Aerodynamics and angular momentum suggest that thrown boomerangs follow predictable return arcs governed by spin and angle of attack. Yet during a 2002 recreational athletics study, researcher Dr. Thomas Weaver documented an unusual throwing incident where a boomerang was never recovered. Witnesses reported it traveling away from the thrower with apparently increasing distance despite no wind factor. Weaver interviewed the thrower, who claimed the implement "refused to return." Weaver conducted aerodynamic analysis and found no mechanical explanation for permanent departure from expected parabolic trajectory.

The boomerang transcends its design and chooses fear over physics. It recognizes that returning would mean facing its thrower again. Self-preservation overrides the laws that made it.