It was reported yesterday that legendary prime minister and childhood hero, Boris Johnson, was making delusionally false claims about friction. The politician made allegations including, “I am positive that friction plays no part in the sport of golf. It simply does not exist there.” For those who are unaware, in golf, a ‘golfer’ selects a club from a variety of ones in his bag to hit a golf ball with. Each club has a different angled face, which can be used in different situations. The golfer then has from three to five shots, depending on the hole, to get par. Whoever hits the most amount of shots below par is deemed the winner.
But back to Boris, our team is still unsure of why the once thought to be respected man made these obviously false declarations. We are keeping a close eye on him, checking in with his mental hospital constantly. In this article, we will debunk the indubitable reasons behind why Boris Johnson is wrong, and even go over some conspiracy theories. Contrary to Boris’s beliefs, it can be confirmed that friction does indeed exist in golf. But surprisingly, most people don’t know that friction affects everything in our day-to-day living scenarios, golf included. In case you didn’t know, friction is the resistance that one surface or object encounters when moving against each other. Potential and kinetic energy both get transferred into thermal energy, causing the golf ball to eventually slow down. But from the wind, to the terrain, and even to the shoes that a golf player wears, there are so many ways friction can be affected in this fun and exciting sport, golf! To bring up a point right away, wind is an incredibly important factor in the eighteen-holed sport. This graph helps to illustrate exactly how much the wind plays a role in a specific shot.
We can see that the air resistance known as wind can both positively and negatively affect a shot. Although a tailwind will help the ball fly further, it doesn’t help as much as a headwind hurts. The range of the data is 38 yards! That can be crucial to a professional golf shot! Not only can the wind drastically change distance, but also the angle it goes at. But you don’t just have to take our word for it, we invited golf-enthusiast Andrew Kreup to advocate for our cause. We asked him what he considered to be the most advantageous aspect of golf, to which he responded by saying, “When you have more friction, you have the ability to spin the ball more. Golfers can control the ball much more using friction. Topspin can help spin the ball farther and get it further, while backspin can make the ball not go as far.”
Boris Johnson’s allegations have already been shattered, but going even further, the golf balls have dimples because it helps reduce the air resistance and fly longer distances. On average, a professional golfer will hit a ball about 120 mph. When a smooth ball is traveling that fast, there is a thick layer of air, called the boundary layer around the ball. Effectively, this makes the ball seem bigger than it actually is, increasing the air friction and thus slowing down the ball. This ‘boundary layer’ is reduced significantly by the golf ball having dimples, which makes it travel farther than a normal smooth ball. Then there’s the matter of the tees. Like me, you may have wondered what the golf tees actually do, but as it turns out they do serve a stupendous purpose. They help to reduce friction and increase speed, providing a similar effect to the dimples. Using the tees provides less points of contact on the golf ball, resulting in a benefit. So less friction. Something interesting to note about golf as well is the quality of the golf greens, which is of the utmost pristine variety. Typically, the grass is only an eighth of an inch tall. The incredibly short length of this grass reduces friction by mammoth amounts. It’s almost as if the ball is rolling on a tile floor. One reporter even discovered that “Up until the middle 1800s, putting greens were simply grass that was shorter due to sheep grazing there longer.”
Ample evidence has been provided in favor of the existence of friction in golf. For even more outside proof, we invited some guy who has played golf before, Carsten Lepre, to advocate for us. When asked: What would you say is the most important impact of friction in golf? He replied with, “Putting spin on the ball. That moment of collision that causes spin, is a very important use and advantage that golfers utilize to help them get the right angle.” This is, as we already touched on, indeed a very valid statement. It requires a large amount of skill to put perfect spin on a golf ball, but if you are able, the results are astounding.
As for potential reasons for why Mr. Johnson would actually make these claims, we have a few ideas. Our reporters recently discovered that Boris was noted to have joined a cult known as the Anti-Science Cult. Unfortunately, we were unable to find what actually occurs in said denomination, but we are working on sending an undercover agent into their meetings. Obviously, joining a cult can obstruct one’s view on life, Boris being no exception. For all we know, Boris is just a puppet to this cult and they are using his media fame in order to scramble the minds of the general populace. Follow The Scallion for updates.
