Year end musings

[pieman]

wouldn't the one that can sustain the power and speed best give the longer distance? reason is ask is that yes, speed is speed, but if the ball stays on the clubface for even the smallest amount, the person that cannot maintain that speed the most through the ball will lose just a tad amount of energy and speed by the time the ball actually leaves. is this somewhat true?

[mandrin]

Originally Posted by JonWil

The 'heavy golfer' model will have a 'large' difference in the result since Mandrin's 'direct link' setup greatly differentiates the masses involved. "How bout them apples?"

JonWil,

If I understand correctly you feel that the ‘heavy golfer’ model will have a much larger departure velocity.
Hence we have now two posters thinking along this line.
It takes guts to not go along with the majority.

[mandrin]

Originally Posted by mjstrong

I think they'd be the same, assuming identical properties of the club and shaft. If you threw the golf ball at 160mph at a wall, would the rebound speed be different if one building weighed twice as much as another? I don't think so...

Just my reasoning...not scientific at all.

mjstrong,

Smart intuitive reasoning but do it a bit more closer resembling the case at hand.

Throw a ball towards a very light brick weighing the same as the club head, hence only a tiny 200 gram, and also at a solid brick wall.

Still quite convinced there is no difference?

[mandrin]

Originally Posted by blehnhard

I am willing to step up and embarras my self. The "heavy" hit as illustrated will apply 2.5 million time the "force" to the ball 1,280,000,256 kg/kph as opposed to 512 kg/kph However, there is a limit as to how much of this energy can translate to ball speed. As the "smash factor" seems to maximize at about 50% for any given clubhead speed, I would say that even with the significantly great force from the "heavy" hit, change in ball speed would be insignificant.

Bruce

Bruce,

There is not much of a difference between ball, 46 grams, and clubhead, 200 grams, only about 4.5 times. Don’t you feel that if I increased the ‘club head’ mass let’s say from 200 to 400 grams there would be a difference?

Are you perhaps doubting there is a trick involved since I, indeed on purpose, deliberately choose the heavy mass extremely large and this extreme choice influenced perhaps your opinion?

[mandrin]

Originally Posted by Jim Kobylinski

My guess is similar to brian's that there will be a difference; however as we say in my line of work it is statistically insignificant the change is so minute.

Jim,

You probably also guessed that his thread is not so much about being scientifically right or wrong but rather to get some idea of intuition at work in golf. We will see soon if intuitive reasoning is statistically right this time.

[mandrin]

Originally Posted by pieman

wouldn't the one that can sustain the power and speed best give the longer distance? reason is ask is that yes, speed is speed, but if the ball stays on the clubface for even the smallest amount, the person that cannot maintain that speed the most through the ball will lose just a tad amount of energy and speed by the time the ball actually leaves. is this somewhat true?

pieman,

It does not matter if you are right or wrong, we will see about that later. I am curious about our intuition as it acts in golf.

Am I correct, interpreting that your intuition tells you that there must be a significant difference in departure speed ?

[mandrin]

Originally Posted by jpeck

I'll say there would be a small difference in velocity. If I recall correctly, Cochran and Stubbs (1968?) suggested about one metre more distance on a drive hit with a very heavy club.

jpeck,

Is it hence correct to assume that you expect, with a extremely heavy clubhead, there to be a reasonable significant increase in departure velocity?

[Jon Hardesty]

Intuitively I think people would pick the larger mass object to increase the velocity of the ball. However, knowing what I think I know, I am staying with my original position in saying that there will be no difference in velocity. Intuition is different from fact.

[Vicious Circle]

The difference would be negligible IMO.There would be an impulse delivered by the ball to the light steel shaft in both examples and in both examples, the ball is long gone before the impulse gets to the heavy golfer or to the free end of the shaft. The properties of whatever lies just beyond the clubhead in either example are not available to influence the ball.

[Ryan Smither]

I'll take the other route ... Daddy needs golf balls ... Large mass produces less velocity