How many dots are on a golf ball

Holding your arm out of the window of a moving car easily illustrates this phenomenon. Aerodynamicists break down the force into two components: lift and drag. Drag acts to directly oppose motion, whereas lift acts in a direction perpendicular to motion it is usually directed upward in the case of a golf ball. As you rotate your hand in the air stream, you vary the amount and direction of the lift and drag forces acting on your hand.

A moving object has a high-pressure area on its front side. Air flows smoothly over the contours of the front side and eventually separates from the object toward the back side.

A moving object also leaves behind a turbulent wake region where the air flow is fluctuating or agitated, resulting in lower pressure behind it. The size of the wake affects the amount of drag on the object. Dimples on a golf ball create a thin turbulent boundary layer of air that clings to the ball's surface.

This allows the smoothly flowing air to follow the ball's surface a little farther around the back side of the ball, thereby decreasing the size of the wake. A dimpled ball thus has about half the drag of a smooth ball. Dimples also affect lift. A smooth ball with backspin creates lift by warping the airflow such that the ball acts like an airplane's wing. The lift and drag forces on a golf ball are very sensitive to dimple depth: a depth change of 0.

Many golfers have a special coin, a poker chip, a magnetic decorative coin, or something similar. Ball-markers must be artificial, such as a tee, coin, the toe of your putter, or other small piece of equipment. A natural object like a leaf or twig may not be used as a ball-marker.

This helps the golfer get the ball started on the correct line. It helps, in other words, with aim and alignment. You are not required to place the ball marker behind the golf ball before lifting your ball on the putting green. You can place your ball marker in front of the ball or beside it, so long as you replace the ball in the correct position later. The circumference of dimples also varies from model to model.

However, golf ball dimples are required to have a symmetrical arrangement, and must be within a specific range of radius and depth. With older golf ball designs dating back hundreds of years, the most consistent thing about their weights, shapes and sizes was the inconsistency. Currently, a golf ball is required to have a mass no more than 1. The general size of golf balls has a similar history to the golf ball weights.

In the past, there was great variation among golf balls. But now balls are required to have a consistent size. According to the rules, the diameter of a golf ball must not be less than 1. As we noted earlier, the amount of dimples on a golf ball varies greatly from model to model and manufacturer to manufacturer. Additionally, the size of golf ball dimples and the dimple pattern on golf balls is specific to each model. So which dimple pattern is right for you? But what would happen if a golf ball had no dimples at all, or if dimples covered only part of the golf ball?

Wall spoke with Nick Nardacci of Titleist, who had performed a dimple test for Titleist. In the test, they set up a swing robot to hit two different balls: one with dimples on just one side, and one that was completely smooth. The ball with dimples on one side produced a snap hook.