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?
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The Magnus effect causes a spinning object not to fall in a straight line. You can check it out on many youtube videos. This makes accurate targeting inefficient.
Fins and a torpedo shape are aerodynamic and fall fairly straight. Plus with guided munitions, these are used to more precisely guide missiles to their targets.
Modern bombs are also designed with specific purposes which are not “orientation free”. A bunker buster, for example, is designed to be effective only in specific orientation. Shaped charges, for example, must face the surface they are trying to penetrate (facing upwards will make them quite useless)
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