While flat, light rocks like the one pictured above tend to avoid stones, a new study finds that heavier rocks also tend to lower the surface of the water.
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Jeff Jay Mitchell/Getty Images
While flat, light rocks like the one pictured above tend to avoid stones, a new study finds that heavier rocks also tend to lower the surface of the water.
Jeff Jay Mitchell/Getty Images
When skipping a stone across the water, most people look for something flat and light. Now, a new study suggests that curved, heavy stones can also lead to impressive slips. Not only do these innovations help improve your game, but they can be applied to the real world, such as helping make planes more efficient.
Ryan Palmer is an applied mathematician at the University of Bristol in England and co-author of the study. released this month in the Royal Society.
He and his colleagues created a model to see how shape and mass affect the way organisms interact with water. When skipping over rocks over a lake, “if you pick up something a little heavier, you get something called a hyperelastic response,” Palmer said.
In other words, something heavy It can give an impressive bounce.
“What happens is that the rock touches the water layer, and because it’s heavier, it sinks further down and stays in contact for longer,” Palmer said. “It increases pressure on that rock, which increases the force that pushes it outward, and you can get a huge jump in response.”
Now, Palmer admits, even if you get a big jump with heavier stones, they don’t cause as many skips as flat stones. Results also depend on the shape of the stone, as something too heavy may not work.
“If we really take it home, a heavy rock can sink, and if it’s bent a little bit, it’s more likely to slide,” he said.
Palmer and his colleagues have been studying more than the physics of skipping stones. Through mathematical modeling, they sought to better understand aircraft icing, a phenomenon that occurs when planes fly in very cold weather.
Sometimes, puddles of water form on the wing of an aircraft, and airborne ice particles can collect and sink into or out of the puddle. If it sinks, it can lead to freezing, which can be dangerous.
But if they get carried away, Palmer said, “Well, it’s the same physics and dynamics that you’d find if you took a rock and tried to throw it across a lake.”
Palmer said knowing where the ice might go is important for understanding whether other areas of the plane need more protection.
He assured that commercial flights are safe. There are systems in place to protect them from dangerous icing. His research aims to increase the effectiveness of those defenses.
“As we live in this world of climate change and increased costs of fuel and materials, you’re always trying to be more efficient, so you can design your systems better, and protect aircraft better,” he said. “You can sort through these strange situations that happen in an efficient and creative way.”
While Palmer sought practical applications, this was not the only thing he left out of his research.
“Since this work began, it has become more and more difficult to try to remove stones, especially those that are slightly different,” he said. “Not necessarily so flat.”
