I believe it's due to the fact that you can't compress the ball quite as much when it's cold, so it will fly shorter. But I'm not 100% sure about it.
Would it be the same as in Baseball? Cause i remember watching a game one day and they were saying that the ball wasn't gooing as far because of the cool air, thats why i assumed it was something to do with the air.
Yeah, about the same I think. Also, cold air holds less water than hot air as well, and higher humidity will cause the ball to travel farther, so that has an effect as well.
Yeah, about the same I think. Also, cold air holds less water than hot air as well, and higher humidity will cause the ball to travel farther, so that has an effect as well.
So people in say a very humid area, say Florida may get an extra couple yards because of the high humidity?
Cold air makes the golf ball harder, just like freezing water makes ice. The harder golf ball can't be compressed as well therefore won't travel as far in the cold. High humidity also causes the golfball to lose distance, this is due to the air being heavier and increases the drag coefficent on the ball. Hope this helps Horsefly.
If the air density increases, the drag force also increases. That tends to decrease the distance the ball will travel. However, the lift force of a backspin also increases, which tends to keep the ball in the air longer and increase the distance traveled. Without going into details, the effect of increased drag is stronger than the effect of increased lift. Thus, when the air density increases, the ball will not travel as far.
Quote:
Thus, if we increase the proportion of water vapor molecules in the air mixture while keeping temperature and pressure constant, we lower the density. But not by much. At a temperature of 95 degrees F (35 degrees C) and a standard sea-level pressure of 29.92 inches of mercury (1013 mb), the air density is 1.1447 kg per cubic meter (0.0715 lb/ft-3) when the relative humidity is 5 percent, and 1.1310 kg m-3 (0.0706 lb ft-3) when the relative humidity is 60 percent, a decrease of only 1.2 percent. Thus, one could expect to drive a golf ball only a few yards farther on a very humid, hot summer day than on a very dry, hot summer day. With the effect of backspin added, the gain is even less, perhaps only half as much.
Quote:
Temperature has a much greater effect on air density than humidity. For example, at the same pressure (29.92 inches of mercury) and humidity (60 percent), the air density is 1.1310 kg m-3 (0.0706 lb ft-3) at 95 degrees F, as before, but 1.2437 kg m-3(0.0776 lb ft-3) at 50 degrees F (10 degrees C), a difference of almost nine percent. Thus, on a given golf course, one should expect to drive a golf ball some tens of yards farther on a hot day than on a chilly day.
I included a lot of extra junk just to include the numbers, like the part about gaining one yard or less due to increased humidity, but quite a lot farther due to increased temperature.
Try that up in Colorado or some place with the thinner air, and lower humidity. A long ball hitter can gain close to 30 yds. You need to find a site that explains hot/cold temperature effects on the composition of the ball as well.
True, but the air density is so much less in those high elevations that the humidity has much less effect. In that article I quoted, the low humidity will decrease distance by about 1 percent, while a rough figure for the increase in distance due to the lower density air in the high locations is about 15 percent. So overall they're still gaining roughly 14% in distance.
I don't know that I would total buy that one article, especially on the humidity increasing the lift all that much due to an increase in backspin. If anything I would be inclined to think that the backspin would decrease at a higher rate. All I know is in the spring, when we are still getting coldfronts, but the temperature is in the high 70's to low 80's, the drier air from the coldfront adds about 20 yds. to a good drive, to a bad hook or slice as well. :nodsmiley
As the article stated, it's not much of an increase, as the total difference as the humidity increases is only 1%. The increased resistance is what makes the ball spin more, so to me it makes sense that the backspin would increase as the humidity drops and the air becomes more dense, causing more resistance.
Aren't cold fronts usually associated with low pressure and increased winds? If that were the case, the low pressure would cause the ball to fly farther as well. That article is assuming that the temperature and pressure were constant when looking at the humidity effects.
November 13th, 2004, 12:24 AM
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