ORIGINAL: davidhand
Those golf ball dimples, you know the ones that supposedly make the ball fly furthur. Anyone the theory behind them? Just been watching 'Myth busters' they were testing the theory that a clean car gets better gas mileage. They had three cars, one dirty, one clean, and one with tennis ball sized dimples similar to the ones on a golf ball. mileage on the first two was identical but the one with the dimples got 12% better mileage. Anyone know why.
It may be that those morons pretending to be engineers used three different cars. They probably had three different drivers who accelerated from stop at a rate that varied with their temperament. I have worked around some of those Show Biz Special FX guys, and some are real sharp, with some real engineering savvy. Others just think they are. Those Myth Buster Schmoes are the latter type.
The third response, about separation of laminar flow, is correct.
(I admit, I have an attitude about it. I worked on a major theme park that shall not be named, where designs of mine did not work properly because they were altered during manufacture by some of those latter types, who thought they knew more than I did. For this reason I no longer put my name on designs that I do not have total control over. I will own my screw ups, NOT those of others.)