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The mystery of the skipping stone

  • IGFL, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1
  • Aix-Marseille Université

Research output: Contribution to specialist publicationArticle

Abstract

The research has been conducted on repeatedly bouncing of the stone, when it is thrown across the surface of a lake and how many bounces can it perform. The phenomena of stone skipping can be understood using a number of tools and concepts from physics, such as hydrodynamics, elasticity, and capillarity. The experiments have shown that a bouncing stone must spin with a certain minimum rotational velocity to be stable. This stabilization is known as the gyroscopic effect, which states that stone must have minimum spin velocity roughly equal to the inverse of the collision time, to remain stable. This theory is applicable from spinning tops to the gyroscopes found on spacecraft.

Original languageEnglish
Pages29-31
Number of pages3
Volume19
No.2
Specialist publicationPhysics World
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2006
Externally publishedYes

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