What does the term "more stable" mean?

[BHolicki]

Example: I was at a DD Two disc challenge today and asked the guy running the event how the two plastics fuzion and lucid fly with the escape. And he said the fuzion is "more stable". Can someone clear this up for me?

 

[Allurex]

inb4 ****storm

 

[prerube]

It is a huge debate.
to some it means more overstable
while others it means closer to nuetral.

 

[Buiscutboy]

From what I've heard about that disc, the Fuzion wants to fade earlier and harder than the Lucid, and maybe doesn't turn as much.

That's what I usually think someone means when they say a disc is more stable.

 

[craftsman]

Internet kids like to say stable refers to the one or two discs that are stable.
Real discers use stable as overstable.

 

[Ted Bratton]

Personally more stable and less stable makes more sense to me, so that is how I choose to word it. Therefore I think the person who said that means that it is more overstable.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

IMO, it's a simple matter of understanding the English language. The term "more" is relative to begin with, and has no context without a comparative reference. "I need more money," implies you need more than you currently have, or than the amount being discussed.

One disc can be more stable than another, meaning it has greater stability than the other.
A Firebird is more stable than a Viking, which is more stable than a Valk, which is more stable than a Sidewinder... Road Runner.

Hence the phrase "more stable" can be used to compare two understable discs (Sidewinder and Roadrunner) relative to each other.

Describing a single disc as being more stable makes no sense, as it lacks a basis for comparison.

Within the context of the game, Understable, Stable, and Overstable make sense when describing a single disc, but in actuality, even they are relative terms.

 

[joshuajames]

IMO, it's a simple matter of understanding the English language. The term "more" is relative to begin with, and has no context without a comparative reference. "I need more money," implies you need more than you currently have, or than the amount being discussed.

One disc can be more stable than another, meaning it has greater stability than the other.
A Firebird is more stable than a Viking, which is more stable than a Valk, which is more stable than a Sidewinder... Road Runner.

Hence the phrase "more stable" can be used to compare two understable discs (Sidewinder and Roadrunner) relative to each other.

Describing a single disc as being more stable makes no sense, as it lacks a basis for comparison.

Within the context of the game, Understable, Stable, and Overstable make sense when describing a single disc, but in actuality, even they are relative terms.

What he said.


Seriously

 

[plastic cannon]

I get around the whole stable, overstable thing by just calling overstable stuff beefy. I.e That firebird isn't as beefy as this one. Problem solved.


Edit: 2,000 posts.

*Insert speech here*

 

[blackcatsmith]

My table is more stable than my file cabinet. I think of stable as zero. anything in the negative is under stable, anything in the positive is over stable. The higher your disc is over stable the faster it will hook up and fade . The lower your disc is under stable the more the disc will readily turn away from the direction of it's eventual fade. There should be a disc named the Zero. or is there one? Anyway that's my understanding of stable. There are many many other attributes that go along with a disc's stability, be it over or under....wind comes to mind. Saying something is more stable does remind me of ads for things purposing to have "more taste!". Which only makes sense in neanderthal speak.

 

[PMantle]

Internet kids like to say stable refers to the one or two discs that are stable.
Real discers use stable as overstable.

Perfect :cheers:

 

[throwfromthewoods]

Ha, I like to mess with people on this topic. "Stable" means the disc's ability for a straight flight. Less stable can technically mean overstable OR understable, because both describe something "less than a straight flight." And more stable is a term that doesn't really mean anything because there's no way to be "more than a straight flight," unless you want to talk about a disc skipping points in space to get from A to B.

Relative to an understable or overstable disc, another disc can be "more stable," or more prone to straight flight. A disc "more stable" than a Firebird is the same phrasing as a disc "more stable" than a Roadrunner. They both describe a disc closer to the straight flight line.

But, it's like people who use Supercharged and Turbocharged interchangeably. They know what they are trying to say, lol

 

[john1bl]

I have noticed that a lot of people will use more or less stable to compare disks that are either more overstable or less over stable. It is like a new RR is more stable than a beat RR , but the new RR has more overstable flight than a beat one. In other word more stable means that the disk flies more towards over stable flight and less stable means the disk will flies more under stable. No disk flies completely stable.

 

[Halcón]

More accurate terms are High Speed Stability, and Low Speed Stability. HSS, and LSS. A "stable" disc will have more LSS, meaning it can resist turn in the initial part of it's flight. Typically, a "overstable" disc has more HSS, and LSS, meaning it resists turn, and fades more at the end of it's flight.

 

[Halcón]

I have noticed that a lot of people will use more or less stable to compare disks that are either more overstable or less over stable. It is like a new RR is more stable than a beat RR , but the new RR has more overstable flight than a beat one. In other word more stable means that the disk flies more towards over stable flight and less stable means the disk will flies more under stable. No disk flies completely stable.

It's disc, with a "C."

 

[john1bl]

Never was good at spelling

 

[plattertoss88]

IMO, it's a simple matter of understanding the English language. The term "more" is relative to begin with, and has no context without a comparative reference. "I need more money," implies you need more than you currently have, or than the amount being discussed.

One disc can be more stable than another, meaning it has greater stability than the other.
A Firebird is more stable than a Viking, which is more stable than a Valk, which is more stable than a Sidewinder... Road Runner.

Hence the phrase "more stable" can be used to compare two understable discs (Sidewinder and Roadrunner) relative to each other.

Describing a single disc as being more stable makes no sense, as it lacks a basis for comparison.

Within the context of the game, Understable, Stable, and Overstable make sense when describing a single disc, but in actuality, even they are relative terms.

Well said my friend.:clap:

 

[IronJack]

Back in the day we only had one kind of plastic and all discs were flippy. If a disc wasn't flippy, just hit a tree or two and it would be flippy. When you wanted to throw far you threw your disc on a 7 o'clock hyzer and high in the air. It would turn over and slowly fade back. We called this a flex shot. It's a line you don't see thrown anymore. Nobody threw forehand with power because the discs weren't stable enough. We all wore Zubaz and had majestic mullets. We used our fanny packs to hold the three discs we played with. Nobody had more than three discs. If you had more than one you were considered a pro. Most people didn't even have a putter. Most people didn't even know what a putter was. Most people had a shark or cyclone, and that was it. This was the silver age of disc golf. The golden age was in the 70s when people were using superpuppies and lids from their butter bowls. You will never be as cool as those guys were. Don't even try.

In the silver age we only referred to our discs as stable or unstable. A new roc was stable. A beat roc was unstable. When we said a disc was more stable, we meant it flew closer to a new roc. We didn't say things like high speed stability or low speed stability because we were burnouts and that was high-tech science talk. If you were a brainiac you had heard the term "hyzer" before, but only once, and you didn't know what it meant. We didn't have the internet so we couldn't spend time staring into screens furiously typing feeble arguments about pointless debates regarding inconsequential issues that, in the end, didn't even matter to the people that were engaged in the debate. We had to find other ways to occupy our time. So we played disc golf. And read books that we got from a place we called a "library"... but I digress.

Stable and unstable. That was it. If someone said "more stable" or "less stable." It was clear what they meant. If someone was trying to get technical they'd say something like "actually it isn't 'less stable,' it's 'more unstable.'" This didn't bother us, because we'd just beat that guy up and take his beer. We were very thirsty back then and could always use an extra beer or two.

Then the disc manufacturers came out with the first discs that could truly be called overstable, like vipers and banshees. This blew our minds. We started throwing flex shots with the disc not released at 7 o'clock, or even flat, but on an anhyzer, ... and it still flexed back. Although we would have thought you were talking about beer if you said "anhyzer." At first we thought these discs were the result of some dark, arcane arts and it frightened us. Not disimilar to how the cavemen must have first reacted to fire, I imagine. Eventually, we got used to it, but we had difficultly talking about our new discs and the shots we made with them. The words simply didn't exist yet. Describing them as more stable didn't seem sufficient. So we'd say things like superstable. And megastable. And bigtime stable. And hardcore stable. I'm sure in Boston they said they were wicked stable, but we were midwesterners and we didn't say "wicked." We said "hardcore, bigtime." One time a guy thought he'd be cute and said "bigcore, hardtime." We beat him up and took his beer.

Over time the manufacturers started coming out with new plastics and the concept of premium plastic was invented, and then one day a girl played, and the game would never be the same. Anyway, eventually someone came up with the term overstable to describe these new discs and the way they flew. This caught on and unstable didn't seem to work as well as a term in opposition, understable made intuitive sense. Then people started using those terms, but over time we missed describing our discs as stable. By this time the internet was invented and we all called each other names over Prodigy .... oh, that might be confusing to you.

You see back in the day there were only two ways on the internet. Prodigy and AOL. Both used things we called "landlines." You'd connect your computer to the landline in your house, your "modem" would make a bunch of digital, sproingy type noises, and then you could either go to a "billboard" and spend the entire night downloading a file of what was supposed to contain a single picture of Gloria Estafan in what you were assured was a state of undress, or you could go to a "chatroom," and have real time discussions with people you didn't like. Anyway, Prodigy was a internet service provider that had a logo that was a sylized five pointed star... completely different than anything you may be familiar with. AOL was Prodigy's competition and eventually beat them out. They sent you a CD every ten minutes. It was nice. Especially if you were a disc golfer and liked to throw them like frisbees. Although they were very unstable. Or so we thought. It turned out we were wrong the whole time. They weren't unstable, they were UNDERstable. Thanks guy-whose-been-playing-the-sport-for-two-whole-months for correcting us.

As I was saying, we missed calling our discs stable, so eventually somebody figured out that if discs that turn are understable, and discs that fade are overstable, then discs that go straight must be "stable." We would have beat him up and took his beer, but this was fist said over the internet in a chatroom and we didn't know where he was. Ever since then you'll find people on the internet who insist that discs that go straight are stable. These people will reason that since a disc that flies straight is stable, then "more stable" must mean that a disc flies even more straight. If I ever figure out where these people are...

All of the preceding is 100% true.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

^ ...and I thought I was longwinded!

IronJack, I think you forgot this: © 2013

 

[jimbosprint]

Here is something I made to help people understand stability: