Why are bombs, the ones dropped from airplanes, shaped like an oval with fins on one end? Why aren’t they spheres so they just fall down onto the target?
In: 7
Spinning spheres move in curved paths from a thing called the Magnus effect. That’s what’s happening when a baseball pitcher throws a curveball.
This makes it very hard to aim a spherical bomb. It’s the same reason armies stopped using round musket balls. It won’t just follow the predictable ballistic path. If it happens to backspin, it will generate some lift, making it overshoot the target. If it happens to topspin, it will dive down sharper and undershoot the target. If it happens to side spin, it will drift to the side.
The elongated shape with the fins in the back forces it to follow a predictable ballistic path instead of the crazy curve a sphere would have.
Edit: Also it makes it predictable which part of the bomb will impact first – it will be the nose. That makes it possible to know where to build the impact trigger switch.
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