Think Inside the Ball

Michael Yeropoli

Grade 10

New Castle High School

Observation

I enjoy golfing a lot. I notice that when I get a newly bought golf ball, it seems to travel differently when hit compared to previous golf balls. So I began to wonder, does the brand of golf ball effect how it will travel when hit?

Question

Do three different brands of golf balls, Titleist Velocity, TopFlite XL, and Callaway Hx Hot travel different distances when hit?

Research

Under the rules of golf, a ball can weigh no more than 45.93 grams, and have a diameter no less than 42.67 mm. Golf balls usually consist of several layers of various synthetic materials like surlyn or urethane blends. They are usually classified as two-piece, three-piece, or four-piece ball according to the number of layers. They come in a great variety of playing characteristics to suit the needs of golfers with different abilities.

Hypothesis

The Callaway brand golf ball will have the farthest average distance of the three brands.

Variable and Control

• Independent Variable- golf ball brands

• Dependent Variable- distance ball traveled

• Controls- type of golf club (Callaway 8 iron)

- golf tee

- position at which the club was swung (parallel to the ground)

- where c-clamp was placed on the table

- when and where the experiment was done (during the afternoon, in my backyard)

Materials

• 1 Titleist Velocity golf ball• 1 TopFlite XL golf ball• 1 Callaway Hx Hot golf ball• Pencil and paper• Metric measuring tape• Table• C-clamp• 1 golf tee• 1 Callaway brand, 8 iron golf club

Procedure

1. Place c-clamp onto flat, elevated table (72.39 cm tall)

2. Put 8 iron golf club into clamp

3. Put the golf tee in the ground

4. Put first golf ball (Titleist) onto tee

5. Pull club back so it is 76.2 cm up and parallel to the ground, then release it to hit the ball

6. Mark the spot of the ball in the grass and measure it in centimeters

7. Repeat steps 4-6 for 49 more trials

8. Take the first ball out and replace it with the second ball (TopFlite)

9. Repeat steps 5-6 for 49 more trials

10. Take the second ball out and replace it with the last ball (Callaway)

11. Repeat steps 5-6 for 49 more trials

12. Take the separate averages of the data and put it into a graph

Conclusion

In conclusion, my hypothesis could not be proven correct. The Callaway brand ball had an average distance of 447 cm. Next was the Titleist ball with an average of 443 cm. Last was the TopFlite ball with an average of 432 cm. Because of the closeness of the Callaway and Titleist averages, a conclusion could not be made. I had to perform a t-test. Upon completing my t-test, I found that my data was far too low to prove whether or not the Callaway average was higher than the Titleist average.

Possible Error

There are multiple errors that could have occurred in my experiment and might have had an effect on my data. They include:

- Human error

- Wind speed

- Current state of the golf club

Future Research

If I were to do this experiment again, I would test other variables. I would test a larger range of golf balls or I might just test one brand of ball to see the differences in the brand itself.