| Aircraft, ships, racing boats, bullet trains, and | | | | figured out that they were regularly getting |
| Formula One racing cars are all subject to the | | | | trounced by the golfers with the dirty balls that |
| same laws of physics, the same as your golf ball. | | | | seemed to fly about twice as far and stayed a |
| The distance a ball travels after impact is | | | | lot straighter too. If you have ever played on a |
| determined primarily by the speed of the clubhead | | | | Scottish golf course you know that you do not |
| at the moment of impact. Mass is also a factor | | | | want to ever be off the fairway. |
| but limitations on clubhead size and weight mean | | | | One thing led to another and soon enough golf |
| that driver heads in particular are about as big and | | | | manufacturers were experimenting with all kinds |
| heavy as they are going to get both because the | | | | of dimple patterns and designs for their golf balls. |
| USGA wants it that way and because there is | | | | Golf ball dimples have been more of an art form |
| just a practical limit on the size of the golf club | | | | than a science because the technology needed to |
| your average golfer could swing consistently. | | | | model how air flows around a golf ball in flight has |
| Although modern golf balls are marvels of | | | | not been available. |
| chemistry there is one aspect of ball research and | | | | You would think that it must be a simple thing but |
| design that is only now beginning to take scientific | | | | the researchers tell us that even today a usable |
| baby steps. For a golf ball, just like a Formula One | | | | aerodynamic model requires 300 hours of |
| racing car, aerodynamic drag has a big effect on | | | | computing time on a parallel computer with 500 |
| the speed that the ball can travel through the air | | | | processors. That's amazing when you consider |
| while gravity tries to drag it down to earth. | | | | that your desktop computer with a Pentium 4 |
| Gravity always wins of course but research | | | | processor is more powerful than third generation |
| physicists at Arizona State University and the | | | | Cray supercomputers which were so expensive |
| University of Maryland are using supercomputers | | | | when they were made that only governments |
| to model the effects of aerodynamic drag on a | | | | could afford them. |
| golf ball in flight. | | | | So where are we in the dimple development |
| The first balls were made from gutta percha and | | | | department? The scientists say that it will take |
| stuffed with horse hair. Some enterprising low | | | | years of computer time to get enough |
| handicaper for his time determined that gutta | | | | information to get much further beyond what the |
| percha golf balls that had been roughed up a little | | | | golf ball manufacturers have done entirely by trial |
| bit traveled further and straighter than the | | | | and error. Well, maybe if we canceled the Mars |
| smooth skin new balls. His advantage time was | | | | mission... |
| short-lived because every other golfer soon | | | | |