Force equals mass times acceleration

Okay, how many of you are physicists? I'm not either. But the point is
with all the talk about 1000cc driver heads and generating the swingspeed
to fully utilize it's potential it got me wondering about the question of
mass.

All things being equal--acceleration, that is, and drag etc.--the greater
the mass the greater the force--F=ma. So wouldn't every golfer be trying
to find either greater swing speed, which is hard as hell cause...well,
you just don't get more limber as you age, or develop muscle so that you
can swing more mass at close to your optimum speed?

And what about the old adage that you shouldn't swing hard with a golf
club? I've had dozens of people tell me that if you swing harder, it
don't go farther. I even had my father-in-law bet me that this was
true--so I first hit a ball with my normal swing and then swung at about a
tenth that amount and what do you know...the first drive went farther. So
swinging harder/faster does translate to greater distance. It has to if
physics is to be believed.

But it seems that lighter is the way. Get clubheads that make a feather
feel like an anvil and you can generate a hell of a lot of
swingspeed...which translates to more force which means more energy, do
da, do da.

But wouldn't increasing the mass have the same effect? More mass, more energy.

I mean have any of you experimented with adding weight to your current
driver? Say making it twice as massive with the same aerodynamics? You
probably can only swing it half as fast but then you'd get the same
distance...or not. But it would seem that while getting more flexible
isn't something that comes easy, I have been working out and have added
some muscle, even at my advanced age, so I'm a tad stronger today than I
was a few years ago. And yeah, I'm hitting my driver farther than I did
five years ago...but how much of that was strength and how much was
technology/technique?

Let's say that you could, magically, become twice as strong, so you add
ten percent more mass to your driver and you swing just like you always
did--wouldn't that translate into added distance?

Or is it that the entire physical universe obeys F=ma except on the golf
course where force generated to the ball equals mass times ACCERATION.
Acceration is the God we should worship.





ML
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Force equals mass times acceleration
    ... > with all the talk about 1000cc driver heads and generating the swingspeed ... > to find either greater swing speed, which is hard as hell cause...well, ... > can swing more mass at close to your optimum speed? ... > physics is to be believed. ...
    (rec.sport.golf)
  • Re: Force equals mass times acceleration
    ... affect on initial ball velocity. ... how many of you are physicists? ... > to find either greater swing speed, which is hard as hell cause...well, ... > can swing more mass at close to your optimum speed? ...
    (rec.sport.golf)
  • Re: Force equals mass times acceleration
    ... I just don't get the idea that acceleration figures into ... > with all the talk about 1000cc driver heads and generating the swingspeed ... > to find either greater swing speed, which is hard as hell cause...well, ... > can swing more mass at close to your optimum speed? ...
    (rec.sport.golf)
  • Re: On Improving Lag
    ... larry wrote: ... difficulty he has keeping the driver on the golf course. ... Swing as hard as you can and you have ... swing hard, what parts of your body to push, and how to push them ...
    (rec.sport.golf)
  • Re: 9 iron distance
    ... >> Of course I play golf. ... >> be able to correctly hit a 2-iron off the deck. ... > claims for his driver). ... I remember around the time he last posted his swing to RSG he was ...
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