If one imagines any number of objects that go air borne at flight speed; either motorbikes, NASCARS, fighter jets, skydivers...the potential for a deviation from a straight path of flight is the norm rather than the exception. In baseball, we have a number of pitches that generate pitch (ha, ha), roll, and yaw on the ball. The screwball resulting from a ruffed up part of the leather covering on the ball has been banned for years. The ball sinks, drops, goes screwy with the change from aerodynamic equality. I think that anything other than a perfect sphere entering the atmosphere has the potential for a spin, turn, or drag/drift to one side or another. At that point it is a matter of velocity times rotational effect (and mass/inertia) as to whether we get cork screw. With the atmospheric break up of meteorites, we can see the drift and separation evident as the pieces drift down. If a piece came in a little fast at break up, and had a jagged or protruding area out of aerodynamic balance, the potential for a "corkscrewer" would be there. Next thread ,"how perfectly round can ablation be".
A pinch screwy himself,
Dave F.
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