s after being soaked in water?Independent Variable: My three different brands of golf balls. Dependent Variable: Will water seep in or not and if it seeps in will it have aneffect on the golf balls distance. Control: My unsoaked golf balls. Reasearch: Per information sent to me by Titleist: Exposing a golf ball to waterhas a negative effect on the golf balls performance. On average, after one weeksubmerged in water, a two piece golf ball will lose 6 yards off a drive.
The loss ofperformance for wound construction is even more significant, averaging a loss ofdistance of up to 9 yards. The History of the Golf Ball: The first ever golf ball was called the Feathery andintroduced in the 1400s it was a stitched leather pouch soaked and then stuffedwith goose feathers. Upon drying, the feathers expanded and the leathercontracted, forming an extremely hard mass. This was hammered round andpainted white.
The feathery sometimes flew over 300 yards and was durable – untilit got wet. Then it would split open. The Gutta percha was introduced in 1850 andwas made of a rubberlike sap from the Malaysian sapdilla tree. The material washeated to soften it and then hand-formed into a solid, one piece ball.
Gutta perchawas black, so the early balls were painted white. Easier to make, less expensive,and more durable, the gutta revolutionized golf. When golfers discovered thatballs and nicks flew longer and straighter then new ones, manufactures began togive them a textured, even pattern surface. The most popular early pattern was thebramble, which featured raised round bumps in concentric circles. the first woundrubber ball was introduced in 1898. the three-piece Haskell was the first ball tomix distance and control.
Cleveland entrepreneur Coburn Haskell, with AkronBFGoodrich engineer Bertram Work, wound continuous rubber thread underextreme tension around a small, solid rubber core, and wrapped the result in agutta percha cover. Balata rubber soon replaced gutta percha, and dimples firstappeared in 1909. The first two piece golf ball was introduced in 1968 by RobertMolitor a Spalding researcher who developed a ball consisting of a solid centerwith a tough thermoplastic cover. The two-piece ball sacrificed control fordistance but has improved so much that today it represents 70% of all golf ballproduction. Interesting facts about dimples: Through my research I have found that even theslightest change in a dimple pattern could cause you to lose many yards off of yourshot.
By adding 0. 001 inch to a dimples depth could boost a drive length by 15yards. Hitting a shot 250 yards without dimples could only go about 125 yards. Shallow dimples allow the ball to fly higher but without much roll at the end. Deeper dimples create more turbulence and flatten the arc of the golf balls drive.
Dimples disrupt the flow of air around the ball, thereby decreasing drag, or theairs resistance to the balls movement through it. The dimples enhance lift as theballs spin increases the air velocity over the ball and reduces it below the ball. Air pressure thus is created underneath and a vacuumlike condition above, similarto the lift generated by the wings of a plane in flight. More important than thenumber of dimples is their coverage – the amount of a balls surface that is dimpledand how they are distributed.
The goal is more uniform dimple coverage. About70 to 80% of the golf ball is covered in dimples. The majority of dimple designstoday are based on the icosahedralpattern which Titleist introduced in 1973. Thispattern divided the cover into 20 identical triangular faces. Titleist experimentswith some 50 to 100 dimple patterns a year and has eight in current production.
In 1909 spalding invented the first ball with dimples and now make three basicdimple patterns. Even the shape of dimples have changed over the years. Nolonger are they all round. Wilsons truncated cone dimple design features a flatbottom and sidewalls, for reduced drag.
Bullet and Aero which I used in myproject have new dimple designs. On Bullets new ball one third of the dimples aresquare for increased backspin and Aero a brand new ball made by Top Flight hasround and tear drop dimples. Aeros tear drop shaped dimple design reducesinefficient areas of the dimple which cause drag. Less drag equals more distance. Until 1983 most golf balls had 324 or 336 dimples. The introduction of Titleist 384led to a dimple race among manufactures.
It reached a peak when Excalibur GolfCo. introduced a golf ball with 812 dimples the most ever on a golf ball. Theimportant factor is coverage, not count. There is no magic number it is how theyare put on the golf ball. 812 did not mean a golf ball would go any farther youcould get sop many that you are back to a smooth ball. The most efficient numberof dimples is 320 to 420.
The average amount of dimples today is about 400. Some companies now are using software to design there dimple patterns. Aerodynamics: It was nearly the turn of the century before anyone realized thetremendous significance of aerodynamic forces for golf ball performance. Aperson who could drive the ball 200 yards in the air under normal circumstanceswould be hard pressed to beat 140 on the moon where there is no air. This is inspite of the fact that the latter case eliminates all the deleterious effects of windresistance, known to aerodynamicists as drag. Unfortunately, it also eliminatesthe vast beneficial effects of lift, the same aerodynamic force that keeps airplanesin the air.
A properly designed golf ball uses these two forces in concert toproduce a remarkable degree of air worthiness, considering the less the sleekprofile of a typical golf ball. Hypothesis: I predict that unsoaked golf balls will reach further distances than thesoaked balls because of my extensive research on this topic. Experiment: Built apparatus to strike golf balls at consistent speeds. Soaked threedifferent brands of golf balls in water for three weeks. Took three soaked balls andthree matching unsoaked balls and conducted my study.
After hitting each ballwith my apparatus four times I measured the distance each ball traveled to thequarter inch. After hitting each ball I marked it with a piece of masking tape anddocumented each onto a separate sheet of graph paper. Material List: 2×4 woodScrewsSluge HammerMetal RodeSoaked Golf BallsUnsoaked Golf BallTeesPaper Cup2 Hose FastenersResults: Through my research I have found some very interesting results. I havefound that Areo went the furthest of the three balls that I tested. Aeros unsoakedgolf balls went 96 5 after averaging the four tests, and its soaked golf ball went94 4 a difference of 2 1.
After averaging Titleists unsoaked golf balls I cameup with the figure 95 4 and its soaked golf balls came out to 93 even, adifference of 1 8. After testing the third and final golf balls, Bullet, I came upwith the totals being rather consistent with the others. The unsoaked Bullet golfballs went further once more with a distance of 95 3and its matching soakedgolf balls went a shorter distance again with a distance of 92 5and its differencecame out to be 2 8. According to my research my findings are very consistentwith the information that I have received from the Titliest Corporation.
A twopiece golf ball will lose 6 yards off of a average drive after just one weeksubmerged in water. Conclusion: Through my reasearch I have concluded that unsoaked golf balls willtravel further distances then golf balls that have been soaked in water. I have alsofound that an unsoaked golf ball will travel about 2. 3% more then a soaked golfball.
Ill tell you one thing, this project was an awsome learning experience,another way to beat my golf buddys on the course, every advantage helps in thisgame. Bibliography1. All This For A Golf Ball, Dimples Create Engineering Challenge, Evolution Of The Golf Ball,The Effect Of Altitude, Temperature, and Humidity On The Flight Of A Golf Ball, 11/3/97,Titliest And Foot-Joy Wordwide pg. 3-5-7-9. 2.
Aerodynamic Basic, The Dimple Patterns, New Trends In Golf Balls, 11/9/97, Wilson SportingGoods, Co. Golf Division, pg. 2-9. 3. Spalding Firsts, Spalding Fact Golf Book, 11/7/97, Spalding Co. , pg.
4-5. 4. The effect that water has on an golf balls distance, Julie Haek, Precept, Bridge Stone,11/15/97. 5.
Titliest,11/12/97 on America Online, http://www.Titliest.com.6.Dimple Designs, Bill Richards, Dimple Designer, Titliest And Foot-Joy Worldwide, 11/11
