By Veeshan Narinesingh, STEM program leader
Last week our young men got a taste of how the technology in The Bridge Golf Learning Center will enhance their STEM learning experience.
Using the stimpmeter for a rolling friction experiment.
The students finished up the friction unit by performing a couple of experiments with rolling friction at The Learning Center. Students used stimpmeters to determine the “speed” of the two types of turf, tabulating and analyzing their findings using the SMART Board and computers. From this they gained a better intuitive understanding of the physics behind a “faster” or “slower” green.
Zion Smith summed it up best: “A faster green means that there is less friction.”
On day two of The Learning Center preview, the young men performed their final friction activity using the putting application on the TrackMan simulator. Each student-athlete putted the ball with the intention of missing the hole. Given the TrackMan reading, they recorded the distance the ball traveled and the initial speed upon impact. Students used the SMART Board and computers to tabulate their data and share ideas.
Working with our STEM teaching staff, the young men also developed a mathematical formula to calculate how the initial kinetic energy dissipated into the frictional loss of energy. After learning about conversion factors, our students converted TrackMan speed readings in kilometers per hour to meters per second, which in turn helped them determine the ball’s initial energy in joules.