Jump to content

Stone skipping

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected fromSkipping stones)
"Skimming stones" redirects here. For the music album, seeSkipping Stone.

A stone skimming across the water
Stone skipping in slow motion

Stone skippingandstone skimmingare the arts ofthrowinga flatstoneacross water in such a way (usuallysidearm) that it bounces off the surface. "Skipping" counts the number of bounces; "skimming" measures the distance traveled.

History

[edit]
People skipping stones in Haast, New Zealand

The 2nd-century CE Greek scholarJulius Polluxcalls the game ἐποστρακισμός.[1]The 3rd-century CE Latin writerMarcus Minucius Felixdescribed 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 byLazzaro Spallanzaniin the 18th century.[4][5]

Records

[edit]

The world record for the number of skips, according to theGuinness Book of Records,is 88, byKurt "Mountain Man" Steiner.The cast was achieved on September 6, 2013, at Red Bridge in theAllegheny 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).

Championships

[edit]

The "Big Four" American stone skipping contests include (in order of establishment and participant rankings):

  1. The Mackinac Island championship, held on July 4 in northern Michigan (entry by invite only; must win prior Mackinac Open or Pennsylvania Qualifier to enter);
  2. The Pennsylvania championship, held usually the 3rd Saturday of August inFranklin, PA,about one hour southeast of Erie (winners invited to the subsequent Michigan contest);
  3. The Vermont championship (about one month after Pennsylvania) on the shore of Lake Paran, North of Bennington; and
  4. The Great Southern championship in Arkansas (Labor Day weekend).

Former world champion Coleman-McGhee founded the North American Stone Skipping Association (NASSA) in 1989 inDriftwood, 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 inCadaqués,Catalonia,Spain.[citation needed].

A stone skimming championship takes place every year inEasdale, 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 onEasdale Islandusing 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 documentarySink or Skim.[14]The WSSC for 2020-2022 were cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemicbefore resuming competition in September 2023. The next championship is to be held on 7 September 2024.

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).

Men's World Skimming Championship winners by year

[edit]
2023 Finn Dower BelgiumandScotland
2022 (Canceled due toCOVID-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

Women's World Skimming Championship winners by year

[edit]
2023 Linsay McGeachy Scotland
2022 (Canceled due toCOVID-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

Underlying physics

[edit]
Diagram of a stone skipping

Although stone skipping occurs at the air-water interface,surface tensionhas very little to do with the physics of stone-skipping.[4]Instead, the stones are aflying wingakin to aplaning boatorFrisbee,generatingliftfrom a bodyangled upwardsand a high horizontalspeed.[5]

The same physical effects apply to a stone when traveling in air or water. However, the force only compares togravitywhen immersed in water, because the latterfluidhas higherdensity.The result is a characteristicbouncingor 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 anon-Hookean spring.The stone is only partially immersed, and lift from the immersed back suspends the stone andtorquesit towardstumbling.That torque is stabilized by thegyroscopeeffect: the stone-skipper imparts a perpendicular initialangular momentummuch larger than the collisional impulse, so that the latter induces only a smallprecessionin theaxis 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 constantkinetic energyfrom the stone (a dynamical equation equivalent toCoulomb friction), as well as imparting an approximately constantangular 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]

Names

[edit]
  • English: "skipping stones" or "skipping rocks" (North America); "lobsta cutting" (Cape Cod, North America); "stone skimming" or "ducks and drakes" (Britain); Skliffing[20]or "skiting"[21](Scotland) and "stone skiffing" (Ireland)[22]
  • Bengali:"frog jumps" (Bengbaji); "kingfisher" (Machhranga)
  • Bulgarian:"frogs" (жабки)
  • Cantonese:"skipping (little) stones" ( phiến thạch ( tử )) [pin3 sek6 (zai2)]
  • Catalan:"making step-stone bridges" (fer passeres); "making furrows" (fer rigalets); "skipping stones" (llençar passanelles)
  • Czech:"to make/throw froggies" (dělat (házet) žabky/žabičky– countrywide and generally intelligible); "to make ducks/drakes/ducklings" (dělat kačky/kačeny/kačery/kačenky/káčata/káčírky- in East Bohemia and parts ofMoravia); "little fishes" (rybičky/rybky); "saucers" (mističky); "plates/dishes" (talíře); "wagtails" (podlisky/podlíšky/lyšky); "divers" (potápky); "pot-lids" (pokličky/pukličky); "flaps" (plisky/plesky); "plops" (žbluňky); "darts" (šipky); "bubbles" (bubliny); "Jews"(židy); "figures" (páni/panáky); "gammers" / "wagtails" (babky); "dolls" / "girls" / "dragonflies" (panenky); "to ferryVirgin Mary"(převážet panenku Mariu)[23]
  • Danish:"slipping" (smutorat smutte); "to make slips" (at slå smut)
  • Dutch:"bouncing" (ketsen)
  • Estonian:"throwing aburbot"(lutsu viskama)
  • Finnish:"throwing breads/sandwiches" (heittää leipiä/voileipiä)
  • French:"making ricochets" (faire des ricochets)
  • German:"stone skipping" (Steinehüpfen); colloquially i.a. "flitting" (flitschen,old synonym ofschwirren,"whirring" ), its diminutiveflitscheln,and "bouncing" (ditschen,a variant oftitschen); older synonyms rarely used are i.a. "leading the bride" (die Braut führen), "throwing frogs" (Frösche werfen), "shooting/throwing maids/virgins" (Jungfern schießen/werfen), "skiffing" (schiffeln,schippern), "springing" (schnellern,fromschnellen,"springing" or "darting" ), and "pebbling" (steineln)
  • Greek:"little frogs" (βατραχάκια)[24]
  • Hungarian:"making it to waddle", lit. "making it walk like a duck" (kacsáztatás)
  • Italian:rimbalzello
  • Japanese:"cutting water" ( “Thủy thiết り” [mizu kiri])
  • Korean:mulsujebi(물수제비), meaning water (Korean:물;RR:mul) andKorean soupsujebi.
  • Latvian:"throwing (stone) froggies" (mest (akmens) vardītes)
  • Lithuanian:"making frogs" (daryti varlytes)
  • Macedonian:"frogs" (жабчиња)
  • Mandarin:da shui piao( ném đá trên sông )
  • Marathi:bhakrya kadhne
  • Mongolian:"making the rabbit leap" (tuulai kharailgakh); "making the dog lick" (nokhoi doloolgokh)
  • Nigerian:"the way a dragonfly skips across the water" (lami lami)
  • Norwegian:"fish bounce" (fiskesprett)
  • Polish:"letting the ducks out" (puszczanie kaczek)
  • Portuguese"water shearing" ( "capar a água" );[25]"making tiny hats" ( "fazer chapeletas" )[26]
  • Romanian"making frogs" ( "a face broaşte" )
  • Russian:"pancakes" (блинчики [Blinchiki]); "frogs" (лягушки [Lyagushki])
  • Serbo-Croatian:"(to throw) little frogs" ([bacati]žabice)
  • Spanish:"making white-caps" (hacer cabrillas); "making little frogs" (hacer ranitas); making ducklings (hacer patitos)
  • Swedish:"throwing a sandwich" (kasta smörgåsorkasta macka)
  • Telugu:"frog jumps" (kappa gantulu)
  • Turkish:"skimming stone" (taş sektirme)
  • Ukrainian:"letting the frogs out" (zapuskaty zhabky)
  • Farsi/Persian: "Syrian bashing" (سوری زدن)
  • Vietnamese:"ricochet" (ném thia lia); "tossing stone" (liếc đá, lia đá)
[edit]

The lead character of the 2001 filmAmélieskips stones along theCanal Saint-Martinin Paris as a plot point,[27]and picks up good skipping stones when she spots them.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^Wilhelm Dindorf (ed.): Julii Pollucis Onomasticon. Leipzig 1824,archive.org, p. 191 (section 9,119)
  2. ^Marcus Minucius Felix: Octavius (cap. 3).Latin,English
  3. ^Skipping stone secrets launch maximum spin.ABC Science (2010-11-02). Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  4. ^abChisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Spallanzani, Lazaro".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 592–593.
  5. ^abPascal, Molly."Kerplunks, pitty-pats and skronkers: The world of competitive rock-skipping".Perspective.Washington Post.ISSN0190-8286.Retrieved25 September2020.
  6. ^"Most skips of a skimming stone".
  7. ^Bures, Frank (24 May 2017)."The Mackinac Island Stone Skipping Competition".Minnesota Monthly.Retrieved5 April2024.
  8. ^Williams, Sean (20 September 2022)."Stone Skipping Is a Lost Art. Kurt Steiner Wants the World to Find It".Outside.Retrieved5 April2024.
  9. ^Silver, Jonathan D. (30 September 2007)."A stone's throw and then some to a Guinness record".Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  10. ^"BBC NEWS - UK - Scotland - Scots dominate in stone skimming".news.bbc.co.uk.25 September 2005.
  11. ^"The Times - Record books just a stone's throw away".18 October 2023.
  12. ^"World Stone Skimming Championships 2007".scotlandontv.tv. Archived fromthe originalon 23 October 2008.
  13. ^"World Stone Skimming Championships, Easdale Island".stoneskimming. Archived fromthe originalon 13 December 2017.
  14. ^"Melt the Fly – Sink or Skim".meltthefly.Retrieved10 July2023.
  15. ^"The science and art of stone skipping".SurferToday.Retrieved25 September2020.
  16. ^abHewitt, I. J.; Balmforth, N. J. & McElwaine, J. N. (2011). "Continual Skipping on Water".J. Fluid Mech.669:328–353.Bibcode:2011JFM...669..328H.doi:10.1017/S0022112010005057.S2CID6102984.
  17. ^abcBocquet, Lydéric (2003). "The physics of stone skipping".American Journal of Physics.71(2): 150–155.arXiv:physics/0210015.Bibcode:2003AmJPh..71..150B.doi:10.1119/1.1519232.S2CID11432407.
  18. ^Rosellini et al. 2005;also summarized inHersen, Fabien; Clanet, Christophe & Bocquet, Lydéric (January 2004)."Secrets of successful stone-skipping".Nature.427(6969): 29.Bibcode:2004Natur.427...29C.doi:10.1038/427029a.PMID14702075.S2CID4373833.

    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.
  19. ^abRosellini, Lionel; Hersen, Fabien; Clanet, Christophe & Bocquet, Lydéric (2005). "Skipping Stones".J. Fluid Mech.543.United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press: 137–146.Bibcode:2005JFM...543..137R.doi:10.1017/S0022112005006373.S2CID209359309.
  20. ^"SKLIFF 4. To make (a flat stone) skip over waterDictionary of the Scots Language "
  21. ^"Scots dominate in stone skimming"- BBC News, 25 September 2005
  22. ^The Secrets of Stone Skipping, Coleman-McGhee, 1996,ISBN1-883856-01-9
  23. ^Český jazykový atlas 1(Czech Language Atlas 1), Academia, Prague, 2004, pp. 110–113,(dělat) žabky
  24. ^"Ορισμοί του χρήστη: σφυρίζων - slang.gr".Archived fromthe originalon 3 August 2013.Retrieved29 July2013.
  25. ^Leite de Vasconcellos, José (1882).Tradições populares de Portugal.Porto: Livraria portuense de Clavel & ca. p. 76.
  26. ^Vieyra, Antonio (1860).A Dictionary of the English and Portuguese Languages: In Two Parts, English and Portuguese, and Portuguese and English, Volume 1.london: Luke Hansard. p. 142.
  27. ^The Guardianreview, 15 August 2001

Further reading

[edit]
  • Coleman, Jerry.The Secrets of Stone Skipping,Stone Age Sports Publications, January 1996ISBN9781883856014
  • Lorenz, Ralph.Spinning Flight: Dynamics of Frisbees, Boomerangs, Samaras and Skipping Stones,Copernicus, New York, September 2006ISBN0-387-30779-6
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related toStone skipping.
Look upducks and drakesin Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stone_skipping&oldid=1244183513"