I was at a math camp where one of the activities was that each team had to design a paper plane and get it to a castle on top of a hill by throwing it the fewest times possible (like in golf). Several teams converged on a design of a crumbled ball of paper as that was what offered the best combination of accuracy and distance.
Since there was no rule against it, we've allowed it. Some of the teams who played with conventional airplanes got furious. (These were all adult people!) Although innitially looking fairly innocent, I believe it ended up as the second most controversial activity we've held.
I did the same thing in eighth grade. Put my toes on the throw line with an unfolded sheet of paper, and crumpled it right there on the spot. We were judged on both distance and "straightness" of flight, I believe that I won on both counts. However, I was disqualified for "not being an airplane" though nobody, not even the teachers, could tell me why. I was hoping to justify my stance that golf balls produce lift, so therefore my ball should produce lift and be considered an airplane as well, but there was no interested ear to appeal to.
I used to roll a sheet of paper up into a very tight tube, then flatten one half and tie an overhand knot in it. That's how I won the "distance shot" portion of informal classroom wastebasketball competitions. You just hold the light end and flip it towards the trash can.
So even the wadded-up ball can be improved upon.
And no, I don't know why the teachers ever left us alone in the classroom.
I first saw one back in the 70s as a kid at a summer activity. I had made a sharp double folded dart that I would throw furiously towards the rafters to trace a ballistic arc and land almost point down. I was easily beat by a ring an older kid gently launched from the elevated stage that glided and swooped well past where my dart landed.
My family plays horseshoes. 16 oz metal ‘U’ shapes being tossed through the air while drinking beer. One could argue that the problem with lawn darts was that they were too light, allowing children without proper sense to throw them too far.
I once brought in ~20 "Koosh" balls[0] (soft fluffy plastic balls) and gave everyone a few. We started off having skirmishes every few hours, until it got boring after a couple weeks. We then resorted to just throwing them at each other when deep in work, laughing when people screamed because they weren't expecting to be hit in the head. It really was a joyous time.. and magically we didn't destroy any monitors even though there was a minimum 50% chance it would hit the screen instead of your intended target. 6 months later and the balls are just sitting in the same place they were last put down, except for the random passer-by who asks what they are used for... upon which we are motivated to take up arms one more time, albeit while we are all sitting at our desks.
The next attempt was a few "airzooka" air canons[1]. Same result as above more or less, except our operation got shut down much earlier, as everyone else at the office complained that they were too loud (they really are much too loud).
We (my roommates and I) used to do this while tossing a frisbee in college. It’s amazing how we could do hundreds of associations and then go backwards without missing any.
I wonder if they've tested that one against conventional designs. Depending on how well you compress the ball, it might well be very competitive for distance.
Never got hold of lawn darts but my teenage brain did come up with the similarly brilliant idea of shooting an arrow straight up in the air while laying on the ground and seeing how close to me I could get it to land. That game ended abruptly one day when the wind caught one, causing it to land a few inches away from a sunbathing neighbor.
Ping-pong ball was a thoughtless example, but many things of different weights will be Good Enough for the junior experimenter, eg plastic ans steel pipe sections dropped straight downwards.
Since there was no rule against it, we've allowed it. Some of the teams who played with conventional airplanes got furious. (These were all adult people!) Although innitially looking fairly innocent, I believe it ended up as the second most controversial activity we've held.
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