Stone skipping and stone skimming are the arts of throwing a flat stone across water in such a way (usually sidearm) that it bounces off the surface. "Skipping" counts the number of bounces; "skimming" measures the distance traveled.
Stone skipping and stone skimming are the arts of throwing a flat stone across water in such a way (usually sidearm) that it bounces off the surface. "Skipping" counts the number of bounces; "skimming" measures the distance traveled.
The 2nd-century CE Greek scholar Julius Pollux calls the game ἐποστρακισμός. [1] The 3rd-century CE Latin writer Marcus Minucius Felix described children skipping shells on the beach. [2] In England, a 1583 text calls it "Ducks and Drakes". [3] An early explanation of the physics of stone-skipping was provided by Lazzaro Spallanzani in the 18th century. [4] [5]
The world record for the number of skips, according to the Guinness Book of Records , is 88, by Kurt "Mountain Man" Steiner. The cast was achieved on September 6, 2013, at Red Bridge in the Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania. [6] The previous record was 65 skips, by Max Steiner (no relation), set at Riverfront Park, Franklin, Pennsylvania. [7] [8] Before him, the record was 51 skips, set by Russell Byars on July 19, 2007, skipping at the same location. [9] Kurt Steiner also held the world record between 2002 and 2007 with a throw of 40 skips, achieved in competition in Franklin, PA.
The Guinness World Record for the furthest distance skimmed using natural stone stands at 121.8m for men, established by Dougie Isaacs (Scotland), and 52.5m for women, thrown by Nina Luginbuhl (Switzerland). These records were made on 28 May 2018 at Abernant Lake, Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys, Wales.
There are several stone skimming championships held. The record for most World Championship wins also sits with Dougie Isaacs (Scotland), with 8 Men's World Stone Skimming Championship wins (2005, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016) and the Women's World Stone Skimming Championship wins record sits with Lucy Wood (England) with 5 wins (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018).
The "Big Four" American stone skipping contests include (in order of establishment and participant rankings):
Former world champion Coleman-McGhee founded the North American Stone Skipping Association (NASSA) in 1989 in Driftwood, Texas. NASSA-sanctioned world championships were held from 1989 through 1992[ citation needed ] in Wimberley, Texas. The next official NASSA World Championship is expected to be held at Platja d'en Ros beach in Cadaqués, Catalonia, Spain.[ citation needed ].
A stone skimming championship takes place every year in Easdale, Scotland, where relative distance counts as opposed to the number of skips, as tends to be the case outside of the US. [10] The event was run for more than 20 years by Donald Melville, who is seen as having done more for the sport than anyone. [11] Since 1997, competitors from all over the world have taken part in the World Stone Skimming Championships (WSSC) in a disused water-filled quarry on Easdale Island using sea-worn Easdale slate of maximum 3" diameter. [12] Each participant gets three throws and the stone must bounce/skip at least twice to count (i.e. 3 water touches minimum). [13] The event featured in the 2019 BBC Scotland documentary Sink or Skim. [14] The WSSC for 2020-2022 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic before resuming competition in September 2023.
Other domestic distance-based championships in the UK are currently the Welsh and British, but they were cancelled in 2020 and 2021 for reasons including the COVID-19 pandemic. The British is next due to be held in 2023. Japan holds competitions where both skimming and skipping principles, as well as a throw's overall aesthetic quality, are taken into account to determine the winners. At present, there is also a competition at Ermatingen in Switzerland and occasionally in the Netherlands (both skimming/distance-based).
| 2024 | Simon Power | Ireland |
| 2023 | Finn Dower | Belgium and Scotland |
| 2022 | (Canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic) | |
| 2021 | ||
| 2020 | ||
| 2019 | Péter Szép | Hungary |
| 2018 | ||
| 2017 | Keisuke Hashimoto | Japan |
| 2016 | Dougie Isaacs | Scotland |
| 2015 | ||
| 2014 | ||
| 2013 | ||
| 2012 | Ron Long | Wales |
| 2011 | Dougie Isaacs | Scotland |
| 2010 | ||
| 2009 | David Gee | England |
| 2008 | Eric Robertson | Scotland |
| 2007 | Dougie Isaacs | |
| 2006 | Tony Kynn | Australia |
| 2005 | Dougie Isaacs | Scotland |
| 2004 | Andrew McKinna | |
| 2003 | Ian Brown | |
| 2002 | Alastair Judkins | New Zealand |
| 2001 | Iain MacGregor | Australia |
| 2000 | Scott Finnie | Scotland |
| 1999 | Ian Shellcock | England |
| 1998 | ||
| 1997 | Ian Sherriff | New Zealand |
| 1993 | Joint Champions: David Rhys-Jones, Matthew Burnham, Jonathan Ford | |
| 2024 | Cari Jones | Wales |
| 2023 | Linsay McGeachy | Scotland |
| 2022 | (Canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic) | |
| 2021 | ||
| 2020 | ||
| 2019 | Christina Bowen-Bravery | UK |
| 2018 | Lucy Wood | England |
| 2017 | Nina Luginbuhl | Switzerland |
| 2016 | Lucy Wood | England |
| 2015 | ||
| 2014 | Helen Mannion | Scotland |
| 2013 | Lucy Wood | England |
| 2012 | ||
| 2011 | Joanne Giannandrea | Scotland |
| 2010 | Manuela Kniebusch | Germany |
| 2009 | Tessa Pirie | Scotland |
| 2008 | Jillian Hunter | Northern Ireland |
| 1997 | Cara Crosby | United States |
Although stone skipping occurs at the air-water interface, surface tension has very little to do with the physics of stone-skipping. [4] Instead, the stones are a flying wing akin to a planing boat or Frisbee, generating lift from a body angled upwards and a high horizontal speed. [5]
The same physical effects apply to a stone when traveling in air or water. However, the force only compares to gravity when immersed in water, because the latter fluid has higher density. The result is a characteristic bouncing or skipping motion, in which a series of extremely brief collisions with the water appear to support the stone. [15] [16]
During each collision, the stone's horizontal velocity is approximately constant and its vertical motion can be approximated as a non-Hookean spring. The stone is only partially immersed, and lift from the immersed back suspends the stone and torques it towards tumbling. That torque is stabilized by the gyroscope effect: the stone-skipper imparts a perpendicular initial angular momentum much larger than the collisional impulse, so that the latter induces only a small precession in the axis of rotation. [17]
Stones improperly oriented at the moment of collision will not rebound: the largest observed angle of attack preceding a rebound occurred at an angle of approximately 45°. Conversely, a stone making angle 20° with the water's surface may rebound even at relatively low velocities, as well as minimizing the time and energy spent in the following collision. [18]
In principle, a stone can skip arbitrarily-long distances, given a sufficiently high initial speed and rotation. [16] [17] Each collision saps an approximately constant kinetic energy from the stone (a dynamical equation equivalent to Coulomb friction), as well as imparting an approximately constant angular impulse. [17] [19] Experiments suggest that initial angular momentum's stabilizing effect limits most stones: even "long-lived" throws still have high translational velocities when they finally sink. [19]
The lead character of the 2001 film Amélie skips stones along the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris as a plot point, [27] and picks up good skipping stones when she spots them.
Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called rocks, across the ice curling sheet toward the house, a circular target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones, with each player throwing two. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones once. A game usually consists of eight or ten ends.
The hammer throw is one of the four throwing events in regular outdoor track and field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and javelin.
A ricochet is a rebound, bounce, or skip off a surface, particularly in the case of a projectile. Most ricochets are caused by accident and while the force of the deflection decelerates the projectile, it can still be energetic and almost as dangerous as before the deflection. The possibility of ricochet is one of the reasons for the common firearms safety rule "Never shoot a bullet at a flat, hard surface." Ricochets can occur with any caliber, but short or round ricocheting bullets may not produce the audible whine caused by tumbling irregular shapes. Ricochets are a hazard of shooting because, for as long as they retain sufficient velocity, ricocheting bullets or bullet fragments may cause collateral damage to animals, objects, or even the person who fired the shot.
Easdale is one of the Slate Islands, in the Firth of Lorn, Scotland. Once the centre of the Scottish slate industry, there has been some recent island regeneration by the owners. This is the smallest of the Inner Hebrides' inhabited islands and is "home to traditional white-washed cottages, a small pub and disused slate quarries". One of the latter, filled with water, is used for swimming.
A trampoline is a device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched between a steel frame often using many coiled springs. People bounce on trampolines for recreational and competitive purposes.
Bounce or The Bounce may refer to:
A Super Ball or Superball is a toy bouncy ball based on a type of synthetic rubber invented in 1964 by chemist Norman Stingley. It is an extremely elastic ball made of Zectron, which contains the synthetic polymer polybutadiene as well as hydrated silica, zinc oxide, stearic acid, and other ingredients. This compound is vulcanized with sulfur at a temperature of 165 °C (329 °F) and formed at a pressure of 3,500 psi (24 MPa). The resulting Super Ball has a very high coefficient of restitution, and if dropped from shoulder level on a hard surface, a Super Ball bounces nearly all the way back; thrown down onto a hard surface by an average adult, it can fly over a three-story building.
This is a glossary of terms in curling.
In angling, casting is the act of the angler throwing the bait and hook as well as other attached terminal tackles out over the water, typically by slinging a fishing line manipulated by a long, elastic fishing rod. The term itself may also be used for setting out a net when artisanal fishing.
Basketball moves are generally individual actions used by players in basketball to pass by defenders to gain access to the basket or to get a pass to a teammate to score.
The following terms are used in water polo. Rules below reflect the latest FINA Water Polo Rules.
Cue sports techniques are a vital important aspect of game play in the various cue sports such as carom billiards, pool, snooker and other games. Such techniques are used on each shot in an attempt to achieve an immediate aim such as scoring or playing a safety, while at the same time exercising control over the positioning of the cue ball and often the object balls for the next shot or inning.
Barbora Špotáková is a former Czech track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. She is a two-time Olympic Champion and three-time World Champion, as well as the current world record holder with a throw of 72.28 m.
A running bounce, or simply bounce, is a skill in the sport of Australian rules football and some variants where a player bounces the ball on the ground in order to run more than the maximum distance with the ball.
Juggling balls, or simply balls, are a popular prop used by jugglers, either on their own—usually in sets of three or more—or in combination with other props such as clubs or rings. A juggling ball refers to any juggling object that is roughly spherical in nature.
The 2007–08 Oregon Ducks men's basketball team represented the University of Oregon in the college basketball season of 2007–08. The team was coached by Ernie Kent and played their home games at McArthur Court.
Waboba is an international outdoor toy and sporting goods brand headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden with offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Guangzhou, China. Waboba is most known for its invention of balls that bounce on water, the high bouncing Moon ball, and the Wingman silicone flying disc. The company specializes in beach and backyard toys and games. The slogan used in advertising is Keep Life Fun. The name Waboba is a registered trademark and many of its products are internationally patented.
Waterballs are water toys that are played on the water surface with players interacting with the water toy and the water in any number of play patterns. Generally players throw waterballs at varying speeds across the water and air at varying angles to get the desired skip pattern. Play is generally between players and play patterns can involve a variety of apparatus and equipment, such as special pools with goals and watercourts.
The physics of a bouncing ball concerns the physical behaviour of bouncing balls, particularly its motion before, during, and after impact against the surface of another body. Several aspects of a bouncing ball's behaviour serve as an introduction to mechanics in high school or undergraduate level physics courses. However, the exact modelling of the behaviour is complex and of interest in sports engineering.
Kurt Steiner is an American man who holds the Guinness World Record for stone skipping, scoring 88 bounces of the stone in 2013. Known as "The Mountain Man", Steiner resides in rural Cameron County, Pennsylvania.
Both texts state that rebounds are impossible beyond 45°. The plots of viable impact angles and initial velocities include a rebound around 53°, but do not explain the discrepancy.
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