Physics and Ballistics of the “Rabbit Stick” or Straight-Flying Boomerang

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Advances in Perishable Weaponry Studies: Developing Perspectives from Dated Contexts to Experimental Analyses" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Straight-flying boomerangs—in North America commonly referred to as rabbit sticks—were used worldwide for both hunting and combat. When properly designed and implemented, the boomerang functions as an airfoil and gyroscope, slicing through atmosphere, generating lift, and traveling impressive distances. However, due to their combined rotational and forward velocity, boomerangs experience differential lift along the wing, resulting in the tendency to tilt, which combined with gyroscopic effects, can cause them to "precess," in some cases returning to the user. Straight-flying forms, originally much more common than returning types, must be properly designed to overcome this tendency, but effective straight-flying designs can take various forms. Substantial kinetic energy combined with the focus of impact forces to small areas of the wing also makes boomerangs formidable weapons, but until now their ballistic potential remains largely unexplored. This paper describes the different characteristics that allow boomerangs to fly straight and presents results of throwing experiments with replica Southwestern forms, where ballistic variables were recorded.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Advances in Perishable Weaponry Studies: Developing Perspectives from Dated Contexts to Experimental Analyses

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41591.0