The Paper Boomerang Book: Build Them, Throw Them, and Get Them to Return Every Time
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The Paper Boomerang Book: Build Them, Throw Them, and Get Them to Return Every Time
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Overview
When it comes to lightweight avionics, there's no beating a paper boomerang. Let all the others chase after their dull folded airplanes--you can now build a flying device that comes right back to you, every time! And unlike expensive, heavy wooden boomerangs, you won't endanger windows and skulls with paper boomerangs.
The Paper Boomerang Book is the first-of-its-kind guide to this fascinating toy. Expert Mark Latno not only tells you how to build, perfect, and troubleshoot your paper boomerang, but about the 20,000-year history of the device, including Egyptian throwing sticks found in pharaoh's tombs, and the physics behind their circuitous flights. And once you've mastered the basic throw, return, and catch, it's on to more impressive tricks--the Behind-the-Back Toss, the Boomerang Juggle, the Under-the-Leg Catch, and the dreaded Double-Handed, Backward, Double-Boomerang Throw.
For those who don't have the luxury of the wide-open outback on a clear Australian day, author Latno includes plans for Little Dragons, miniature versions of the paper boomerang that can be used indoors in almost any sized room, rain or shine.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781613742570 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Chicago Review Press, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 06/01/2010 |
| Series: | Science in Motion Series |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 128 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
| Age Range: | 9 - 12 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Paper Boomerang Book
Build Them, Throw Them, and Get Them to Return Every Time
By Mark Latno
Chicago Review Press Incorporated
Copyright © 2010 Mark LatnoAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61374-257-0
CHAPTER 1
A Brief History of Boomerangs
Origins
The exodus of modern man, Homo sapiens sapiens, from Africa is now thought to have taken place around 90,000 years ago. For about 20 percent of that time — approximately 20,000 years — humans probably have been making boomerangs. If the artifact discovered in the mountains of southern Poland in 1985 by Pawel Valde-Nowak and his colleagues from the Polish Academy of Sciences is a boomerang — and they are convinced that it is — then humans have been making boomerangs for a very long time. Valde-Nowak and his colleagues found the crescent-shaped piece of mammoth's tusk along the Bialka River in the Tatra Mountains, which lie between Poland and Slovakia. On the same mountain slopes where winter athletes now sweep down on their high-tech skis, the ancients once fashioned this boomerang. This marvel is an example of one type of boomerang: the nonreturning boomerang.
Nonreturning boomerangs — also known as throwing sticks or kylies, as some of the Australian Aborigines called them — have been found all over the world. They were used for hunting and could travel long distances, easily exceeding 150 yards. The tomb of King Tutankhamen (who died more than 3,000 years ago) held another example of this form of boomerang. It is slender and resembles a curved rib. Egyptian throwing sticks were between 10 and 25 inches long and weighed between 2 and 9 ounces. They were used to kill small prey, such as birds. Ancient Egyptians thought the boomerangs could be used in the afterlife to thwart evil spirits who were thought to appear as birds and harm the dead. But the king was well protected: Tutankhamen was an avid duck hunter, and he too used throwing sticks. He was buried with many well-preserved samples of them. The image below depicts ancient Egyptians duck hunting in the marshes in the 15th century B.C. The photo was taken inside the tomb of Nakht, an Egyptian official, who was buried at the Theban Necropolis on the west bank of the Nile River. The ancient Egyptians also used a hieroglyph in their writing system that resembled a throwing stick.
Native Americans of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, including the Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, and Paipai Indians, had similar throwing sticks, called rabbit sticks, for hunting small prey. These devices have also been found in India, Europe, North Africa, Canada, Indonesia, and Australia. They also have been found in Iraq along the upper Tigris River, where they were used by the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.
Excellent examples of wooden nonreturning boomerangs have been nicely preserved in peat bogs across Europe (and possibly a few in Australia), along with some unlucky men and women who fell in with them. Some of these European bog boomerangs date back to approximately 3000 B.C. The oldest physical evidence of boomerangs in Australia was found at Wyrie Swamp in 1973 by Hans van Schaik, the owner of the bog. He had the good fortune of being hospitalized with a kidney stone in the same room with Roger Luebbers, an archeologist. When van Schaik told Luebbers what he had found, Luebbers started digging. The boomerangs found at Wyrie date back to 8000 B.C. The boomerang shown below is 26.7 inches long and weighs 0.8 pounds. This type of throwing stick was used for hunting and fighting.
As for returning boomerangs, other ancient peoples may have had such devices, but the strongest evidence for their place of origin is in Australia. The indigenous people of Australia have inhabited the continent for approximately 60,000 years, so they had ample time to experiment with both returning and nonreturning boomerangs. Physical evidence of boomerangs in Australia dates back as far as 10,000 years, and since wood does not last forever, the earliest boomerangs may date back further still.
Recent History
In Australia, the first written account of the flight of a returning boomerang was made by Francis Louis Barrallier, a French-born surveyor and engineer who explored Australia for the British at the start of the 19th century. On its Web site (www.boomerang.org.au), the Boomerang Association of Australia quotes Barrallier's journal entry from November 12, 1802: "They throw it on the ground or in the air, making it revolve on itself, and with such a velocity that one cannot see it returning towards the ground; only the whizzing of it is heard."
The origin of the term boomerang can be traced to the Turuwal people, who inhabited the area near modern-day Port Jackson, the harbor of Sydney, Australia. Apparently these people only referred to the returning throwing stick with the word boomerang; they used other words to refer to nonreturning throwing sticks. According to the Boomerang Association of Australia, the first written account of the word — "bou-mar-rang" — was made in 1822.
In the United States in the 1950s, the general public did not think about boomerangs very often; people regarded them mostly as curiosities. But an article in the November 1968 issue of Scientific American magazine — "The Aerodynamics of Boomerangs" by Felix Hess — helped advance their popularity. Hess covered the physics well, and the accompanying photos, which depicted boomerangs in flight, enabled designers to begin thinking about more advanced designs.
In the early 1970s, boomerang expert Benjamin Ruhe gave several lectures and conducted workshops with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Before they left the workshop, attendees were given unfinished boomerangs. Back home, they would carve them using the skills they had learned. Herb Smith, one of the first high-tech designers of boomerangs, attended the 1976 workshop. He is renowned for his advanced designs and long throws, and he inspired a generation of boomerang enthusiasts to perfect their own designs.
Modern Boomerangs
Modern boomerangs, both returning and nonreturning, come in many different shapes. The boomerangs on pages 7–9 are all Australian boomerangs, except for those in the last photo, which are by English boomerang designer Herb Smith.
On the right side of Herb Smith's long-distance boomerang, there are two small circular marks near the tip. Those are weights that were inserted to increase the boomerang's range. The effect of these weights will be discussed in chapter 9, "Boomerang Theory." Also, as you can probably tell, Smith's long-distance boomerang is not made of wood. Modern boomerangs are made of some of the following materials: plywood (Finnish birch, Baltic birch, or marine), thermoplastics (polycarbonate, ABS, or polypropylene), composite materials (carbon fiber, phenolic, fiberglass, paxolin, or Kevlar), and aluminum.
A surprising number of different shapes can be made that fly reasonably well. The professional boomerangs on page 10 show some of the exotic and elegant shapes that modern returning boomerangs can take, but they are only a few of the most common designs. Some boomerangs are shaped like birds, other animals, question marks, or even letters of the alphabet. These MTA ("maximum time aloft") boomerangs are specially engineered to stay in the air for a long time.
These photographs show how far boomerang technology has advanced in the past 20 years. New materials and more aerodynamic forms are being tested to develop boomerangs that will perform even better in the future.
Modern Competition and Records
Professional boomerang championships are a recent occurrence: the first one was held in 1981. Today quite a few more tournaments are held both nationally and internationally.
On March 22, 1997, Sadir Kattan set the world record for flying an incredibly small returning boomerang while competing in the Australian National Boomerang Championship. The boomerang had to go out 20 meters (about 65 feet) and return to a designated spot, called the accuracy circle. His tiny boomerang measured 48 millimeters (1.8 inches) long and 45 millimeters (1.77 inches) wide.
The world's largest returning boomerang was built by Gerhard Walter of Austria and thrown on July 1, 2008. This boomerang, called the Flying Bigfoot Highlander, was 259 centimeters (8.49 feet) from tip to tip, and it weighed 1,092 grams (37 ounces, or 2.3 pounds). At the vertex, where the blades meet, there is a protruding handle. To throw it, Walter holds this handle and cocks the boomerang back until the blade rests against his back, and then he launches it forward. There is a video on the Internet of him flying this and many of his other boomerangs — you can visit my Web site, www.paperboomerangs.com, for a link.
The record for the longest nonreturning boomerang throw was set by David Schummy on March 15, 2005. He threw a lightweight, question mark–shaped boomerang that measured 1,401.5 feet at the Murrarie Recreation Ground in Australia. That's more than a quarter of a mile! There is also a video on the Internet (see www.paperboomerangs.com again for a link) that shows him launching his boomerang and then chasing after it. The problem with a nonreturning boomerang competition is that once the boomerang is thrown, you may never see it again unless you are fast on your feet.
The longest recorded time that a boomerang has stayed in the air was an unofficial record set in 1993 by John Gorsky. His MTA flyer stayed aloft for 17 minutes and 6 seconds. The official record for maximum time aloft was set on February 23, 2008, by Betsylew Miale-Gix, an attorney in Seattle. Her flyer stayed up for 3 minutes and 49.82 seconds.
There are many different types of competitive events in the world of boomerangs: MTA, fast catch (the greatest number of catches in five minutes), trick catch (which could involve, for example, catching the boomerang behind the back, under the leg, or with the foot), and doubling (throwing two boomerangs simultaneously and making the catches in prescribed pairs).
The Internet has many videos of interesting tricks performed with boomerangs. One of the most intriguing is from the German-language television show Wetten, dass ...? ("Wanna Bet?"), one of the top-rated shows in Europe. Ordinary people make a claim that they can perform some difficult or strange task and then demonstrate what they can do. For example, a farmer claimed that he could recognize his cows by the sound they made when chewing apples. Bets are placed by the guests attending the performance — past guests have included Mikhail Gorbachev, Hugh Grant, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bill Gates. On one show, a man came out on the stage wearing a baseball cap with an apple attached to the top. He hurled a three-bladed boomerang over the audience; it zoomed quickly around the room and returned to chop the apple in half. Some have speculated that the apple was sliced before the man came out on stage and was held together by toothpicks. The video, while a bit silly, is still quite amazing, quirky, and delightful.
Today, boomerang associations keep records on the various formal events that take place all over the world. The following is a short list of these organizations:
• Belgian Boomerang Association
• Boomerang Association of Australia (BAA)
• Boomerang Throwing Association of New South Wales (BTANSW)
• British Boomerang Society
• Danish Boomerang Club
• United States Boomerang Association
• Washington Boomerang Club
There are also many Web sites that sell colorful and well-designed boomerangs.
Out of This World
Would you believe that boomerangs have been flown in space? Astronauts have attempted this act on three separate occasions. Of course, since the boomerangs need air to fly, they were thrown inside each astronaut's spacecraft. The first flight attempt was made in January 1992 by the German astronaut Ulf Merbold on Spacelab. The French astronaut Jacques Thomas threw the second one on the Russian Mir Space Station in 1997. But the third flight was the most successful — it was made with a three-bladed boomerang aboard the International Space Station, thrown by the Japanese astronaut Takao Doi on March 18, 2008. The boomerang was specifically designed to fly under zero-gravity conditions. A video of Takao Doi flying this boomerang is available on the Internet; see www.paperboomerangs.com for a link. There were many people who thought that boomerangs would not fly in zero gravity — they were wrong!
The Silent Sport
It is amazing that there has not been greater interest in this fun sport. Some have called it the "silent sport," but boomerangs are such fun that their popularity will continue to grow. The advances in materials and design have made these gadgets easily accessible to anyone wishing to learn how to throw them. As you will soon learn, one of the simplest ways to make boomerangs is to use paper. Paper boomerangs can be crafted quickly and can be specifically designed to fly in rooms of almost any size, from auditoriums to living rooms.
CHAPTER 2Materials
To build a paper boomerang you need the following materials:
• Railroad board
• Scissors
• Yardstick or ruler
• Stapler
• Glue stick
• Pencil
For convenience, you may also want to use the following:
• Small paper cutter
• Large paper cutter (not shown)
The additional materials pictured below are not necessary to construct paper boomerangs that fly well, but they will allow you to experiment with a greater range of materials and improve the look of the boomerangs. These materials are only a small sample of the many different types of materials that can be used to make and adorn paper boomerangs.
In addition to the materials described in this chapter, chapters 11 and 12 have a more detailed list of materials, and a more specific explanation of how they are used. Appendix A (page 133) contains lists of materials and where to purchase them.
Paper
Rigid railroad board is an inexpensive and excellent paper for making boomerangs. When your boomerangs are made from this paper, they will have a sharp, fast flight. You can buy railroad board at many teacher supply stores and art supply stores. Many elementary schools already have this paper in their supply rooms. Get the 6-ply (6-layer) railroad board. It comes in large 22-inch-by-28-inch sheets and is available in many different colors. CAUTION: See the note about "poster board" on page 135.
Strathmore 500 Series 4-ply bristol board comes in 23-inch-by-29-inch sheets. It is an expensive art paper and is carried by major art supply stores. International Paper also makes a variety of papers that are excellent for making paper boomerangs. The online store at www.paperboomerangs.com carries all of the above papers.
All these types of paper have a grain. For each of these types of paper, you must determine in which direction the grain runs on the sheet. For railroad board — depending on the manufacturer and which parent roll the sheet is cut from — the grain can run along either the 28-inch length of the paper or the 22-inch width of the paper.
Determining Grain Direction
You can find out which way the grain runs by using one of two methods:
Method 1: This is the preferred method. It takes a little practice, but it is very easy to learn. Pick up the sheet so that your left hand grasps the left side of the sheet along the longest side — the short side of the paper should be at the top. Your right hand will be on the opposite long side. Flex the sheet back and forth across the width. Feel the resistance of the sheet to this bending. Then repeat this action across the length of the sheet, this time holding onto the short sides. Flex across the width a few times, then flex across the length a few times. Compare the stiffness in both orientations. If the grain runs along the length of the paper (the longer dimension), it will be more difficult to flex across its length. Conversely, if you meet greater resistance when you bend the paper across its width (the shorter dimension), then the grain runs along the width.
Method 2, Part 1: Cut a ¾-inch-by-8-inch test strip, as shown in the photo below, so that the longer cut runs along the 28-inch length of the sheet.
Method 2, Part 2: Pinch the end of the 8-inch strip between your fingers and wiggle it up and down as shown. If it wiggles up and down loosely, the grain must run along the width of the strip. That means the grain also runs along the 22-inch width of the full sheet. Conversely, if the strip is rigid, the grain runs along the 28-inch length of the full sheet.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Paper Boomerang Book by Mark Latno. Copyright © 2010 Mark Latno. Excerpted by permission of Chicago Review Press Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,Copyright Page,
Dedication,
Introduction,
1 - A Brief History of Boomerangs,
2 - Materials,
3 - Quick Construction,
4 - Make a Paper Boomerang,
5 - Throwing the Trainer Boomerang,
6 - Common Problems and Experimentation,
7 - The Little Dragons (Long-Distance Paper Boomerangs),
8 - The Art of Tuning Paper Boomerangs,
9 - Boomerang Theory,
10 - Tricks and Throws,
11 - Artwork and the Paper Boomerang,
12 - Paper Boomerangs of Different Sizes,
13 - Action Shots and Final Notes,
Appendix A - Material Sources and Specifications,
Appendix B - The Best Boomerang Web Sites,
Glossary,