Evening sundown golf

[Yukari]

Forget the explanation...who is in his avatar?

Megan Fox from Transformers II

[Yukari]

Well, to clarify... Buoyancy is not caused only by surface tension - those are two separate forces. You *can* have buoyancy in a gas, without surface tension. If surface tension was a necessary condition for buoyancy, you'd have a hell of a time getting a hot air balloon off the ground.

True, you also have to consider density. That is why hot air balloon rises due to it being less dense. But that has noting to do with golfball traveling farther in humid air, per se. Only that it causes less loss of momentum due to less resistance.

[Rexx]

Good explanation, Yukari. And if anyone cares, oxygen molecules are the second most abundant at ~21% and they have a molecular weight of 32 g/mole (and thus even heavier than nitrogen). The gist is that if there are more water molecules in the air, then there must be less of the other molecules at a given temperature and pressure.

[boogielicious]

Thanks Yukari for posting. I was going to add but if folks want to know more info, look up Stoke's Law for buoyancy, Bernoulli's Equation for fluid dynamics (yes air is a fluid) which will explain how a ball gets lift and how air density and viscosity affect flight, the Ideal Gas Law (or Boyle's Law) for how air density changes with temperature. Flight calculations are very complicated and must account for many factors, which is why Golf Equipment manufacturers tend to hire chemical and mechanical engineers.

[mrmiller8]

Okay, let's not propagate this error.

hahah...wow that is intense and I am definately not a Chemistry guy and never will be, but I think we just turned this forum into a mini chem lesson. Just goes to show you I apparently have no clue what I'm talking about and should therefore should post on this forum....(I still will)