Dr. V's Magical Putter

[CraiginKSA]

This story reads like a Carl Hiaasen novel.  A transgendered, fake, physicist designs a zero MOI putter and fools everyone (no such thing as zero MOI, but irrelevant to the story).  Only the whole thing ends tragically.  Crazy stuff.  I didn't know that the golf club design industry was so cut-throat.

http://grantland.com/features/a-mysterious-physicist-golf-club-dr-v/

[TJBam]

I'm really glad I didn't skip ahead. I actually didn't see the suicide coming.

I usually read backwards when I read articles or journals. If I'm reading a book then I read normally. But checking the author's conclusions is always the best way for me to enjoy the entire article and filter out what is important and what it is not. But in this case I wish I would've just read from the beginning. :cry: That being said, the website was probably down due to reddit/sandtrap/golfwrx traffic. It is up right now for me.

[boogielicious]

OK, I'm confused.  When did MIT become Ivy League?

[geauxforbroke]

OK, I'm confused.  When did MIT become Ivy League?

Wasn't Ivy League in reference to Penn?

[boogielicious]

n it, he explained that he had helped Dr. V get access to the nearby putting green, where he said she was currently counseling a few players. She was an aeronautical physicist from MIT , he continued, and the woman who had “built that Yar putter with zero MOI.”

A man with a blue collar mechanic's background poses as a lesbian ivy league-educated physicist

This is where my joke came from.

[geauxforbroke]

n it, he explained that he had helped Dr. V get access to the nearby putting green, where he said she was currently counseling a few players. She was an aeronautical physicist from MIT, he continued, and the woman who had “built that Yar putter with zero MOI.”

A man with a blue collar mechanic's background poses as a lesbian ivy league-educated physicist

This is where my joke came from.

I guess the real question is: if you're actually a dude but consider yourself a woman and live as one, does it make you a lesbian if you have a relationship with a woman?

This is getting too complicated...

[colin007]

It reminded me of Catfish. Fascinating story.

[dsc123]

I started to read it yesterday, then saw how far I was from the end and thought "looks interesting, oh well" and closed the tab.

Today I came across the reader's digest version on golfdigest:  http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-tours-news/blogs/local-knowledge/2014/01/a-speed-read-of-grantlands-fascinating-article-dr-vs-magical.html

[Pretzel]

So the real question is this: How did this person get to talk to the head of Taylormade golf before any of this was exposed. Regardless of how it ended that feat alone was pretty impressive to pull off.

[dsc123]

So the real question is this: How did this person get to talk to the head of Taylormade golf before any of this was exposed. Regardless of how it ended that feat alone was pretty impressive to pull off.

Eh, I doubt they check the background of every person they meet. Remember this guy?http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Spano

[saevel25]

So the real question is this: How did this person get to talk to the head of Taylormade golf before any of this was exposed. Regardless of how it ended that feat alone was pretty impressive to pull off.

Well Dr. V did it the smart way. She/He got a lower level guy to buy into her, and he vouched for she/he to the company who he has a contract with.

[LBlack14]

I'm not going to read all that, but I do know 2 people who use the YAR putter and love them. I'll own one some day.

[colin007]

what do you mean by "all that"?  ten minutes is too long?  its really fascinating.

[boogielicious]

It is sad that she took her own life though.  She obviously had a good mind for engineering.

[iacas]

It is sad that she took her own life though.  She obviously had a good mind for engineering.

Based on what?

[Pretzel]

It is sad that she took her own life though.  She obviously had a good mind for engineering.

You do realize she was talking out of her butt on the whole "zero moment of inertia" stuff, right?

I = mr^2

Your moment of inertia is equal to your mass time the square of the distance to your rotational axis on a perpendicular line. This means that, technically, any club can have zero moi if you hit it perfectly in the sweet spot (in other words there is effectively zero distance between your contact and the rotational axis). All you have to do is hit the ball on the rotational axis of the club.

More importantly, this means that the only way for you to create a club with zero moi across the entire face is to either have a face that is 0 units wide or a mass of 0, both being a physical impossibility. My thinking on this is that she meant 0 moi in the center of the clubface, which really just means that the club appears to be face balanced (since it would mean your axis of rotation is also located directly on the sweet spot of the club). She was just blinding people who already didn't know what they were talking about by giving them differently phrased buzzwords with long and complicated explanations behind them.

Long story short, face-balanced putters should behave with a MOI of 0 (the same as this Yar putter) if you strike them in the sweet spot. Any putter will behave as if it has zero MOI provided that you strike the ball on its axis of rotation perfectly. Unless this happens or your putter has a mass of 0, you will never have a zero MOI club. At least, this is the way that I understand it from my physics class that I'm in.

[jamo]

You do realize she was talking out of her butt on the whole "zero moment of inertia" stuff, right? I = mr^2 Your moment of inertia is equal to your mass time the square of the distance to your rotational axis on a perpendicular line. This means that, technically, any club can have zero moi if you hit it perfectly in the sweet spot (in other words there is effectively zero distance between your contact and the rotational axis). All you have to do is hit the ball on the rotational axis of the club. More importantly, this means that the only way for you to create a club with zero moi across the entire face is to either have a face that is 0 units wide or a mass of 0, both being a physical impossibility. My thinking on this is that she meant 0 moi in the center of the clubface, which really just means that the club appears to be face balanced (since it would mean your axis of rotation is also located directly on the sweet spot of the club). She was just blinding people who already didn't know what they were talking about by giving them differently phrased buzzwords with long and complicated explanations behind them. Long story short, face-balanced putters should behave with a MOI of 0 (the same as this Yar putter) if you strike them in the sweet spot. Any putter will behave as if it has zero MOI provided that you strike the ball on its axis of rotation perfectly. Unless this happens or your putter has a mass of 0, you will never have a zero MOI club. At least, this is the way that I understand it from my physics class that I'm in.

Sounds about right, yeah. That's why I posted a link to the [URL=http://www.xfactordirect.com/images/putter.jpg]Dr. Feelgood[/URL] earlier. (Anything to link to a Jack Hamm website ;-)) Thing is, from the pictures I've seen, the Oracle GX1 would have no where near MOI = 0. She may have been a good marketer and very adept at playing the "crazy inventor in a shack" character, but not much about the Oracle tells me she had much engineering knowledge. (I also don't put a whole lot of trust in those Kelvin Miyahira videos.)

[boogielicious]

Based on what?

Based on with no formal training, she developed and interesting concept.  She may not have executed the design properly or really understood all the engineering, but it still showed some inherent skill. We as engineers can critique the design and show the weaknesses in her knowledge of theory, but I still give her credit for trying.

I personally don't believe that zero MOI would be much of a benefit in putting.

I've had two friends commit suicide.  I found out a month ago that a neighbor girl I knew as a kid also committed suicide.  Her mom did the same when we were kids.  I find it very sad.  Mental illness is a real disease and I don't wish it on anyone including Dr V.