Hot N' Cold Balls
Table of Contents: Top
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Lab Design
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Background .:. Top
Golf is a game enjoyed by many. Men, women, and children of all ages play golf. The point of the game is to hit the ball with a club as few times as necessary to get the ball in the cup up to 500+ yards away. Since the hole can be such a massive distance away, it is important to hit the golf ball far with every stroke (Golf.com). Golf balls have many regulations dimensions and weight. For example, they cannot exceed 1.620 ounces (45.93g) and cannot have a diameter smaller than 42.67 mm. There are also regulations on how fast the ball can fly through the air (250 ft./s). Hard wooden balls were first used for the game of golf in the early 17th century. The balls were then changed to what was called a Featherie ball. This ball was composed of a hand sewn pouch that was stuffed with chicken or goose feathers and then coated with paint. Because of its success, the Featherie ball was used for almost the entire next two centuries. The major downside of these balls was production. They were extremely difficult to make and were also expensive (Jenchura). At the turn of the century in 1898, rubber was first implemented as a core for the golf balls and now this newly found design allowed manufactures to produce balls at a faster rate. Modern golf balls consist of several layers of synthetic materials (Jarret). There are balls with different amounts of internal layers ranging from two to four. They are made in a variety of different materials and have a variety of different “feels” depending on the experience and skill level of the golfer (Golf Balls Get Built-In Zip). When a golf ball is struck with the face of the club, the ball compresses. This means that at the moment the ball is at the point of contact, the ball acts much like a spring, the “spring of each ball can change depending on the internal composition of the ball. The hot ball will reach a point, however, where it will either become sticky or lose its rigidity so much that it won't return to normal after impact. Beyond this point the ball will bounce less and eventually not at all. Aerodynamics is a large part of the design and flight distance of a golf ball. Other factors could be club weight distribution, air temperature, and elevation/density of air. Those facts are well known. What this study is going to look for is isolate the temperature of the ball to see (http://golftips.golfsmith.com/effect-golf-ball-temperature-golf-ball-performance-1433.html) if there is an optimal temperature for the golf ball for added distance.
The purpose of this investigation is to examine the relationship, if any, between the temperature of a golf ball and the height to which the ball bounces.
Hypothesis .:. Top
We believe that regardless of the height and the complexion of the ball, the higher temperature of the ball, the higher the ball will bounce.
We used four different temperatures to test how high different brands of golf balls would bounce at those specific temperatures. Every brand of ball was taken to six different temperatures, three cold temperatures, two hotter temperature, and one at room temperature. To cool the balls to the two low temperatures, we used a cooler of dry ice, and a freezer and a refrigerator. The coldest temperature was that of the golf balls placed into the dry ice, followed by the freezer balls as the second coldest temperature. Obviously, the room temperature balls were used with no changes made to them. The hotter balls were put into heated water, one with the stove on low and the other boiling. We couldn’t go any hotter because the golf balls started to deform in boiling water. The golf balls only needed a few minutes to become the desired temperature. To measure the height of the bounce we placed a tape measurer vertically on a cabinet aligned next to the ball drop zone. We dropped every ball by tapping them off of a ruler with a circular nest to retain the ball at the end. The nest served two purposes, first, to make a consistent drop and eliminate human error, secondly, it held the ball so there was a consistent height for each different drop. We eyeballed the height of the bounce and recorded them. The balls were labeled by color, black, green and blue. The black ball was a Titleist Pro V1 Blue: Maxfly Pro-Revolution Green: Maxfly Pro-Rev-Distance
List of Materials .:. Top
· Tape measurer
· Drop site
· Ruler with circular end (“nest”) to hold golf balls
· Eyes
· Freezer
· Dry Ice
· Stove
· Water
· Golf Balls
Data Tables:
|
Ball |
Dry Ice (-109.3 F) |
Freezer (2 F) |
Chilled (33F) |
Room Temperature (76 F) |
106.6 F |
Boiling Water (212 F) |
|
Green |
47.000 |
50.000 |
62.000 |
67.500 |
66.000 |
60.000 |
|
|
44.000 |
50.000 |
63.000 |
67.000 |
66.500 |
60.000 |
|
|
46.000 |
51.000 |
63.500 |
68.000 |
66.500 |
59.000 |
|
Blue |
31.000 |
59.000 |
61.000 |
65.000 |
64.000 |
56.000 |
|
|
31.500 |
60.000 |
61.000 |
64.500 |
65.000 |
59.000 |
|
|
32.000 |
61.000 |
60.500 |
65.000 |
66.000 |
57.000 |
|
Black |
35.000 |
59.000 |
62.500 |
66.750 |
62.000 |
59.000 |
|
|
34.000 |
59.000 |
62.000 |
66.500 |
62.500 |
57.000 |
|
|
35.000 |
60.000 |
62.500 |
66.000 |
62.500 |
59.000 |
Average Results"
|
|
Dry Ice |
Freezer |
Refridgerated |
Room Temperature |
Stove on low |
Boiling Water |
|
Ball |
-109.300 |
2.000 |
33.000 |
76.000 |
106.600 |
212.000 |
|
Green |
45.667 |
50.333 |
62.833 |
67.500 |
66.333 |
59.667 |
|
Blue |
31.500 |
60.000 |
60.833 |
64.833 |
65.000 |
57.333 |
|
Black |
34.667 |
59.333 |
62.333 |
66.417 |
62.333 |
58.333 |
Text Data:
Graphs:
Conclusion .:. Top
Background Information:
Initial Hypothesis: We believe that regardless of the internals and complexion of the ball, the higher temperature of the ball, the higher the ball will bounce.
Results:
The results of our data strongly negate our hypothesis that the higher the temperature the ball was heated, the higher its resulting bounce would be. Essentially, we tried to find the coefficient of restitution in our experiment. Our results showed that the golf ball bounced best at its “regular” room temperature state. We also found that the colder the temperature of the ball got, the lesser the rebound height was. Therefore, our hypothesis was correct up until the ball was heated past room temperature. The data showed that when the ball was placed in boiling water, the rebound height decreased by roughly 20 percent. Overall, we found that the ball had the highest bounce when it was at room temperature.
During our experiment, there could have been possible errors in the reading of the resulting rebound bounce of the ball. We would place the uncertainty to within ˝ inch. Also, the drop of the ball may not have been exactly the same in each trial. Therefore, the path of the ball as it fell to the floor could have been slightly altered; thus, changing the resulting rebound.
If this was to be repeated, we would construct a more accurate method of dropping the ball. Possibly through some sort of tube that kept the path of the ball straight each trial. Also, we would use video analysis software and a video recorder to tape the path of the ball in order to get a more accurate reading of how high the ball bounced each trial.
Overall, we believe that the results of our experiment were as such because golf balls are instruments used in sports made for the superior performance of each player. Therefore, the balls are made to fly, bounce, and roll at their most optimal ability while within a few degrees of room temperature.
"Golf Balls Get Built-In Zip." Popular Science July 1950: 123-125. http://books.google.com/books?id=Qi0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA123&dq=popular+science+1950+ferry+hops&hl=en&ei=Rjq9TIjOJYyhnQf01-2JDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=true
Golf Balls Get Built in Zip focuses on the development and history of the pre 1950's golf ball into today's modern ball.
Golf.com. 31 October 2012. 1 November 2012. http://www.golf.com/
Golf.com explained the modern golf ball and how it was technologically engineered.
http://golftips.golfsmith.com/effect-golf-ball-temperature-golf-ball-performance-1433.html. 19 March 2012. 16 October 2012. http://golftips.golfsmith.com/effect-golf-ball-temperature-golf-ball-performance-1433.html.
Golf Smith helped to explain how temperatures effect various golf balls including the ambient temperature.
Jarret, Tom. http://www.standrews.org.uk/welcome/history/timeline.html. October 2009. 19 October 2012. http://www.standrews.org.uk/
standrews.org.uk was used to explain and cite the history of golf from its first stages as a new sport.
Golf Europe a history of the Golf Ball: http://www.golfeurope.com/almanac/history/golf_ball.htm
A History of the Golf Ball focused on the progression of the golf ball and how it was first created using feathers and leather.