The development engineers at the Ingolstadt automotive engineering developer BFFT are working on driver assistance systems, infotainment and electrification. Recently, they have also been working with golf balls. At the beginning of the year, the TV station ProSieben MAXX requested the support of BFFT experts for an unusual experiment: in the speed-themed special edition of the science magazine Galileo 360° (9 April 2015, 20:15, ProSieben MAXX), moderator Funda Vanroy wants to know what maximum speed a commercially available sport ball can reach. Could it perhaps break the sound barrier? To this end, the Galileo team carried out various speed tests with footballs, tennis balls, handballs and golf balls.
One experiment posed the question of how fast a golf ball can free fall. But how would one measure the speed of a free falling golf ball? This is where the film team asked BFFT engineers for help. First, the Ingolstadt team put a GPS receiver into a previously milled out golf ball. But the first attempt revealed that deviations of 5-15 m meant that the measurements were not precise enough. After some tinkering and further experiments, the BFFT team for this "special project" found a solution: acceleration sensors. Equipped with a small 3.6 V battery, this sensor records the acceleration of the falling ball. A microcontroller reads the data in real time and saves it on a standard microSD card. The ball prepared for this weighs only about 0.5 g more than a normal golf ball. Through an evaluation program written by BFFT, the maximum speed can be calculated from the acceleration data in just a few minutes, live on site.
Two things will be revealed before the show: 1. Galileo 360° and BFFT were able to (presumably for the first time) measure the speed of a free falling golf ball, and 2. the BFFT core competencies are in accordance with this exciting project, not just in the field of driver assistance systems, infotainment and electrification, but also when it comes to measuring the speed of free falling golf balls.
Whether or not the golf ball was able to break the sound barrier will be revealed in Galileo 360° on 9 April 2015 at 20:15 on ProSieben MAXX (available via satellite, cable, IPTV and DVBT - further info at www.prosiebenmaxx.de/empfang).
One experiment posed the question of how fast a golf ball can free fall. But how would one measure the speed of a free falling golf ball? This is where the film team asked BFFT engineers for help. First, the Ingolstadt team put a GPS receiver into a previously milled out golf ball. But the first attempt revealed that deviations of 5-15 m meant that the measurements were not precise enough. After some tinkering and further experiments, the BFFT team for this "special project" found a solution: acceleration sensors. Equipped with a small 3.6 V battery, this sensor records the acceleration of the falling ball. A microcontroller reads the data in real time and saves it on a standard microSD card. The ball prepared for this weighs only about 0.5 g more than a normal golf ball. Through an evaluation program written by BFFT, the maximum speed can be calculated from the acceleration data in just a few minutes, live on site.
Two things will be revealed before the show: 1. Galileo 360° and BFFT were able to (presumably for the first time) measure the speed of a free falling golf ball, and 2. the BFFT core competencies are in accordance with this exciting project, not just in the field of driver assistance systems, infotainment and electrification, but also when it comes to measuring the speed of free falling golf balls.
Whether or not the golf ball was able to break the sound barrier will be revealed in Galileo 360° on 9 April 2015 at 20:15 on ProSieben MAXX (available via satellite, cable, IPTV and DVBT - further info at www.prosiebenmaxx.de/empfang).
