The Science of Golf Ball Dimples

This isn't breaking news, but we still thought it'd be of interest.

A team of engineers at Arizona State University and the University of Maryland have been studying how air flow affects a golf ball's speed and trajectory.

Nicholas Bakalar wrote about the experiments in the November 30th edition of the New York Times. He mentioned that among the many U.S.G.A. rules for a golf ball it...

...cannot weigh more than 1.620 ounces. It must fall, under its own weight, through a 1.680 ring gauge in fewer than 25 of 100 randomly selected positions at a room temperature from 71.6 to 75.2 degrees. It must be spherically symmetrical. Its initial velocity and its combined carry and roll must not exceed precise limits, and the ball must be tested using equipment specified by the U.S.G.A.

But, he continues, what the U.S.G.A. doesn't specify is

the size or number of dimples.
(emphasis added)

This completely opens up the door for improving a golf ball's aerodynamics and, hence, how far it flies. Up until now a golf ball's size, number and dimple arrangement has been, according to an article published on Science Daily, more

art than...science. For many years, sporting goods companies would design their dimple patterns by simple trial and error, testing prototype after prototype against one another.

The engineers' goal was

to make a better golf ball by optimizing the size and pattern of [the] dimples and lowering the drag golf balls encounter as they fly through the air.

According to the Times

a team of mechanical engineers has constructed a computer model of a golf ball's surface. The model simulates a golf ball moving through air [see video below], and allows the engineers to solve equations that describe air flow at more than a billion points across the ball's surface.

Which is no small feat

Running a typical simulation requires a supercomputer — the equivalent of more than 500 networked desktop computers running in parallel for more than 300 hours. The result is a vast amount of data about the local speed and pressure of the air around each dimple and around the ball.

What's this mean for the average golfer? Well, not much...yet. As Science Daily notes, "new designs are still years away," but with any luck the advances will add some extra yards to your drive or, more optimistically, according to ASU professor of mechanical engineering, Kyle Squires.

It's conceivable that we could design dimples that would lower the risk of a hook or a slice.