If you’ve spent any significant amount of time trying to use a beermat as a frisbee, you’ll know that they’re not very suitable. What you may not know, is the physics behind why they’re not.
A research team from the Helmholtz Institute of Radiation and Nuclear Physics and the Argelander Institute for Astronomy at the University of Bonn, Germany have performed a series of practical experiments, using their specially designed bespoke beermat shooting apparatus [pictured].
Their results, and the mathematical formulae derived from them, are published in the latest issue of the European Physical Journal Plus.
See : Ostmeyer, J., Schürmann, C. & Urbach, C. Beer mats make bad frisbees. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 136, 769 (2021).
Note: The online version has links to some beermat-launching videos, which, depending on your web browser, you may or may not be able to view – they’re saved as Microsoft .avi – a video format which will shortly be celebrating its 30th birthday.