Bouncing stones on water

Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
boing
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 2714
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 6:32 am
Location: Beautful Oregon USA
Gender:
Age: 77

Bouncing stones on water

#1 Post by boing » Wed Feb 10, 2016 3:05 pm

http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/stories/science-skipping-stones-water?google_editors_picks=true

I can't help thinking that this has all been done before by a one-man development unit.
the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.

User avatar
500N
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 6985
Joined: Sun Aug 23, 2015 4:27 pm
Location: The Great Southern Land - Melbourne, Aus
Gender:

Re: Bouncing stones on water

#2 Post by 500N » Wed Feb 10, 2016 9:05 pm

boing wrote:I can't help thinking that this has all been done before by a one-man development unit.


Not only that, but normally by the age of 15 at the latest !

I think I would have been about 8 by the time I perfected it, but I did have the benefit of spending a vast majority of weekends near large bodies of water (power stations, canals, gravel pits, the Wash).

Cannock Chase Gravel pits were awesome, heaps of the right stones and great water.

I can definitely remember getting 13 - 15 skips.

Karearea
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 4746
Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2015 5:47 am
Location: The South Island, New Zealand

Re: Bouncing stones on water

#3 Post by Karearea » Wed Feb 10, 2016 10:21 pm

Gosh, that brings back a memory of my father showing me how to skip stones, on a lake, many years ago. Happy days...
And with the morn, those angel faces smile...

User avatar
Ex-Ascot
Test Pilot
Test Pilot
Posts: 13096
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:16 am
Location: Botswana but sometimes Greece
Gender:
Age: 68

Re: Bouncing stones on water

#4 Post by Ex-Ascot » Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:03 am

One still does it on Amorgos. Some cracking pebbles on the beach. Usually a bit snookered by waves though. Our dog used to chase after them.
'Yes, Madam, I am drunk, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly.' Sir Winston Churchill.

User avatar
Rwy in Sight
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 6740
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:04 pm
Location: Lost in an FIR somewhere
Gender:

Re: Bouncing stones on water

#5 Post by Rwy in Sight » Thu Feb 11, 2016 1:57 pm

I can't believe you still do it Ex-Ascot. You ruin my image of quietly drinking bier sitting in your beloved chair.

My personal record is three but I am not a pilot so I guess some people here would do it much better.

User avatar
Ex-Ascot
Test Pilot
Test Pilot
Posts: 13096
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:16 am
Location: Botswana but sometimes Greece
Gender:
Age: 68

Re: Bouncing stones on water

#6 Post by Ex-Ascot » Tue Feb 16, 2016 7:25 am

My dear chap it is when walking between pubs along the beach. Or when our dog was still alive sitting on a remote beach with our boat and of course a cooler box full of beers.
'Yes, Madam, I am drunk, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly.' Sir Winston Churchill.

603DX
Capt
Capt
Posts: 1809
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 5:32 pm
Location: Garden of England
Gender:
Age: 84

Re: Bouncing stones on water

#7 Post by 603DX » Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:41 pm

Yes, the pebble beach or gravel pit is an ideal location for hand skimming flat stones with rounded edges, and I expect that most of us have attempted to get more and more bounces from that innocent pastime.

Yet the allusion in the OP to Barnes Wallis's "one-man development unit" is an apt reminder that at that critical time in WW2, a far more serious development of the basic principles involved was found well worthwhile. But who could have predicted the major changes needed to the "flat stone" concept, to achieve the highly ingenious end result?

First, the flat object shape was rejected as impractical for a bomb which had to contain enough high explosive material to generate dam-fracturing blast waves, leading to initial model trials with spherical objects - glass marbles. Then full sized trials of spheres with shaped wooden packing bound around cylindrical steel drum cores was tried, but the initial impact with water surfaces from air drops kept destroying the wood packing. So the spherical idea was abandoned, and the bare cylindrical shape was tried, and for good measure a judicious amount of "back-spin" was added. All good sound engineering pragmatism, with just a touch of inspiration from the splendid game of cricket, carried out under immense wartime pressure to make it all work. Then more testing, calculations to get the optimum aircraft speed and height, and drum rpm, followed eventually by successful full-scale test drops. It takes a very special breed of engineer to persevere doggedly through such a process, in the face of severe scepticism from those above him, in order to achieve ultimate success. All typical of his many inspired projects, including designs of airships, aircraft, specialised bombs to destroy massive concrete structures (Tallboy and Grand Slam), and many, many others. Yet it is also typical of our cockeyed country that the well-merited accolade of a knighthood was only grudgingly awarded to him towards the end of his life ...

User avatar
Dirk
Capt
Capt
Posts: 339
Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2016 9:17 pm
Location: Location Location

Re: Bouncing stones on water

#8 Post by Dirk » Sun Mar 06, 2016 10:08 pm

Rwy in Sight wrote:I can't believe you still do it Ex-Ascot. You ruin my image of quietly drinking bier sitting in your beloved chair.

My personal record is three but I am not a pilot so I guess some people here would do it much better.


I could regularly get 5, but after that the bounces are usually too quick and close together to count properly

User avatar
OFSO
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 18600
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 6:39 pm
Location: Teddington UK and Roses Catalunia
Gender:
Age: 80

Re: Bouncing stones on water

#9 Post by OFSO » Thu Mar 10, 2016 10:34 am

Did I not read somewhere of someone (possibly Crun-nish in personality) building a machine which would shoot saucer-shaped objects (deep frozen ice from a mould) up a ramp with unequal sides (so as to impart rotation) out across the sea where they would bounce happily off into the distance ? If not, someone should. An interesting project. Returning to hand-thrown ones, I think the most number of bounces I ever got was seven. (Off Eastbourne beach, near the bandstand).

Post Reply