His ball speed was measured by something called the "Titleist Performance Institute" to be 226.7 mph, and he claims a personal best of 237 mph. If you want to set a world record, hit a golf ball at a radar gun and get it certified by the Mike's Hard Lemonade people. And, obviously, it doesn't count unless it's overseen by people from a beer company. However, golfer Ryan Winther claims to have beaten this record, though without Guinness observers there. This corresponds to a bag of golf balls only 100,000 kilometers across-smaller than Jupiter, but still (obviously) not practical. Tiger Woods can hit a golf ball at about 180 mph, which means that if he were powering our spaceship, the bag of golf balls would be only twice the diameter of the Sun!Īccording to the Guinness Book of World Records, the record for fastest golf drive is 211 mph, set by Maurice Allen in 2012. Still too big to avoid a catastrophic collapse, but we're getting somewhere. If we increase the golf ball's speed from 120 mph to 150, it shrinks the answer dramatically, and the required number of golf balls would fit snugly between the Sun and Mars. It would also promptly and violently collapse into a black hole.įortunately, we should be able to avert that disaster by making relatively small changes to the "120" in that equation. As a Fermi rule of thumb, planets in the inner Solar System are 100 million kilometers away and planets in the outer Solar System are a billion kilometers away. That's much, much bigger than our Solar System. we find that the bag of golf balls will have to be just about exactly 100 billion miles in diameter. By putting those numbers into the rocket equation, we can find out how large a sack of golf balls would have to be for the average golfer to reach the Moon. See Trackman's page on ball speed To get to the Moon from low Earth orbit, you would need enough fuel to add 5,300 m/s to your ship's speed. Someone who, like me, has never been golfing before, might-after swinging and missing a few times-manage to hit the ball at 120 mph (50 m/s). The equation in question-which might be my favorite in all of physics-the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation: That means a small change in speed can make a big difference. The design of our spaceship turns out to involve an equation where the speed of the golf ball is in the exponent. But that's not how it works in rocket golf. If my baseball, car, dog, or Zamboni goes a little faster than yours, $20 says they will! it will go a little farther. Sometimes, exact numbers don't matter that much. The answer to this question hinges on exactly how fast you can hit a golf ball. Rober and his team of engineers went through various trials, errors and learning experiences before they realized a few things that separates even the fasted human swing speeds from rocket-powered swing speeds.Īfter reinforcing the shaft, 3D printing an optimized rocket attachment and lengthening the driver, the experiment worked, producing a golf club that was swinging at 150 miles per hour, launching a ball into the stratosphere.įor comparison’s sake, Cameron Champ leads the PGA Tour in 2019 with an average clubhead speed of 129.83 mph, which translates to an average of 318.6 yards per drive.What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is out! Order here! ◀︎ ▶︎ Rocket GolfĪssuming that you have a spaceship in orbit around the Earth, could you propel your ship to speeds exceeding escape velocity by hitting golf balls in the other direction? If so, how many golf balls would be required to reach the Moon? NEW VIDEO- and I made a rocket powered golf club and proved the engineering design process isn’t always linear (proof below). Boasting over 6.3 million subscribers on YouTube, Rober has gone viral numerous times - most recently with his dummy box that would blast package thieves with glitter (worth the watch) - but never in the golf world until this week when he attempted to build a rocket-powered golf club.
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