Abstract
THE physical principles underlying the flight -o- of a golf ball were clearly laid down by the late Prof. Tait between the years 1890 and 1896.* In view of the present agitation over the standardising of the golf ball, it may be of advantage to reconsider some of the problems attacked by Tait and largely solved by him. The investigation led him into a series of researches on impact so as to obtain data for measuring the resilience of the material of which golf balls were then made. Also, by means of a specially constructed ballistic pendulum, measurements were made of the speed of a golf ball impinging on the pendulum placed at a distance of about 6 ft. from the tee. By attaching a tape to the ball, Tait was able to obtain direct measurements of the amount of underspin communicated to the ball at the instant of striking it. Outside observations were also made of the heights of the trajectories of well-driven balls, and of the ranges and times of flight. All these data were skilfully introduced into the mathematical discussion of the form of the trajectory, a problem so difficult as to be capable of solution only by approximate methods. This was done before the days of the rubber-cored ball, and the steady improvement in the manufacture of the golf ball has enabled even very ordinary players to exult in lengths of drive which in Tait's days were beyond the powers of the mightiest exponents.
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References
"On the Path of a Rotating Spherical Projectile". Trans. R.S.E., 1893 and 1896; "Some Points in the Physics of Golf", NATURE, vols. xlii., xliv., and xlviii.; "Long Driving", Badminton Magazine, 1896.
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K., C. Dynamics of Golf Balls. Nature 107, 207–210 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107207a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107207a0