Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Technology => Topic started by: syhprum on 11/10/2018 06:10:12
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In tales from Toy town broadcast on the wireless before the war two characters the Wizard and the Inventor play a round of golf , the inventor has a hole seeking golf ball that once it arrives on the green it finds way to the hole.
It is quite easy to visualize how a foot ball size device could be built to do this but has a golf ball ever been built .
There are many problems ie the high acceleration to which it is subjected to and the need for it to have the same performance of a normal ball also the location positioning and the small size of the reaction wheels.
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I'm not aware of one but, as you say, this should not be a tricky thing to make, and not that hard on the scale of a golf-ball either.
Anyone know?
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In principle one could make a spherical device that would track towards a target, but it would have to know where the ground is, or have some means of moving its motor to make contact with the surface. This necessarily requires that the interior mechanism is slightly asymmetric, so whilst it could find ts way from the green to the hole, its inital flight from the tee would be at least wobbly and at worst quite unpredictable.
My mother-in-law, a diminutive Scot, took it upon herself at the age of 80 to tame enthusiastic teenagers on the golf course. After each lad had showed off his 200 + yard drive she would say "and now ye have tae put it in the wee hole....like this...." Not only an expert putter, but she had two "holes in one" on major courses to her credit, in her 70's. No need for technology, "just practice, ye ken".
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so whilst it could find ts way from the green to the hole, its inital flight from the tee would be at least wobbly and at worst quite unpredictable.
Darn - I'd completely neglected to consider that! Typical example of narrow thinking to solve only the immediate problem without considering the wider implications!
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You will recall one of the problems was to make it behave like a normal ball until it lands on the green
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In principle one could make a spherical device that would track towards a target, but it would have to know where the ground is, or have some means of moving its motor to make contact with the surface. This necessarily requires that the interior mechanism is slightly asymmetric, so whilst it could find ts way from the green to the hole, its inital flight from the tee would be at least wobbly and at worst quite unpredictable.
Just a thought, but couldn't you change the direction that a golf ball moves by having an internal mechanism that changes its center of gravity? If it's rolling in a straight line, the center of gravity could be shifted right to make it turn right or left to turn left. I'm thinking of six spokes on the inside (in each of the x,y,z directions) that meet in the middle. Small weights are attached to each of the spokes and each weight can move outward to change the center of gravity. All of the weights would rest at the center when the center of gravity needs to be in the center.
The mechanism would need to be capable of acting very quickly since the position of the weights needs to change as the ball rotates, and would still require connection to some kind of computer that in turn would need to be linked to sensors to let it know where the ball is relative to the hole. It might be easier to put those instruments in a camera or other device outside of the ball that sends commands via radio waves.
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Just a thought, but couldn't you change the direction that a golf ball moves by having an internal mechanism that changes its center of gravity?
Redistributing the weight inside a non-spinning ball wouldn't change its flight path : no change in momentum.
If the ball was spinning in air, and you changed the center of gravity, that could change its trajectory ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect
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Redistributing the weight inside a non-spinning ball wouldn't change its flight path : no change in momentum.
If the ball was spinning in air, and you changed the center of gravity, that could change its trajectory ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect
I was speaking more specifically of when it was rolling on the green.
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My limited golfing experience seems to indicate that they have solved the problem of making balls that deliberately avoid holes.
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Just a thought, but couldn't you change the direction that a golf ball moves by having an internal mechanism that changes its center of gravity?
Redistributing the weight inside a non-spinning ball wouldn't change its flight path : no change in momentum.
If the ball was spinning in air, and you changed the center of gravity, that could change its trajectory ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect
Ideally one would program the GPS coordinates of the golf course in, so one might be able to force it to change flight path slightly.
I assume if one induced a right/left spin on the ball, one might be able to get the ball to curve ever so slightly. Or, perhaps one could induce a slight amount of extra lift.
Assuming the ball has the basic outside shape unaltered, and no wings, then all changes in motion would have to be based on momentum, and location of the center of gravity.
That means that your steering mechanism in the air and on the ground may be very different. That could be problematic when your ball hits the ground. So, say using momentum, one had the core spinning clockwise at 500 rpm and the shell spinning counterclockwise at 500 rpm. Suddenly when the ball hits the ground, that side-spin shoots the ball off to the side somewhere, and you'd have to regain control of the rotation of the ball before you could control it.
Now, if one could penetrate the surface, then in the air, tiny wings, water jets, or even air jets could do significant changes in motion and perhaps lift.