A golf ball has dimples on its surface to increase the efficiency of airflow over it and let it fly further. Why isn’t the skin of aircraft and cars similarly dimpled? Would it compromise their structural integrity?
• The answer relies on knowing there are two elements to “drag”, the resistance to motion when an object moves through a fluid.
The first is called friction (or skin) drag. This is the force generated due to viscous shear as a fluid moves tangentially across the surface of the object. Skin drag is minimised by making the object’s surface as smooth as possible.…
