Tag: Basic Badminton Physics

Basic Badminton Physics

By Lisa Zyga

When it comes to flying projectiles, the badminton shuttlecock or “birdie” is unusual in that it flips on impact with a racket so that it always flies cork-first. This flipping motion arises from the fact that, unlike almost all other sports projectiles, the shuttlecock has a conical shape and, because the cork is much denser than the feathers, a non-homogeneous mass.Chronophotographies of shuttlecocks after an impact with a racket, showing the time evolution of the angle between the shuttlecock orientation and its velocity. The shuttlecock’s initial velocity in (a) is 18.6 m/s and in (b) is 10.4 m/s. Credit: Cohen, et al. CC-BY-3.0
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