The Science Of Arit Toys Such As The Frisbee And Whiffle Ball
Physics principles commanding our toys to behave the way they do are largely taken for granted.
For example, Wiffleball enthusiasts are generally content with the eccentricities displayed by Mr. Wiffle. Mr. Wiffle's many idiosyncrasies are accepted, even encouraged, without recommending Mr. Wiffle for analysis.
The same is true of Mrs. Frisbee.
Not many college freshman on Spring Break are particularly interested in charting the interactions of wind and momentum that result in the spectacular flight of Mrs. Frisbee. Analysis would serve to endanger the spirit of abandon for which Frisbee players are famous. This is especially true should analysis commence during periods dominated by surf, sand and sun.
For more wizened, not to say older, citizens, whose toys tend toward larger fair (for example, sailing vessels), so long as general principles are understood, it is unnecessary for neighborhood admirals to be aware of the sometimes counterintuitive physics principles impacting their crafts. For example, it is possible to harness the power of wind to sail a vessel at rates faster than available air speeds, even when sailing directly against the wind in calm water. The key in this situation is to take advantage of all three dimensions of space. Enough for now. In order to build audience tension, we will save the odd principles surrounding sailing for another time. When the occasion is appropriate, and demand at its peak, we will present, center stage, the physics of angular sailing wind pressures. We are confident that critics will award that performance five stars.
Today, we will focus on Mr. Wiffle and Mrs. Frisbee in that order, principally because they are more easily classified as toys in the sense most people prefer to use the term. In addition, using the physics of these simpler toys as a base, we will then be better prepared to move on to bigger game later.
First up then is Mr. Wiffle.
The story of the Wiffle Ball is warm-hearted and appealing.
Back in the 1830's, the town council of Cooperstown, New York, the site of the future National Baseball Hall of Fame, passed a new ordinance. "From this date, baseball is to be restricted to areas outside the town limits."
Cooperstown shop owners had been complaining that they were all too often being separated from hard earned profits as baseballs gracefully entered their shops through other than their front doors. These shop owners had inadvertently served to define a problem that would trouble baseball enthusiasts for more than 120 years before it was finally resolved; the problem being how to enjoy a good game of baseball in a populated area without turning buildings into structures resembling Dresden or London during WWII.
Fast forward to 1953.
David A. Mullany, the 13 year old son of David N. Mullany, a former semi-pro pitcher, was using a perforated plastic golf ball to play his favorite game, baseball, in his suburban back yard.
The ball wouldn't go very far, and it wasn't breaking anything, but, at the same time, it wasn't much fun. Try as he might, David A. couldn't make the ball curve. David A. was throwing his arm out trying.
David N., concerned about his son's arm, began experimenting with round plastic molding rejects that had been intended to be used as packaging for Coty perfumes. The elder Mullany procured these container rejects through a friend who worked at the nearby cosmetics factory.
By cutting holes in the rejects (after dozens of tries and configurations), the round containers curved beautifully, and they wouldn't break anything either, since, on impact with solids, the molding would compact nicely, thus saving the object struck from damage.
After many marketing struggles, David N. convinced Woolworth's to promote the ball. He did this by throwing a professional fast ball against a skeptical toy buyer's office window. The buyer blanched, recovered, and then purchased Wiffle Balls.....lots of them.
The Wiffle Ball is still going strong today, now over 55 years later:
The physics upon which the performance of the Wiffle Ball relies was debated for some time.
Today, most physicists believe that the gyrations of the Wiffle are due to what is called the "Coanda Effect," which says that a moving fluid (gas or liquid) stays with the contours of the surface of an object. In the case of a major league curve ball, the forward spinning side of the ball encounters the headwind and loses energy. The ball displaces air toward the slower (forward spinning) side, so the air displaces the ball toward the backward spinning side. Curve...Strike.
With the Wiffle Ball, being much lighter than a baseball, it lacks the angular momentum necessary to keep spinning without help from an additional force. The famous Wiffle slots provide the additional force in the form of increased drag. As the Wiffle is pitched, the air moves into and out of the slots. This action slows that side of the ball and causes the ball to curve toward that side....a different principle, but effective nonetheless.
Next on today's agenda is Mrs. Frisbee.
The story of the Frisbee is equally fraught with twists and turns.
The Frisbie (original spelling) Baking Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut was a happy multi-generational operation. The Frisbie family had been producing pies since 1871. But it was in 1905 that the Frisbie toy adventure began.
At lunch and break times, Frisbie factory employees would take a few pie tins and toss them hither and thither, a truly happy sight, although more dangerous than the later Frisbee toys, since the workers were using metal (tin) disks, disks capable of leaving rather large cuts on appendages if caught awkwardly.
However, happy factory workers will be happy factory workers, and a few lost appendages were not to be used as excuses for foregoing lunchtime frivolity, especially when there were female coworkers to impress.
Hearing of the Frisbie factory employees and their tin plate exploits, the nearby students of Yale, enthusiastic consumers of Frisbie pies, began using the pie tins in imitation of the factory workers. Happy Yalies will be happy Yalies, especially when there are local co-eds to impress.
The fashion quickly spread to other colleges, including Holy Cross, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown and others.
In the mid 1940's, Walter "Fred" Morrison and Warren Franscioni decided to take advantage of the interest in Frisbie tin throwing, forming a company called PIPCO, which stood for Partners in Plastic Company.
When the Roswell New Mexico rumor regarding UFOs began to spread, PIPCO designed a toy that looked very much like a flying saucer.
Unfortunately for PIPCO, the plastic disk did not sell well in toy stores.
In order to remedy this, Morrison and Franscioni decided that demonstrating the toy was necessary.
Woolworth's management was reluctant to allow them to throw the toy in their stores, so a solution was agreed upon. The two partners had a large cage built. Woolworth's provided the space in store, and the two, experts with the disk, demonstrated its functioning in the cage.
Again though, no real progress was made in selling the flying disks.
The PIPCO partnership dissolved without finding a way to power the marketing of the toy.
In the 1950's, Morrison decided to try again. He founded his own company called American Trends, and made a version of the disk that was known as the Pluto Platter Flying Saucer. He sold the disk by mail only.
Concurrently, WHAM-O field personnel got wind of Mr. Morrison's Pluto Platter. WHAM-O was looking for a toy upon which to base a new sport.
WHAM-O changed the name of the Pluto Platter to Frisbee, purposely misspelling the original pie manufacturer's name, so that they, WHAM-O, could own the brand outright.
It was at the dawn of the 1960's that the Frisbee phenomenon really took off.
It is said that over 200 million Frisbees have been sold to date.
The physics of the Frisbee:
When we "impose" forces on spinning objects, the result of that the force is seen 90 degrees away from (downstream from) where the force originated. So, for example, when riding a bicycle with no hands, we can make a right turn by leaning slightly to the right. We apply the force to the top of the wheel, but the force is seen 90 degrees downstream. Otherwise, when we leaned to the right, the bicycle would immediately fall over to the right.
In the same way, when we add spin to a disk, like the bicycle wheel, the effect shows up 90 degrees later in the spin. For a right-hand thrower, the lift shows up 90 degrees downstream in the clockwise direction, or on the right side. Lefties see the left side rise.
We cannot have too much lift though. Too much lift will cause the disk to flip over and crash to the ground.
Thus the Frisbee is designed to reduce or counterbalance the lift on the leading edge of the disk. Frisbees kill some of the lift by having a blunt leading edge. This creates turbulence and reduces lift. However, if one kills too much lift, the disk won't go very far.
The genius of the Frisbee is that its design allows for a balance of lift and drag sufficient so the toy can travel a long way, IF the thrower has mastered releasing the Frisbee at the proper angle, with the proper spin, and with the proper force.
It is the manipulative (athletic) skill of the thrower as he or she works with the laws of physics impacting the Frisbee that created the potential of WHAM-O to design a sport around this toy.
Final Examination: Physics - Question: What are the chances that one person will be able to use a pie plate as the basis for a toy that will go on to sell more than 200 million units? Answer: A pie in the sky.
by: Ron Toy Tech
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