Using Physics To Win At Ladder Golf

[andyasb]

I happened to be playing ladder golf (google it if you are unfamiliar with it) yesterday with a group of friends and happened to be sucking pretty bad. Everyone was throwing underhand, letting the two balls connected by the string spin as it made its trajectory towards the ladder. I couldn't help but think that this was an awful way to throw since you are throwing above the center of mass (so it will move in a way that is unintuitive) and that the area of the string as your projectile hits the ladder is maximized, but there is a high probability of landing your projectile near the ladder and missing the rungs entirely because of the way it is spinning.

So, I tried a few ways of throwing but could not come up with one that I thought was better. In the end, I still ended up sucking plus additionally looked like a doofus for trying to launch it all these different ways, attempting to maximize the area of the string of the ladder. Do any of you have any ideas for a way I could go back and then beat everyone?

[rpenner]

A training montage set to the theme from 'Chariots of Fire?'

[mctc]

I think I disagree. I think that holding one ball is the way to go. For a while I played with holding both balls and having them spread as they fly. the problem is that they do not reliably seperate. and if they do they can still bounce off of eachother after hitting the rung.