Using the same general method that airplanes and ships use to navigate a straight-line path through the sky or ocean, Gyro golf balls have the unique ability to go absolutely straight!
Golfing is a VERY frustrating game! Consistency is obviously critical to getting better scores, but attaining consistency is REALLY difficult! Weekend golfers just don't play often enough to entirely avoid occasionally slicing or hooking a ball. This invention of my gyroscopic Gyro golf ball can offer a solution to that problem, even without a professional level of proficiency and consistency in the golf strokes.
Now, imagine a golf ball with a doughnut shaped weight inside it, such that when the ball is on the tee, the doughnut is standing on edge, with the plane of the doughnut carefully lined up with the flag. Once the golf ball is struck, the high-speed backspin makes this doughnut spin rapidly backwards. This is EXACTLY the same as a gyroscope! The axis of the spinning golf ball HAS TO REMAIN CONSTANT DURING FLIGHT! NO sidespin can occur!
This means that this Gyro golf ball CANNOT be sliced or hooked! It MUST travel exactly straight!
OK! It would not actually be possible to embed a heavy metal doughnut shaped object inside a golf ball without spectacularly affecting the ball's performance! But it would EASILY be possible to use TWO DIFFERENT DENSITIES of either the old rubber bands or the new exotic materials, which the golf ball is made from. As long as a torus (the technically correct name for a doughnut) of material of higher density is created, the gyroscopic effect will occur.
There is only one specific new complication in manufacturing such balls. NORMAL golf balls are designed to be symmetric in all directions, so they are dynamically identical in all situations of rotation. This is to keep a golf ball from wobbling in flight. If you have ever hit a ball with a big gash in it, you know how an unbalanced ball can wobble in flight! This manufacturing caution is equally true for the Gyro golf balls, but must be true for EACH density of material in it. In other words, the torus MUST be symmetric and its center must be identical to the center of the entire ball. In the same way that a gyroscope that has a wad of gum stuck on it wobbles like crazy, a non-symmetric torus could cause violent wobbling motion of the golf ball, which might reduce distance. A symmetric torus, on the other hand, would almost certainly INCREASE distance. No energy of the golf swing would be wasted in creating sidespin, so more would be left for greater ball velocity and therefore greater distance. This has to do with Net Force Vectors and other aspects of Physics.
There is only one other unique thing about manufacturing the Gyro golf balls. They MUST be marked in some way to identify the axis of the internally embedded gyroscopic torus. Without some marking, there would be no way to identify the plane of the torus inside the ball. The player must then place the ball on the tee such that the torus is oriented as mentioned above, standing on edge with the torus edge pointed toward the flag.
Then, virtually ANY golf swing where the face of the club actually contacts the center of the ball will necessarily give it the normal backspin, which automatically causes the gyroscopic action, which assures that it goes straight toward the hole! Even if the stroke has serious flaws in it that would normally slice or hook the ball, it should go straight toward the hole! Even if the center of the club head does not pass through the center of the ball (missing the "sweet spot") the ball should STILL fly straight toward the hole!
This actually eliminates the possibility of doing a "fade" shot where sidespin is intentionally imparted to the ball.
There ARE still ways to mess up golf shots, but they generally involve EXTREMELY horrible technique, such as virtually missing the ball entirely! If the edge of the club face contacts the ball, no backspin results, and it is still anyone's guess as to where the ball might go. But, as long as the ball is actually hit fairly solidly, the gyroscopic effect absolutely has to cause the ball to ONLY have pure straight backspin with EXACTLY ZERO sidespin!
After a drive, for the second and succeeding strokes, the player would probably need to replace the Gyro golf ball with a standard golf ball. A second shot from the fairway would otherwise be to a Gyro ball that is NOT directly oriented with the hole. Depending on how the ball was lying, VERY different and undesirable gyroscopic effects could occur! For example, if the ball was lying with the torus oriented flat (like a doughnut lying on a plate), the gyroscopic effect would be to tremendously reduce the desired backspin, and worse, a secondary gyroscopic effect (described in Physics by something called the Right Hand Rule) could cause a spectacular hook or slice! The Gyro golf ball is intended specifically off the tee. On any shots other than that, results can be uncertain and possibly very undesirable!
Gee! Even if you make serious errors in a golf swing, the ball is certain to go absolutely straight toward the flag. This is the way golf is SUPPOSED to be enjoyed!
This invention has been proven to work with experimental prototype balls.
It should be possible to make Gyro golf balls without any dimples in the areas around the "poles" of the Gyroscopic axis. That means, on both sides of the ball. Without dimples in those areas, the aerodynamic drag due to the turbulence of the dimples is removed. With less drag in flight, the ball will be able to maintain its forward velocity better. The actual time interval of flight would be the same, but the average forward velocity would be substantially higher. Therefore, this version of the Gyro golf ball would land considerably farther away, giving much greater driving distance with the same stroke technique and the same club and ball composition technologies.
The net effect of the two improvement inventions together is a ball that goes arrow straight, and travels 20 to 50 yards farther along the fairway! Such a Gyro golf ball would be incredibly popular with all golfers!
This is MY invention, which I first invented in June 1998. It was first presented in this page on the InterNet in February 2000.
A US Patent is being pursued on this invention. Initial paperwork has been filed with the US Patent & Trademark Office.
If a company is interested in producing my Gyro golf balls, I would be very receptive to a joint venture.
( http://mb-soft.com/public/index.html )
C Johnson, Physicist, Physics Degree from Univ of Chicago