If torque is $(t=fd)$ then when hitting the golf ball with the tip of the golf club the golf club will exert the least force to generate the most torque since the tip of the golf club has the biggest radius ($r$), shouldn't we reduce the radius to increase the amount of force thus the ball can travel farther distance?
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
2
The goal with the golf club isn't to maximize force, it's to maximize energy delivered into the ball.
There's not a fixed quantity of torque that you are depositing into the ball. Both force and torque are variable based on the acceleration of the objects. Moving it up the shaft will reduce both.
$F=ma$. Given the mass of the golf ball is fixed, we deliver more force in a situation where the acceleration is greatest. Since the golf ball is significantly less massive than a driver head, the total acceleration will be close to twice the speed of the club. So increasing the speed of the collision is important.
Although you might have plenty of power to push a short club, your arms will only move so fast. By pivoting the lengthy club, the golfer is able to get the impact surface moving much faster.
What do you mean by"Although you might have plenty of power to push a short club, your arms will only move so fast", if you have more power then why your arms only move so fast? Also increasing force also increases force delivered to the ball right, therefore more acceleration so why not increase force?
These are related. Your arms can produce a certain amount of power. But delivering that power in a useful way can be difficult. Imagine being handed a single feather. You're told to throw it as far as possible.
When you push the feather, it's impossible for you to deliver a large force onto it. Your muscles are spending all their power accelerating your arms and hardly any power is sent into the feather. Assume the feather is 0.01g. If you wanted to apply 1N of force on it, you would have to accelerate it....
$$ a = F/m = 1\text{N}/ 0.01\text{gram} = 10000g$$
Since you can't accelerate your arm that fast, you can't put a 1N force on the feather. It just moves out of the way and the force is low.
Now the golf ball isn't that light, but the problem is still that the force you can put on it directly is limited by the speed of your hand.
So the way to address this is you trade force for speed with a lever. The club becomes a lever that reduces the maximum force you can deliver for an increase in speed. The farther along the club you go, the faster the impact point is moving when you swing.
Take it to the extreme and put the ball and few millimeters from the pivot point. The club will be moving very slowly, the acceleration of the ball will be small, and the force delivered will be tiny. The main thing here is that torque is not constant in this situation, so you don't necessarily increase force by changing the distance.
If the ball were massive and the collision was torque limited, then moving it up would increase the force. That's just not how the golf club works.
answered Apr 23, 2020 at 20:16
-
$\begingroup$ What do you mean by"Although you might have plenty of power to push a short club, your arms will only move so fast", if you have more power then why your arms only move so fast? $\endgroup$– ZheerCommented Apr 23, 2020 at 20:52
-
$\begingroup$ Also increasing force also increases force delivered to the ball right, therefore more acceleration so why not increase force? $\endgroup$– ZheerCommented Apr 23, 2020 at 20:54