque actually
changes the angular momentum it changes
the angular momentum in the direction of
the torque and the torque in this case
is back towards me so the angular
momentum is changed to point around at
me which allows this boomerang to
execute its curved path and come back to
where it started
now that phenomenon is known as
gyroscopic precession now if you want to
see an awesome boomerang shot you got to
check out how ridiculous they tried to
split an egg with a boomerang and
they've done lots of other cool tricks
like catching a frisbee from a speed
boat so you've got to check it out and
subscribe to their Channel and then come
back to me and I will explain the
physics of all of it to you
ah
other fun facts about boomerangs
although we usually associate them with
Australia they've also been found in
places like ancient Egypt and Europe and
some of them apparently are non
returning boomerangs and that makes me
ask well what really makes it a
boomerang if it doesn't come back to you
some people call those throwing sticks
which I think sounds like a more apt
name for something that doesn't come
back to you you know we've even tried
boomerangs in space so a boomerang will
still fly it'll still go around even in
zero-g that's pretty incredible that's
physics