Why do frisbees stay flat when you throw them, but things like paper plates always turn sideways midair?
In: Engineering
It is very difficult to fold a paper airplane for stable flight. Tiny asymmetries can cause the airplane to tip over which can cause even more asymmetric forces, resulting in a quick end to the flight.
Frisbees are mostly symmetrical and they spin. The odds of the frisbee tipping over in a particular direction are Very low since the symmetrical shape doesn’t favor any particular side and small irregularities affect all directions equally due to the spin. I’m not that up to date on frisbee dynamics but possibly they even posses some form of stability which allows them to return to level flight even after small disturbances. That being said if you throw a frisbee very angled it may tip over at some point anyways.
If fold a paper airplane very carefully, you can get them to stay upright (provided you’re indoors and there isn’t a draft). If your planes are always tipping over, they’re probably heavier on one side of one side produces more lift due to asymmetrical folding.
it’s the way it surrounds itself with air and how heavy it is, it would take a lot of speed for a paper plate to not be pushed over midair
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