Physics of Golf

In this video we showed the physics of hitting a golf ball with a club and the calculations we did to arrive to our conclusions of the physics behind the movement of the ball after being hit. Our movie only has the physics of hitting the ball with a driver club, we did not test any others.

Horizontal Velocity

Horizontal Velocity is the speed that an object travels at horizontally. It is calculated in meters per second (m/s). In our calculations, we found that the average distance that the ball was hit was 200m and the average time was around 5s. We then found that the horizontal velocity of the ball was 38.5m/s which is 85mph.

Vertical Velocity

Vertical Velocity is the vertical speed at which an object has while in motion. Vertical Velocity can also be negative for when an object is moving downwards. When we hit the golf ball, we couldn't tell for sure how far the ball was going up so we calculated it differently than if we had known the height. We calculated the ball's acceleration due to gravity and then the time it rose in the air. That brought us to the answer of 24m/s or 54mph for the upwards speed of the ball.

Total Velocity

The total velocity is the average speed an object is traveling. For our project, the total velocity was the ball's speed while in the air. To find this, we had to use the pythagorean theorm, a^2 + b^2 = c^2. This means squaring the a and b values to find c squared. The horizontal velocity was the a value, vertical velocity was the b value, and the total velocity was the c value. After we squared them, we got 2082.5, but that was not our final answer. We then had to find the square root of that number , which turned out to be 45.6, which means that the total velocity of the ball was 45.6m/s or around 100mph. We can check that this answer is correct by looking at the force of impact. When the golf ball was hit with 1000N, 222lbs, we said that it reached sppeds of around 100mph, and finding the total velocity confirmed that.

Force of Impact

The force of impact is the amount of force an object has when it collides with another object. For our project, the force of impact is when the driver club hits the golf ball off the tee. The club is being swung down at high speeds while your body is also pushing weight into it, so it will go faster. When the club hits the ball, that moment that they are touching, is the force of impact. The club then transfers most of its energy/force into the ball, which allows the ball to be shot up into the air with a high speed. We found that for us, the club had around 1000N, or 222lbs of force when it hit the ball, letting it reach speeds over 100mph.

Script and Storyboard

Storyboard

This is the original storyboard for our project. We made 15 steps for our movie. Each step represented around 10 seconds.

Script

This is our script for our movie. When we did the voice-overs during the clips, this is what we read. We incorporated our calculations and specific numbers into it.

Making the video

In our video, we explained, as clearly and detailed as we could, the steps of the physics of hitting a golf ball with a driver club and hitting it to your advantage. In making our video, we first needed to figure out what we would like to do as our sport. One of our group members suggested golf because that was a sport that he played and enjoyed. We then started a storyboard, and tried to have at least 15 steps . We then started filming. Since there was no golf course on campus, we agreed to film some of our footage on the school's softball field. The group member who also suggested golf went to film a few shots of him hitting at the McGinnis Golf Course. Once the footage was made, we edited the videos and put them together in iMovie. We added voice-overs from reading our script, and finally uploaded the final product to YouTube.

Reflection

This project went quite decently and we got our project completed to the best of our efforts. The thing that was great about this project was that we communicated a lot and could do multiple thing at once. One example is two of us would write the script and one person would be writing the storyboard and planning out what to do next. We all did a good job communicating who and when would they go to McGinnis Golf Course to film and we made sure that they knew exactly what to film. Filming in school, we always filmed on the softball field because it was the best area at the school to get the best simulation of a golf course.

The thing that went really well was our organization and quality of material. We tried to make sure we did everything to the best of our abilities. We also made sure the video had good quality shots and work it into the video. Another thing we could've worked on was our team management skills. sometimes in the process of making the video we would steer off of the main goal. The thing that we all worked well on was cooperation. We always tried to incorporate something new into our video because some team member suggested it, we knew how to agree with each other and have everyone's ideas valued. We also worked on being conscientious learners and adapt to new ideas to make the video better.

Even though there was some obstacles we had when making this we got through and did our best as a team.