Discus Flight
Discus Flight
Because coefficients of lift and drag for a discus are available from wind tunnel experiments, you can model the flight of a discus where the wind varies. As is well known to throwers, a properly thrown discus will go farther against the wind than with the wind. This Demonstration lets you vary the wind and the two angles controlled by the thrower: the release angle (the angle between the initial velocity and the horizontal) and the inclination angle of the discus. You can set the angles to be the optimal angles for the given wind. Then, using the best angles and varying the wind, you see that a headwind can yield a longer throw than a tailwind.