Progress #1

During the last week I have chosen to focus my attention on the evolution of the golf club. Many of the earliest golf clubs were handcrafted. They were made of persimmon due to its durability and high-density mass. Mass is the measurement of an objects resistance to acceleration and the more mass an object has, the more force is needed to accelerate it. In the golf club making process, mass distribution is crucial to maximize power and control. Rotational inertia is also apparent in golf. The further an objects mass is away from the axis of rotation, the harder it is for the object to rotate. Around 1980, wooden club heads were replaced by metal. Today, titanium is the most common metal used for club heads, however, there are many new materials and designs that are being put into use. All this is part of the ongoing challenge to deliver the perfect impact to the ball.

I am having a few difficulties with my learning so far, although NBC Learn has made some resources available to me, I'm having difficulty getting into the actual psychics behind the golf swing. I was able to find things such as the evolution of the golf club as well as other golf related statistics. I have been surprised by how many times the golf clubs design has changed. My plans for the next week of my 30-Day Challenge are to get into the actual physics behind the golf swing. I plan on covering the different angles of the golf swing as well as discussing the roles of properties such as mass and rotational inertia.

Introduction

For my 30 Day Challenge, I have taken on the challenge of learning the physics that are involved in the golf swing. I chose this for my 30 Day Challenge because golf is a sport that interests me and learning the physics behind it would be beneficial to my game. I will explore a few different resources. I will use a variety of different sports related websites that are geared mostly towards golf. I will also consider the opinion of my golf instructor Cathy. There are some challenges that I may run into eventually. One problem I may have is that I may have a hard time consistently finding new information for 30 days. Another problem I may run into is finding solid information that is directly related to the physics of the golf swing. I do not know how much information there is available to me.   I will most likely construct a PowerPoint presentation for my final project. I feel like that will be the most effective method to share what I have learned with the class.