Nylon shuttlecockFeather shuttlecockShuttlecockFrom Wikipedia , th e free ency clopedia Ashuttlecock, sometimes called a bird or birdie , [1] is a high-drag projectile used in the sport of badminton. It has an open conic al shape: th e cone is formed from sixteen or so overlapping feathers, usually goose or duck and from the left wing only, embedded into a rounded cork base. The cork is covered with thin leather. The shu ttlecock's shape mak es it ext remely aerodynamically stable. Regardless of initial orientation, it will turn to fly corkfirst, and remain in the cork-first orientation. The name shuttlecock is frequently shortened to shuttle. The "shuttle" part of the name was probably derived from its back-and-forth motion during the game, resembling the shuttle of a loom; the "cock" part of the name was probably derived from the resemblance of the feathers to those on a cockerel. Contents 1 Feathered vs. synthetic shuttlecocks 2 Specifications 3 See also 4 References Feathered vs. synthetic shuttlecocks A shuttlecock is a high-drag projectile used in the sport of badminton. The feathers are brittle; shuttlecocks break easily and often need to be replaced several times during a game. For this reason, synthetic shuttlecocks have been developed that replace the feathers with a plastic skirt. Players often refer to synthetic shuttlecocks as plastics and feathered shuttlecocks asfeathers . The cost of good quality feathers is similar to that of good quality plastics, but plastics are far more durable, typically lasting many matches without any impairment to their flight. For this reason, many clubs prefer to play with plastics. [citation needed] The playing characteristics of plastics and feathers are substantially different. Shuttlecock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http: / / en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Shuttlecock 1 of 3 W ednesday 06 April 2011 08:37 AM
