How do pebbles skim on water? Neither medium seems especially elastic, so how do the stones bounce?
• , the French physicist Lydéric Bocquet and his collaborators revealed some of the secrets of successful stone skimming. They found that the optimum angle of attack is 20 degrees. So, even when the stone is thrown horizontally, the leading edge should be 20 degrees higher than the trailing edge. This maximises the number of jumps by limiting the contact time between the stone and the water, which is proportional to the energy dissipated.…
