Why is a longbow or boomerang the shape it is....?

I dunno know ask Del the cat he will have a smart a$$ answer

They are two completely different instruments!

The boomerang is shaped the way it is for aerodynamic flight.

The longbow for accelerating an arrow to high speed as efficiently as possible.

John..... I will now wait for Del to awake from his cat nap

Too late to ask Del the cat! I shot him earlier today!

Hey, how many lives have you guys already taken off him?

He may still come back another eight times yet!

Because that is what works. Thousands of years of trial and error to come up with a stick that returns when you throw it or a bow that shoots longer distances.

May not have taken thousands of years i don't think any one documented the research.

....there were no other shapes that could work as they were intended to.....

They are actually both the result of one single epiphany. I believe it was a piece of elbow macaroni that inspired both weapons. This of course was a natural progression of thought stemming from when lashings were given with a wet noodle.

I have made both, I little about boomerangs but a reasonable amount about longbows.

The pic below is my longbow at near full draw on a tiller. The cross section is D shaped, the flat face being of the pale softer sapwood which is good in tension, the 'belly' is the darker reddish heart wood which is good in compression. It is a natural composite. Other than that the bow is effectively a straight stick tapering to each tip. The one in the pic is 70lb draw weight, I cut it from a Yew limb about 8" in diameter.

Del

Nice reply, DTC. I think those other guys are just jealous that they can't walk the walk as well as talk the talk, or make the working machines that you do. You might remind the detractors that, if they notice, a boomerang will likely return to the thrower, but an arrow rarely does! Different principles of physics, eh what? (Now watch someone shoot a curved arrow and have it return....).

If you shoot 'em straight up it can get a bit scarey .

So what do you call a boomerang that doesn't come back?

Many boomerangs are designed not to come back... those used for hunting and warfare (I believe)...it would presumably be called either a boomerang or a throwing stick....

Or was your question a lead up to a joke?

Del

All of your posts have traces of NUT

In Aus, there is a name for a boomerang that doesn't come back. (It's a stick.)

What I was told (many years ago) is that the shape of "original" boomerangs is an outcome of the raw material used. The pieces to make them were mostly got from the base of a tree and represent the angle of the buttress roots to the trunk of the tree.

I am not aware of the boomerang being used in "warfare", but the non-returning types were used (very effectively) for hunting birds in flight due to their irregular motion in the air.