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Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts
Can you explain why a golf ball has dimples? If dimples reduce drag, why don't we see this surface feature on other aerodynamic shapes like airplane wings? Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.
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Dimples exist on golf balls for four reasons.
1. To eliminate confusion between golf balls and ping-pong balls, after dozens of tragic ping-pong career-ending injuries in the late 1930s.
2. To create air turbulence so that air can "bend around" the round shape of the ball. For more aerodynamic shapes such as wings, turbulence is a bad thing, but for flying round shapes, turbulence is a good thing. (My aerospace engineering degree comes in handy for the first time in a decade.)
3. The cute "dimples" name attracts more golfers to the LPGA.
4. To facilitate removal of the golf ball from body orifices in the event of tragic golf course "holes in one" of the wrong type.