PATHS OF FREELY FALLING DISKS

The free falling motion of round thin disks in quiescent water was investigated experimentally. The mean density of the disks were about 1.05 g/cm(3), slightly larger than water, and thickness to diameter ratio is 0.1. In this letter, We reported two cases with different mass distributions, in one case the disk's center of mass coincided with the geometry center and in another case it was deviated. Two CCD cameras were used to photograph the falling disk simultaneously, the disk's six degrees of freedom were obtained via a stereoscopic vision method. In the first case fluttering motion was observed, the disk's oscillatory motion confined in a vertical plane, and the pitching motion occurred about an axis normal to the plane. In the second case, steady helical falling was observed, the disk moved in a helical path at constant speed, the attacking angle is constant.