3/10/2004: Tiger Woods' unique tee-off

[novice]

This joint is, apparently, the only seven star hotel in the world open to the general non-jewish public. The pool in the background is part of a massive water park called the Wild Wadi. It has some of the highest, longest rides in the world. In order to get to the start of the rides you sit in a large tube and water jets propel you up ramps. No climbing.
We were allowed into the hotel for a looky-lou after paying 100 Dirham for which we received a redeemable coupon valid at the stores inside.
Dubai is far and away the best place for Western tourists. The laws are the same as in any muslim country but much less rigidly enforced. It's common to see arab businessmen in town to avail themselves of cheap liqor and russian prostitutes. The man usually cracks on folks too drunk to walk or gettin' it on (in public) but anything else is fine.
The York hotel, affectionately known as the 'four floors of whores', will have 200 to 300 girls working at any given time. Or so they tell me.

[Nothing But Net]

Somebody's going to get some yardage out of this stunt.

[paranoid]

Originally posted by Undertoad
I would imagine it's nice to be the sultan; and I would imagine it's nice to be the greatest golfer of all time. We can only look at amazing pictures like this, and imagine.

I would imagine it's much better to be smart and well-read. He can build a huge-ass hotel in the desert, so what? Last month I've read a couple interesting books, listened to a couple of interesting lectures and learn a lot new stuff. And who is better off now?

[jaguar]

I won't ask how you know that novice =)
He's right about dubai though, I know a few expats that have done stints over there. Earn a lot but everything is so damn expensive. From memory the presidential suite is $10k per night or so.

Most expensive I've done is about $600, though I've done $400 or so at the one attached to KL Airport on numerous occasions, usually because I can't be stuffed taking the express into the city and dealing with all the crap for a night.
I hope they've upgraded the place since coz last I went there was nowhere you could jack in a laptop which bit some serious ass. Particulary in comparison to 4-head showers and king+ beds.

[Torrere]

Originally posted by stlbob
I wonder how far Tiger's ball would have traveled? Someone smarter than I could probably figure it. We'd only need the height, given by Undertoad at 1000ft, Tiger's normal driving distance, assume no wind, hmmmmm. Sounds like too much work for me. Bet the ball went at least 1000 feet, eh?

Nope. That would be complicated. It's easier to take the normal velocity of his golf balls after being struck by the club and their angle respective to the ground.

According to The Physics of the Golf Swing, Tiger Woods' shots usually travel at 180 miles per hour, or 80.46 meters per second. 12 degrees is apparently the typical angle for golfers. The vertical component of the velocity of his golf ball would be 80.46sin(12°), or 16.72 meters per second. This means that the ball rises another 14 meters and gives it 1.7 seconds before it starts to fall.

If the ball were simply placed in the air at 319 meters, it would take 8.06 seconds to hit the ground.

2 * distance = gravity * time squared

The horizontal component, 80.46 meters * sin(12°), is 78.7 meters per second.

78.7 m/s * (8.1 s + 1.7 s) = 771.3 meters (half a mile) before the ball will splash into the ocean - assuming no air resistance. That'd be one mighty splash.


I surely didn't make any more errors, but if I did I can count on you to correct me.

[edit: I did mess up. When the ball returns to 1000 ft above the surface, it's already going 16.72 m/s - fixed.]

[noodles]

i cannot afford to prove or disapprove your calculations. The fact is that it is a picture, and someone pasted it here.

more golfers, more golf widows.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by noodles

i--snip--, more golf widows.

and he comes to work one morning only to find the boss has hired a new secretary. She's a babe, and, fortunately, for the purposes of this joke, his office opens directly toward her work area. He spends the whole morning getting nothing done, he can't take his eyes off this woman. Well, at lunchtime he decides to offer to make her feel welcome, and invites her to join him for lunch. They get to the restaurant and it soon becomes clear that the attraction is mutual. The question changes from what to order? to your place or mine? Hers, just around the corner.

They spend the afternoon feeding other appetites and the man looks up and sees it's getting dark. Frantically he rushes to get dressed and she follows him to the door. He bolts down the steps and starts up the sidewalk and then comes back to her yard and does something strange. He walks onto the grass, gets down and rolls back and forth on the lawn a couple of times, then gets back up and hurries up the block.

When he gets home, the litle woman is waiting in the doorway, arms crossed, tapping her foot in "that way".

"Uh-oh" the man thinks. "The office--".

"Said you were out all afternoon" she interrupts.

Busted. Total surrender is his only option at this point, and he comes clean and tells the whole truth: new secretary, lunch, "dessert" at her place, everything.

He waits for the verdict.

As she listens to the story her toe never breaks rhythm, but she does uncross her arms. She deliberately reaches out her hand to his shoulder and carefully picks a single blade of grass from his shirt.

"You lying sack of shit--You've been GOLFING AGAIN!"

[ladysycamore]

:Originally posted by Undertoad
I would imagine it's nice to be the sultan; and I would imagine it's nice to be the greatest golfer of all time. We can only look at amazing pictures like this, and imagine.

Originally posted by paranoid

I would imagine it's much better to be smart and well-read.

According to what standards? I know of plenty of people who would love to be in a position to be as rich as a Sultan (oh, and they are smart and well-read as well).

He can build a huge-ass hotel in the desert, so what? Last month I've read a couple interesting books, listened to a couple of interesting lectures and learn a lot new stuff. And who is better off now?

Yeah, who IS better? Someone who boasts that they are better? Hmmmmm.....

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally posted by paranoid

I would imagine it's much better to be smart and well-read. He can build a huge-ass hotel in the desert, so what? Last month I've read a couple interesting books, listened to a couple of interesting lectures and learn a lot new stuff. And who is better off now?

Wouldn't it be nice to be fed skinned grapes and have a pedicure while you read those books?

[Griff]

Thing is the Sultan has to live in the mid-east, that takes a lot of the fun outa being rich. Tiger has the better part... except he has to play golf all the time. I'll take being a regular Joe in the good old USA thanks.

[CharlieG]

Originally posted by Torrere


Nope. That would be complicated. ...snip...

- assuming no air resistance. ..snip...

I surely didn't make any more errors, but if I did I can count on you to correct me.

...snip...

Yeah, and it's even worse than you think - because of course we can't discount air resistance, and even stranger with a golf ball - LIFT. All those dimples? They create lift due to the fairly large amount of spin on the ball - you loose some velocity (due to drag), but gain lift, keeping it off the ground longer

Ugh

[Torrere]

And howinthehell are we going to get the drag coefficient?

We could find the air pressure. We already know the height above sea level (but - would this ball be falling far enough that we would need differential equations?), and we could find the temperature and weather that day (or we could approximate). The dimples will also make finding the cross-sectional area of the golf ball a pain, right?

I don't even want to think about lift - at least not until/if we can get air resistance squared away.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Christ, do you guys do everything the hard way?
Bribe the Concierge.

[stlbob]

Originally posted by stlbob
I wonder how far Tiger's ball would have traveled?

Amazing isn't it? Make a small comment and boom, the math geeks pop outta the woodwork!

[Troubleshooter]

Originally posted by Torrere
And howinthehell are we going to get the drag coefficient?

We could find the air pressure. We already know the height above sea level (but - would this ball be falling far enough that we would need differential equations?), and we could find the temperature and weather that day (or we could approximate). The dimples will also make finding the cross-sectional area of the golf ball a pain, right?

I don't even want to think about lift - at least not until/if we can get air resistance squared away.

I'm sure the manufacturer could provide lift and drag numbers.