What is the distance in flight record for a hand-thrown object? What object was used to set this record? I think I recall hearing that it was a disc golf driver and it would not surprise me if that’s true. I have witnessed golf discs thrown about 500 ft, though I can only throw a maximum of a about 430 ft.
Also, what’s the distance for a foot kicked object? And what was the object used? Soccer ball toe-kick perhaps?
What were the circumstances when the records (such as wind, terrain, etc.) were set? Downhill during a hurricane?
Any help from those of you in Doperland is appreciated. I find that it’s difficult to simply search for this info in a seach engine.
The Aerobie is recognized by Guinness as holding the record of 1333 feet.
I’ve got two (one 10" and the other 13" in diameter), although I haven’t used them in years. I used to play catch with my cousin from time to time, but they can wear you out quickly. Because of the longer flights, a throw that would be aimed a little bit off for a Frisbee would end a hundred feet away from the catcher with the Aerobie. We’d end up tired before too long from frequently running to retrieve it.
It was impressive how much farther it could fly after being used to a Frisbee.
I have to disagree: from this site you can see that the world record of 477m is held by Dave Engvall using a atlatl-thrown dart. I know this because I used to work with Dave, who was also a hell of an engineer, and managed to swing getting a $50k+ SGI workstation on every desktop when that company switched to a parametric solid modeling code. Of course, the company totally tanked about three years later but whatever.
I can see Princhester’s argument here, and also astro’s. Slings give the thrower a mechanical advantage by amplifying the effect of the thrower’s arm on the object. Aerobies take the energy inherent in the throw and make the most of it. Imagine “throwing” a Zeppelin by standing on its mooring pier and shoving really hard. If we allow aerodynamic advantage, then the real winner is going to be something like the helium balloon that I tied a notecard to and released, back when I was in fifth grade. I got a postcard back from New Jersey, and I’m sure someone’s done it better than I did.
If we remove mechanical and aerodynamic advantage, and force the thrower to use a sphere or cylinder, we can probably get to the root of the question. Better yet, let the thrower choose the mass they want to throw and clock it on radar. The release velocity would allow you to extrapolate range in ideal conditions, and I surmise that a baseball pitcher or cricket bowler is going to win.
The atlatl lacks any mechanism to assist throwing; it doesn’t store energy (like a bow) or use some outside source to assist the thrower; it merely uses mechanical advantage to amplify the resultant acceleration of the projectile. By all accepted definitions (that is, by Guinness) it is considered to be hand-thrown.
I agree with Jurph and Astro. I wouldn’t allow flying devices either. With the greatest of respect for Guiness as brewers, I don’t care what their definition is, once you start taking something out of your hand and start using your hand to manipulate something that throws something, it’s not hand thrown.
(1) The object to be thrown must have a circular cross-section perpendicular to the direction of flight – no gliders, no wings, no parachutes, no airfoils.
(2) The thrown object must leave the thrower’s hand(s) in one piece and land in one piece – no slingshots, or atlatls, but the Olympic hammer toss is acceptable.
(3) The thrown object must have a measurable (positive) mass in standard atmosphere – no buoyant objects.
(4) The thrown object must measure substantially the same mass before the throw and after impact – no sacrificial or reaction mass.
[tangential anecdote, possibly apocryphal]There was once a company who decided that a group of employees should be sent to a team-building class. In class the group was broken up into small teams to undertake a cooperative effort to take a letter-size sheet of paper and figure out how it could be sailed through the air for the longest distance. The teams labored to design exotic paper airplanes. However, the winner was the team that crumpled the paper up into a small ball and threw it.[/tangent]
I don’t understand the debate about Aerobies and atlatls. As far as I can tell from the atlatl entry on wikipedia, its a device you use to help throw a spear. An aerobie, however, you throw by hand. It seems clear there’s an important distinction between them, then. In one case, you “throw” with the aid of a device. In the second, you do not.
If you Google “sphere lift spinning” you’ll get page after page of references (mostly abstracts to technical journals) on lift generated by a spinning sphere. Here’s a brief description for the layman (pertaining to the lift of a golf ball):Lift is another aerodynamic force which affects the flight of a golf ball. This idea might sound a little odd, but given the proper spin a golf ball can produce lift. At first, golfers thought all spin was detrimental (not good). However, in 1877, British scientist P.G. Tait learned that a ball, driven with a “backspin” (the top of the ball turning back toward the golfer) actually produces lift.Furthermore, it’s pretty close to impossible to throw a ball without imparting spin, so completely eliminating lift from consideration is really not possible, though I’d agree that lift generated by external forces–like wind–shouldn’t count. A spear or a javalin will also generate lift (if slightly) by its angle of attack.
I’m still firmly in the camp that an object thrown in a single motion without the use of energy storage (as in a bow) should count as “hand thrown”. Jurph’s restrictions essentially take you back to a javalin. Since the OP specifically cites a disc golf driver, I think those restrictions are beyond what the OP was considering.