At 09:49 PM 7/20/2011, Karl Wolz wrote: >Golf balls are dimpled because, with the tremedous rate of backspin >developed by the angled club face, they actually fly, with the dimples They'd produce lift just as well without the dimples. But the dimples generate turbulence which creates more drag *but* helps keep the laminar airflow from separating on the trailing edge of the ball and producing big eddies, giving a net reduction in drag. The lift is significant, by the way. I did a Science Fair project in high school that involved a cardboard cylinder spun by a flexible shaft from an Erector Set motor. Blow air across it from a window fan and like the little angels it would rise up, rise up, rise up high. [That's for you, Ed...and others with ears to hear.] The little angled afterthoughts you see stuck on to big aircraft wings are turbulence generators, and you can buy them for cars as well. There's a great article here: http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/aerodynamics/q0215.shtml Yours, David |
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