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A Wham-O Professional Frisbee

Flying discs (commonly called Frisbees) are disc-shaped objects, which are generally plastic and roughly 20 to 25 centimeters (8–10 inches) in diameter, with a lip. The shape of the disc, an airfoil in cross-section, allows it to fly by generating lift as it moves through the air while rotating. The name Frisbee is a registered trademark of the Wham-O toy company, but is often used generically to describe all flying discs.

Flying discs are thrown and caught for recreation, and as part of many different flying disc games. A wide range of flying disc variants are available commercially. Disc golf discs are usually smaller but denser and are tailored for particular flight profiles to increase/decrease stability and distance. Disc dog sports use relatively slow flying discs made of more pliable material to better resist a dog's bite and prevent injury. Ring shaped discs, known as Aerobies, typically fly significantly farther than any traditional flying disc. There are illuminated discs meant for night time play which use phosphorescent plastic, or battery powered light emitting diodes.

History

People have been throwing such objects for centuries. The earliest known disc object to be thrown around was the chakram, which was used as a weapon in ancient India. In later times, flying discs were used for recreational purposes. The clay target used in trapshooting, almost identical to a flying disc in shape, was designed in the 19th century. The modern day era of flying discs began with the concept of designing and selling a commercially-produced flying disc.

The Frisbie Baking Company (1871–1958) of Bridgeport, Connecticut, made pies that were sold to many New England colleges. Hungry college students soon discovered that the empty pie tins could be tossed and caught, providing endless hours of sport. Many colleges have claimed to be the home of 'he who was first to fling.' Yale College has even argued that in 1820, a Yale undergraduate named Elihu FrisbieTemplate:Fact grabbed a passing collection tray from the chapel and flung it out into the campus, thereby becoming the true inventor of the Frisbie. That tale is unlikely to be true since the words 'Frisbie's Pies' was embossed in all the original pie tins and from them the word 'Frisbie' was coined the common name for the toy. Walter Frederick Morrison claims that it was a popcorn can lid that he tossed with his girlfriend (and later wife) Lu at a 1937 Thanksgiving Day gathering in Los Angeles that inspired his interest in developing a commercially-produced flying disc. In 1946 he sketched out plans for a disc he called the "Whirlo-Way," which in 1948, co-developed and financed by Warren Franscioni, became the very first plastic flying disc—the original Pipco Flyin-Saucer. Morrison had just returned to America after World War II, where he had been a prisoner in the infamous Stalag 13. His partnership with Warren Franscioni, who was also a war veteran, ended in 1950 before their product had achieved any real success.

In 1955, Morrison produced a new plastic flying disc called the Pluto Platter, to cash in on the growing popularity of UFOs with the American public. The Pluto Platter has become the basic design for all Frisbees. Rich Knerr and A.K. 'Spud' Melin were the owners of a toy company called 'Wham-O'. Knerr and Melin also marketed the Hula Hoop, the Super Ball and the Water Wiggle. The pair first saw Morrison's Pluto Platter in late 1955. They liked what they saw and convinced Morrison to sell them the rights to his design. With a deal signed (1/23/1957), Wham-O began production of more Pluto Platters. The next year, Fred Morrison was awarded a patent (Design patent 183,626) for his flying disc. Morrison received over one million dollars in royalties for his invention.

Rich Knerr (Wham-O) was in search of a catchy new name to help increase sales. After hearing about the original use of the term "Frisbie" he gave the disks the trademarkable name Frisbee (which is pronounced the same as "Frisbie"). Sales soared for the toy, due to Wham-O's clever marketing of Frisbee playing as a new sport. In 1964, the first professional model went on sale. Ed Headrick was the sales manager at Wham-O who patented their design for the modern Frisbee (U.S. patent 3,359,678). [1]

Games using flying discs

• Ultimate
• Freestyle frisbee
• Disc Golf - the traditional game of Golf played with flying discs (frisbees) instead of clubs and balls.
• Durango Boot
• Double Disc Court
• Guts Frisbee
• Flutterguts
• Friskee
• Disc dog
• Dodge Frisbee
• Goaltimate
• Schtick
• Fricket, (sometimes called Cups, Suzy Sticks, Frisnok or Disc Cricket)
• Hot Box
• Fris-Nok, the traditional Icelandic-Canadian game.
• Flyer Frizbee
• Frisvee, Frisbee Volleyball.

Physics

Lift is generated in primarily the same way as a traditional asymmetric airfoil, that is, by accelerating upper airflow such that a pressure difference gives rise to a lifting force. Small ridges near the leading edge act as turbulators, reducing flow separation by forcing the airflow to become turbulent after it passes over the ridges.

The rotating flying disc has a vertical angular momentum vector, stabilizing its attitude gyroscopically. Depending on the cross-sectional shape of the airfoil, the amount of lift generated by the front and back parts of the disc may be unequal. If the disc was not spinning, this would tend to make it pitch. When the disc is spinning, however, such a torque would cause it to precess about the roll axis, causing its trajectory to curve to the left or the right. Most discs are designed to be aerodynamically stable, so that this roll is self-correcting for a fairly broad range of velocities and rates of spin. However, many disc golf discs are intentionally designed to be unstable. Higher rates of spin lead to better stability, and for a given rate of spin, there is generally a range of velocities that are stable.

Even a slight deformation in a disc, called a "Taco," as extreme cases look like a taco shell, can cause adverse affects when throwing long range. It can be observed by holding the disc horizontally at eye level and looking at the rim while slowly rotating the disc.

Trivia

• In the animated motion picture The Secret of NIMH, based on the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, the main character's name was changed in post-production from "Frisby" to "Brisby" to avoid potential trademark infringements.
• In the film Back to the Future Part III, Marty McFly throws a metal pie dish at a gunman in order to save Doc Brown's life. He notices the dish is stamped "Frisbie Pie Company".
• Richard Feynman in his book Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! suggests that watching the wobble of a plate tossed in the Cornell University cafeteria stimulated him to develop mathematics that eventually led to his Nobel prize winning work in quantum electrodynamics [2].
• In the M*A*S*H episode "Who Knew?", Charles Winchester throws a frisby at the end of the episode from two children passing it to teach other. He calls it "mindless recreation." Maxwell Klinger was trying to convince him to invest in taking the idea to the United States. Earlier in the episode Klinger was trying to convince him to invest in the hula hoop.

See also

• Disc throws
• Frisbeetarianism
• Chakram
• Aerobie

Further reading

• Flat Flip Flies Straight! True Origins of the Frisbee® Walter Frederick Morrison and Phil Kennedy, Wormhole Publishers, Wethersfield, CT (June 2006), ISBN 978-0-9774517-4-6
• Frisbee, A Practitioner's Manual and Definitive Treatise Stancil E.D. Johnson, M.D. Workman Publishing Company, New York (July, 1975) ISBN 978-0-911104-53-0
• The Official Frisbee Handbook Goldy Norton, Bantam Books, Toronto/New York/London (July, 1972) no ISBN
• Frisbee Players' Handbook Mark Danna, Dan Poynter, Parachuting Publications, Santa Barbara, California (1978) ISBN 0915516195
• Frisbee Sports & Games Charles Tips, Dan Roddick, Celestial Arts, Millbrae, California (March 1979) ISBN 978-0-89087-233-8
• Frisbee by the Masters Charles Tips, Celestial Arts, Millbrae, California (March 1977) ISBN 978-0-89087-142-3
• Spinning Flight : Dynamic of Frisbee, Boomerang, Samara and Skipping Stone, Ralph Lorenz, Copernicus New York, September 2006 ISBN 978-0-387-30779-4

External links

• Ultimate Players Association sports governing body of Ultimate in the USA
• Canadian Players Association sports governing body of Ultimate in Canada
• Freestyle Players Association sports governing body of Freestyle Frisbee in the world
• World Flying Disc Federation international sports governing body for all
• Wham-O Frisbee disc website manufacturer of Frisbee brand flying discs
• UK Ultimate Association
• Professional Disc Golf Association