101 Camping Out Ideas & Activities

THE BOOMERANG

The boomerang is a throwing weapon which the Australian aborigines and other primitive peoples even today continue to use in war and for hunting birds. boomerang-throwing is a very interesting sport, and you can make your own boomerang very
easily, but of course you won't use it to kill birds. Even though it isn't difficult, you must work with care and exactness, for a bungled boomerang will not fly any better than a piece of firewood. Make your boomerang of oak or birch according to the dimensions given in the following illustrations.

a-d: Various boomerangs from a museum.
Boomerang a. is also shown from the side
and in cross section.

Top view and cross section of a homemade boomerang.

The short end of the boomerang stands up
about 1 inch when the long end is lying flat on the table.

The length of the arms is in a ratio of 4:5. However, the long arm has to be exactly as heavy as the short one, so it must be somewhat thinner. The bend near the middle forms an angle of about 140 degrees.

It is especially important that the fibers of the wood have the same angle as the bend. If you saw or carve the boomerang out of a piece of wood in which the grain is perfectly straight, it will break when it hits.

Probably the most essential part of construction is giving the boomerang an angle to the wind. When the long arm is lying flat on the table, the short end should stand about 1 inch away from the table top.

To throw the boomerang, hold one end (it does not matter which one), and then fling it out straight or at an upward angle. It can take several different possible paths of flight. For example, if it is thrown against the wind, it might sail along flat for a while, suddenly rise as high as a house, and then finally return to the starting point. If it is thrown with the wind, it will not return.

Never throw your boomerang from the midst of a group of your friends, nor when there are people standing anywhere near the spot where it may return.

You can make a small model boomerang out of a piece of card­ board and observe its path of flight. In this case it is important to make one arm a little wider and shorter than the other and to twist it at a slight angle to the long arm. To throw a paper model, lay it on the edge of a book, and flick a pencil sharply against the extending arm. It will shoot up, turn rapidly and then approach the starting point in a large curve.

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