Bag of Chips

As all of you who have read my blogs should know, golf is one of my favorite sports and pastimes.  I spend a lot of time golfing throughout the year being on the varsity team.  What most of you probably don't know is that I have a pastime that i enjoy more and spend equal if not more time doing it.  You could almost call it an addiction, although I myself would like to think that if it really came down to it I could quit.  What I am talking about is poker.  I spend roughly 40-50 hours a week playing poker, mostly live, in Blackhawk and Vegas. I do realize that many people would not consider poker a sport but I am not going to get into that argument.  My blog is about materials and metallurgy in SPORTS and for the purpose of this blog I am going to take the stance that poker is shown on ESPN so that is good enough for me.  Like most avid poker players I spend countless hours playing with the poker chips, flipping, spinning, twirling and shuffling them.  The other day while sitting in front of the t.v. practicing my chip tricks (yeah, ok maybe it is becoming an addiction) I got to wondering how poker chips are manufactured.  If you've ever thought about a casino poker chip you may have realized how much of a beating they go through.  Most chips stay in circulation for 10 years or so.  Throughout their lifetime they must withstand a considerable amount of wear and tear.  After doing a little research I was able to find out from several sources the general procedure used in making the poker chips.  The exact details are not entirely made public as it would be similar to releasing the exact procedure on manufacturing bills and coins.
A combination consisting of mainly clay but incorporating other earthen materials such as sand, calcium carbonate, and/or chalk are formed into a long cylinder that is the diameter of a poker chip.  Long strips are removed from the edge of the cylinder and replaced by a "clay" of a different color.  The cylinder is then divided into smaller pieces, chips, that are just slightly larger than the size of a poker chip.  An inlay consisting of paper and plastic with a unique design is then placed on each of the "chips".  The single chip is placed in a mold and heated at around 300 F and compressed with a pressure nearing 10,000 psi.  The heat and pressure fuses all of the materials together and creates a very hard chip.  The process is actually quite costly but it ensures that the chips are made very durable and difficult to replicate.

 
Sean

A Cornflour and Water Suit????

As a kid did you ever try the simple experiment of mixing cornflour and water?  What results is an extremely cool combination of a liquid and a solid type material.  If you pour the substance out of a glass it flows similar to a liquid but when it hits a solid surface it bounces and acts as a solid.  A company called D30 has synthetically produced a material that is very similar to this.  Although it does not flow like a liquid it is very foamy and flexible until impacted when it becomes much more solid and disperses the energy involved in the impact.  This material is now being implemented into protective gear.  The science behind this material is very complicated however the best way I can describe it is that it is an elastomeric polymer that distributes energy very efficiently throughout the complex matrix that makes up its crystal structure.  Basically it is like a chain-link fence.  When a certain area of the "fence" is impacted the energy is dispersed throughout each of the "links" and the blow is softened.

You may have seen this technology being used during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.  Both the US and the Canadian ski teams wore suits that incorporated the D03 material.

 Maybe the American hockey team should of used this material to soften the blow of losing in the gold medal game ;) Go Canada! :)

Sean

Nike Has Balls

In 2000 Titleist introduced its new golf ball the Pro V1.  The very first week that it was available to professionals, Billy Andrade won using the ball.  A few months later it was available to the public and soon after became the #1 ball in golf.  It has since held its spot at the top comfortably only experiencing a slight dip in popularity due to the 2008 Callaway lawsuit debacle.  However, as of February 15th all of this may have changed.  You see the new technology introduced into the Pro V1 in 2000 has long been thought to be the top rung on the ladder with no where higher to climb.  Nike has just released a new golf ball bolstering innovative technology that may very well have extended the golf ball ladder. 

The new ball is comprised of an extremely light resin core rather than the traditional rubber core.  In order to keep the overall weight constant, the outer layers are replaced by heavier ones.  How is this beneficial?  It's all about MOI baby!  MOI, or moment of inertia is the tendency of an object to resist rotation.  It is the rotational equivalent to momentum.  This increases golf ball performance in two ways.  First of all, off the tee, using the driver, a golfer attempts to minimize the amount of spin imparted on the golf ball.  High spin rates off the tee create shorter, less accurate tee shots.  An increase in MOI makes it more difficult for a flat club such as a driver or 3-wood to create spin on the golf ball.  The second area of improvement is the response of the ball around the green.  Golfers are always attempting to increase the spin around the green.  Although the increase in MOI will not increase the actual spin rate of the ball, it will help the ball keep its spin once contacting the green.  This equates to more accuracy and the "drop and stop" effect that golfers are looking for in their approach shots.

The name of the new golf ball is the Nike 20XI and will be available to the public on April 29, 2011.  The MSRP is $58/box of 12.

Personally, I have always been a "Titleist" guy and have always stayed clear of the Nike brand as I feel that it is hyped up by the amount of endorsement deals it creates by being arguably the biggest sporting company in the world.  However this new ball appears to be technologically superior to any ball currently on the market and I will be sure to get my hands on some as soon as I can to see for myself.

Sean

Helmet Follow-up

Here's an interesting article involving some new helmet technology as a follow up to my previous post on helmets and concussions in the NHL.  The new technology is being implemented into a race car type helmet, a motorcycle helmet and in the future a football helmet.  I will admit that this specific technology is not likely to be implemented to hockey helmets however it is still very interesting.  The concept of this design is rubber, skin-like coating applied to the outer shell of the helmet.  The reason for this is that often times when a helmet hits the ground the friction between the helmet and ground creates a violent torque that can cause damage to the head, neck and brain.  The rubbery coating allows the helmet to slide laterally while minimizing the amount of torque.  Of course in hockey this is achieved by the small coefficient of friction that exists between any material and ice.  Non the less the technology will likely improve safety in sports such as football and racing (car, motorcycle, etc).


Here is the link to the article: http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2010-04/straight-ahead

Sean