Do boomerangs return when thrown in zero-gravity? Japanese astronaut Takao Doi will soon find out by throwing some around inside the International Space Station.
Space boomerangs to be tested aboard ISS
When the Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on March 11, Doi will be carrying a pair of paper boomerangs presented by Yasuhiro Togai, a 2006 world boomerang champion and space enthusiast from Osaka. Togai, who long wondered how boomerangs would fly without the downward pull of gravity, suggested Doi conduct boomerang experiments in space after they met several years ago. Doi agreed, and Togai taught him how to throw. Togai believes the space boomerangs will spiral up and away without returning, but he says he is looking forward to the results.
[Source: Yomiuri]
Cem
They never come back.
[]Martijn
They won't come back.. it's air resistance and pressure that bends the path of a boomerang. You give these things a path and they'll just keep on going.
[]But when you make money throwing around some boomerangs in space.. I guess you're not complaining! ;)
Mike
Well, they didn't say no air. Just no gravity. (It'll come back but about 10' over his head, if there's enough room)
[]Mir
well...if we didn't test even the smallest things there would be no..hum..evolution or something :P
[]Julie
AFP article. It worked:
[]http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i2n44DP0PaB-TdrZWh5J23O3wjsw
Tibor
This has been the third time a boomerang has been thrown in space now.
[]Takao Doi just confirmed what french astronaut Jean Francois Cleroy found in 1997 (on MIR) and German Astronaut Ulf Meerbold found in 1992 (on Spacelab).
T
Well, how did it go?
[]jurgen
well?!?!?!?!?!?!? did it come back?
[]luke
Not going to work..
[]ARNOLD YOUPORK
of course it will work, gravity has nothing to do with the lift that the airfoils create, and it did work so suck it you idiots that said it wouldn't... your dumb
[]ARNOLD YOUPORK
IT WILL WORK, IT DID WORK, YOU PEOPLE THAT SAID IT WOULDN'T ARE DUMB, THE AIRFOILS STILL CREATE A HIGH AND LOW PRESSURE FIELD WHICH IS WHAT MAKES IT RETURN, IT PROBABLY WORKS BETTER WITH NO GRAVITY IF ANYTHING
[]BG3000
It came back! But I think the claim is half false. You see, it was conducted all 3 times within an air filled vessel(gravity absent). Gravity is semi irrelevant to the function of a boomerang. Im pretty sure if the boomerang was thrown outside of the space staion it would not return. Thats a good experiment, try it on the surface of the moon.......fail! :)
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