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Badminton play is characterized by the unusual flight dynamics of the shuttlecock. Although world-class players can launch the projectile almost 140 m/s off the racket (the fastest tennis serves are only about 70 m/s), since aerodynamic drag is the dominant force it not only allows the shuttlecock to travel at manageable speeds by the time it crosses the court, but it permits an analytic solution for the flight path. A very approachable open-access paper by Cohen et al. in the New Journal of Physics covers everything from the history of the game to the effects on the gameplay from subtle differences in shuttlecock design.
Abstract:
The conical shape of a shuttlecock allows it to flip on impact. As a light and extended particle, it flies with a pure drag trajectory. We first study the flip phenomenon and the dynamics of the flight and then discuss the implications on the game. Lastly, a possible classification of different shots is proposed.
Original Submission
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2015, @08:43PM
You'd better start arresting birds, then. They pluck themselves to line their nests.
Unfortunately, you can't really have it all ways at once. From dead birds? Somehow the birds are ending up dead and I'll bet it wasn't natural causes. From live birds? Incompetent idiots might injure birds.
Wait, synthetics are cruelty-free! Except for the unsustainable sources of the synthetics, the energy intensive sources of synthetics, and environmental costs of the source industries ...
There ain't no such thing as a free lunch, here. If you want thermal insulation, down is still about as good as it gets and unless you're pro-petrochemicals or not worried about energy intensive industries, pretty much the only game in town. Everything else comes down to how the birds are treated.
It would make more sense, all things considered, to improve plucking processes. But I guess that sounds too much like an endorsement of sadism to people who don't really understand what's going on.