Returning boomerangs consist of two or more arms or wings, connected at an angle. When thrown correctly a boomerang returns to its starting point.
Because of its rapid spinning, a boomerang flies in a curve rather than a straight line. Smaller ones are used in sport, and are the only boomerangs that return to the thrower. Larger boomerangs are used in hunting, thus they drop on the ground after striking the target. When the boomerang is thrown with high spin, the wings produce lift. A falling boomerang starts spinning and most then fall in a spiral. Though it is not a requirement that the boomerang be in its traditional shape, it is usually flat. The smallest boomerang may be less than 10 centimeters (cm) from tip to tip, and the largest can exceed 2 meters in length. Size and shapeīoomerangs for sale at the 2005 Melbourne Show. Īs noted above, some boomerangs are used in combat. Probably, the curving flight characteristic of returning boomerangs was first noticed by Stone Age hunters trying to "tune" their hunting sticks to fly straight.
A hunting boomerang is delicately balanced and much harder to make than a returning one. No one knows for sure how the returning boomerang was first invented, but some modern boomerang makers speculate that it developed from the flattened throwing stick that is still used by the Australian Aborigines and some other tribal people around the world, including the Navajo Indians in America. King Tutankhamun, the famous Pharaoh of ancient Egypt, who died over 3,000 years ago, owned a collection of boomerangs of both the straight flying (hunting) and returning variety. One boomerang that was discovered in a cave in the Carpathian Mountains in Poland was made of mammoth's tusk and is believed, based on AMS dating of objects found with it, to be about 30,000 years old. The oldest Australian Aboriginal boomerangs are 10,000 years old, but older hunting sticks have been discovered in Europe, where they seem to have formed part of the Stone Age arsenal of weapons. Besides being used by the Australian Aborigines, they have been found among groups of people in North East Africa, Sardinia, India, and the United States ( Native Americans in Arizona and southern California).
The boomerang was also mistakenly referred to as a woomerang, in confusion with the woomera.īoomerangs may be considered the first heavier-than-air flying machines invented by humans. The name boomerang comes from the language of the indigenous Australian Turuwal tribe of Aborigines who lived south of Sydney, Australia. Most boomerangs seen today are of the tourist or competition sort, and are almost invariably of the returning type. Tribal boomerangs may be inscribed or painted with designs meaningful to their maker. Boomerangs can be used as hunting weapons, percussive musical instruments, battle clubs, fire-starters, decoys for hunting waterfowl, and as recreational play toys. Boomerangs are primarily associated with Australian Aborigines, but they have also been used by various other peoples of the world.
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