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Asked by anon-253287 on 12 May 2020.
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Richard Fielder answered on 12 May 2020:
A returning boomerang has an aerofoil shape similar to an aeroplane wing. As it flies through the air, the shape generate lift which keeps it flying a lot longer than a normal flat stick. Because of the bent shape, however, the direction of that lift changes as the boomerang spins. If you throw it at the correct angle, the changing direction of the lift force causes it to follow a circle instead of just flying in a straight line.
I said a “returning” boomerang to start with, because in fact most boomerangs don’t return. The boomerang was originally developed as a hunting weapon similar to a throwing knife, but with the shape allowing it to fly further. They were intended to fly in a straight line at an animal, not to return to the thrower (which would be a bad idea for a hunting weapon). No-one is actually sure how or when returning boomerangs were invented, but they were likely created accidentally by people not quite getting the design of their hunting weapon correct and finding it would curve in flight instead of hitting the target. Humans being humans, they thought this was a neat trick and started doing it deliberately.
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Ashleigh Barron answered on 12 May 2020:
Great Question! Boomerangs are shaped like an areoplanes wing with a curved top side and a flat bottom side with one side thicker than the other. This creates the lift keeping the boomerang in the air when its thrown correctly. The reason it comes back is that when it is thrown the top of the boomerang moves faster through the air than the bottom which creates a torque. This torque tilts the boomerang so that it flies in a curve eventually coming back to the thrower.
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Scott Lawrie answered on 12 May 2020:
A boomerang is a bit like a helicopter or a drone. If you watch a drone flying, you’ll see it tilt its propellors around to steer. If the propellor is in it’s normal ‘up-right’ position, the drone will stay still or just go up or down. If the propellor tilts to the right, the drone will move right. That’s kind of how a boomerang works: it you throw it so it’s tilted, it’ll move to the right until it comes back to you. The trick is learning how to throw it juuuust right! 🙂
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James M Monk answered on 13 May 2020:
This is a great question. The boomerang is shaped like an aeroplane wing with a curved top surface and a flat bottom surface. The way that wings generate lift is more complicated than the usual explanation about different airspeeds over the top and bottom of the wing; that is only a part of the way they generate lift.
In the boomerang’s case though it does generate lift as it flies through the air. Since it is also spinning, the airspeed over one side – typically the right hand side for a right-handed thrower as the boomerang moves away from the thrower – is faster than over the other side. This creates more lift on one side, which tilts the boomerang over and pushes it to the left. This makes it fly in a curved path. As Richard noted above though, quite often the curve isn’t enough to make it return.
I think you can also get a similar effect with a spinning frisbee.
I’d also note that drones do not tilt their propellors to change direction. They usually work only by changing the speeds of the different propellers, which is enough to create different amounts of lift on one side or the other of the drone, which tilts the entire drone over.
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