A dimpled balls travel up to four
times farther than smooth-surfaced golf ball.
The early golf ball, known as a featherie, was simply a leather pouch filled
with goose feathers. In order to obtain a hard ball, the pouch was filled wet
with wet goose feathers. The typical drive with this type of ball was about 150
to 175 yards. In 1845 a new ball was used made of gum. The gum was heated and
molded into a perfect sphere. This was a failure and did not work as well as
the featherie, until someone noticed that the old gum balls flew farther. The
balls had become scored and marked, by trial and error they ended up with the
dimple golf ball. The science of aerodynamics helps explain the dimpled
phenomenon. When a ball travels rapidly through air, the air is pushed apart by
the ball. The air joins back together behind the ball, but the joining is full
of eddies and turbulence. The turbulent wake reduces the pressure behind the
ball, pulling it back and slowing it down. The dimples on a golf ball trap a
thin layer of turbulent air all around the ball, even wrapping it around the
trailing half. Because the turbulent layer is very thin, the air joins together
more smoothly behind the ball, creating a smaller wake. The ball feels less
backward drag, and it flies farther.
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