In Search of the Perfect Parabola

Behind David Needham's thrilling dart victory, there's a research question

Friday, February 22, 2008

Durham, NC -- Professor David Needham (Mechanical Engineering and Material Science) has been playing darts in the Triangle Dart League in Chapel Hill ever since he arrived at Duke as an assistant professor in 1987. And at precisely 10:23 p.m., on Thursday night, 7th February, 2008, the team he plays on, “Darty Old Men”, sponsored by the favorite Chapel Hill bar, Top of the Hill, won their third End-of-Season Tournament, in the past four seasons.

On a night when the team got only one point from their best player, David Annas, “Dr. Dart” (Needham) and doubles partner Matt Varnadoe made 8 points between them, winning all their singles and playing and winning together in doubles. But it was the team captain, Gregory Allen (one of their traditionally worst players) who hit the tournament dart. After 2.5 hours of match play, the score was tied at nine with the last doubles match determining the winner. Allen and partner Chip Schenk stepped up against the opposing team – “Spartans” in a game of 501, best of three “legs” or games.

Chip started out with a 110, hitting a triple 12, a triple 18 and just missed triple 20, and he was throwing at 20 all the time! It was that kind of night.

When Gregg and Chip missed the 20, they invariably missed in the black (12s and 18s!! rather than the low scoring 5s and 1s). They won their first leg, then the Spartans team came back with the second leg, and so it was all on the last leg of the last game.

In this final, nail-biting leg, both teams inched their way down from 501, neither one could really pull a head with a ton (100 points from a triple 20, 20, 20) or higher. Finally, Spartans got down to 40 first.

The Rules of 501

In 501, Each player starts with a score of 501 and takes turns to throw three darts. The score for each turn is calculated and deducted from the players total. The objective is to be the first player to reduce the score to exactly zero, the only caveat being that the last dart thrown must land in a double or the bullseye. Most 501 players aim for a double 20, but the risk there is if they miss just to the left or right they’re likely to get only one or five points (note the outline of the board left)

So, “Darty Old Men” had one turn to win the game before Spartans had a chance to double out. Chip stepped up. He still had 63 left. How could he take that out in 2 or 3 darts? We advised him to go triple 13, double 16, and if he missed to go 13, center bull. He hit a 6! Then went for 17 and hit a 2. We all shouted “15!” And he hit the 15 leaving Gregory a shot at double 20, but only if the other team missed. The season came down to which team first got a double 20.

.Jeff from Spartans, who had nailed the double 20 in the last leg to win that game, missed the double, giving Gregg his shot. “Make that wood-shedding count.” “This is what all your practice was all about.” “Bring it on home, Gregg,” the rest of the Darty Old Men shouted encouragingly. He stepped up, first dart, double 20, sweet! The tournament was won!

“So what happened Gregg? How can you hit 12s all night and then step up and hit double 20?”

“Well, I had been hitting 12s, so I figured I needed to step a bit to the right, so I did, and it went in!”

dartthrowers

From left, Needham, Allen and Schenk.

Then they all went to Top of the Hill and drank out of the cup! The night wasn’t only fun because they won the tournament. For Professor Needham, the Duke win in Chapel Hill the night before, gave him much fodder for poking fun at the dyed-in the wool Tar Heels on his team, but the League Tournament victory overshadowed all that Dook-Carolina rivalry.

The Triangle Dart League in Chapel Hill is one of the oldest in the area. It is a “non-profit organization that began in 1971 in Chapel Hill and has been thriving ever since. The league is known as a place that plays a competitive, yet fun game of steel tip darts with a “diverse crowd” who wants to enjoy old friends and make new ones.”

That’s the story behind the championship, but behind the darts there’s an engineering question. A native of England – the home of darts – Needham has had a long interest in darts, (he’s even been known to throw some darts in class) --the action, how to be more consistent, dart mechanics, and aerodynamics or ballistics.

Needham brought up the subject in an advising session with Daniel Hanks, (MEMS junior, --and Co-President Duke Outing and Ski-Snow board team). “I want an engineering student to help me analyze the parabola for a specific set of condition as and model the role of the flight, (shape, area, etc)” Needham said.

Hanks was eager to work on it, but having a stint abroad starting in early February in Germany, he said that he would only have a few weeks. Needham recruited the help of Professor Don Bliss, a world-class aerodynamicist, and Hanks did some analyses. Together Hanks and Bliss ran some simulations of dart flight-dart shaft combinations and have started to come up with some interesting conclusions. With Hanks leaving for Germany earlier this month, they are looking for another student to step in and continue this work.

Ultimately, working with Professor Rachael Brady, Needham wants to use the DIVE (Duke Immersive Virtual Environment) as a training technique that draws the parabola in a virtual space in DIVE goggles in front of his eyes, for the perfect shot, and can train him to propel the dart along this track for any number, anywhere on the board. Having tested this he thinks he can design a device to help novices and professionals alike to guide their throws on the “perfect parabola.”

The new Triangle Dart season starts in Chapel Hill on March 6. All darters are welcome to form teams and join. But look out; your team will have to come up against Needham’s “Darty Old Men” at least twice in the season, and maybe in the tournament.

“Third trophy in 4 seasons. I’m talking Dynasty! (that's pronounced din-asty, in English),” Needham said.