AY Honors/Ultimate Disc/Answer Key

A Wham-O Professional Frisbee

Frisbee is the most common name for flying discs, which are generally plastic, roughly 20 to 25 centimeters (8–10 in) in diameter, with a lip. They are designed to fly aerodynamically when thrown with rotation and can be caught by hand. The name Frisbee is a registered trademark of the Wham-O toy company, but the term is often used generically to describe all versions of the flying disc.

A wide range of Frisbee (flying Discs) 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. When it was discovered that dogs enjoyed chasing and retrieving the slow-moving discs, special discs were designed with more pliable material that would better resist a dog's bite. Disc dog competitions, in which dogs' disc-catching skills are judged, have become quite popular as well. Ring-like discs shaped like a Saturn's ring, known as Aerobies, typically fly significantly farther than any traditional flying disc. The evolution has continued with the advancement of lighting a flying disc for evening and night-time play. By using a Flashflight disc, players can extend the throw and catch playing time after the sun goes down.

History

The modern day frisbees are developed from the "Flying-Saucer", originally invented by Walter Frederick Morrison and codeveloped and financed by Warren Franscioni in 1948. However, that initial disc was largely unsuccessful. A later model made by Morrison in 1955 and sold as the "Pluto Platter" was bought by Wham-O on January 13, 1957. In the next year, Wham-O renamed the toy "Frisbee", a (probably deliberate) misspelling of the name of the Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, whose pie tins had been used by Yale University students in the campus for similar purposes.

Games using flying discs

• Ultimate
• Beach Ultimate
• Freestyle frisbee
• Guts
• Disc Golf - the traditional game of Golf played with flying discs (frisbees) instead of clubs and balls.
• Durango Boot
• Double Disc Court
• Flutterguts, also known as Flutter Frisbee
• Friskee
• Disc dog
• Dodge Frisbee
• Goaltimate
• Schtick
• Fricket, also known as Cups
• Hot Box
• Suzy Sticks

Physics

The rotating flying disc has angular momentum perpendicular to the horizontal plane, stabilizing the disc's attitude in high-speed flight. 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. 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.

Richard Feynman in his book Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! suggests that watching the wobble of a plate tossed in the MIT cafeteria stimulated him to develop mathematics that eventually led to his Nobel prize winning work in quantum electrodynamics [1]. Frisbee rocks!

See also

• Descriptions of Frisbee throws
• Frisbeetarianism
• In the animated motion picture The Secret of NIMH, the main character's name was changed in post-production from "Frisby" to "Brisby" to avoid potential trademark infringements.

Further reading

• Frisbee, A Practitioner's Manual and Definitive Treatise Stancil E.D. Johnson, M.D. Workman Publishing Company, New York (July, 1975) ISBN 0-911104-53-4
• 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 0-015516-19-5
• Frisbee Sports & Games Charles Tips, Dan Roddick, Celestial Arts, Millbrae, California (March 1979) ISBN 0-89087-233-3
• Frisbee by the Masters Charles Tips, Celestial Arts, Millbrae, California (March 1977) ISBN 0-89087-142-6

External links

• Frisbee, about.com
• Wham-O Frisbee disc website
• UK Ultimate Association
• Ultimate Players Association
• frisbeecollective.com