Golf balls have all those little dents so that they fly faster through the air. So of course someone had to ask, what if we put little dimples all over a car? Mythbusters tested 3 Ford Taurus cars: one normal car, one car covered in smooth clay, and one covered in clay with 1,082 dimples scooped out. While the smooth cars drove 26 miles on a gallon of gas, the dimpled car drove almost 30 miles! On a long trip that saves a lot of gas, if you’re okay with driving a funny-looking car.
Wee ones: What shape is a golf ball?
Little kids: Golf balls don’t all have the same numbers of dimples. Which has more, a ball with 20 dimples or a ball with 30 dimples? Bonus: If the dimpled car could drive 30 miles on a gallon of gas while the regular car drove only 26 miles, how much farther could the dimpled car drive?
Big kids: If you helped smash the dimples into a test car, and you can smash 10 dimples each minute, about how long would it take you to make the 1,082 dimples? Bonus: If your car tank holds 20 gallons of gas, and you’ll drive 4 miles farther on each gallon after banging up your car, how many more miles do you get out of every tank of gas?
Answers:
Wee ones: A circle, or if you’re talking about 3-D (chunky) shapes, it’s a “sphere.”
Little kids: The 30-dimple ball. Bonus: 4 miles farther.
Big kids: 108 minutes. Bonus: 80 more miles!
