Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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Today I get to show off the results of my most recent high-speed filming obsession. I wanted to understand the airflow around a flying playing card - when you flick or throw a card across a room like a frisbee. Now in glorious 1500-7500ish fps video, we get wingtip effects, oscillatory vortex shedding, and gyroscopic effects. I hope you enjoy, cause I certainly had fun filming it!

Massive thanks to my top Patreon supporters!
birdiesnbritts
John Sosa Trustham
Vladimir Shklovsky
Aloysius Sparglepartz
Jason Whatley
Lohann Paterno Coutinho Ferreira
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nothings
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R520
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Jack Serrino
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Ashley Hauck
Scott Schlesier
Jonathan Goforth
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Allan Adams

Chapters:
0:00 Intro - Cards fly and it's cool
1:44 Wingtip vortices
6:01 Conservation of momentum
9:30 Trailing instabilities
12:06 Turbulence
13:43 Gyroscopic precession
21:22 oops

Media Credits:
I Dunno by grapes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626