In addition to flying under the powerful shot of golfers, golf balls also arouse the curiosity of many people. There are several interesting queries around this little ball, one of which is the question of “how many golf balls fit in a bathtub?”
To find the answer, people have made various assumptions. Finally, it is concluded to depend on the size of both the tub and the golf ball. Besides, the result can also vary depending on whether the bathtub is empty or filled with water.
So what is the complete answer to the above questions? Let’s find the answer together here!
Table of Contents
What Is a Standard Golf Ball Size?
There are many types of golf balls, varying in functions, designs and sizes. The reason is that each ball is specifically produced to serve a certain type of golf game or suit different golfers.
With small balls, the number needed to fill the tub will be greater than medium or large golf balls. Therefore, I will choose the most common and popular one – the standard golf ball to have a general answer.
A standard ball has its dimensions specified by The R&E and UGSA, with the radius of the shadow is 1.68 inches. These are widely used and universally recognized, so they will probably be most familiar to everyone.
In other words, balls that do not follow R&A rules of R&E are considered illegal golf balls and are not widely used in official games. Instead, they are only used when practicing and interacting with friends.
Therefore, it is not suitable to use as a reference in this case, and the standard ball is more suitable as a criterion.
Following the radius of a standard golf ball, we will determine the volume of the ball. With a radius of 1.68 inches, applying the spherical volume calculation gives you 2.5 cubic inches for a standard golf ball volume. Remember this number to use for the final answer.
What Is the Standard Bathtub Size?
Bathtubs probably come in multiple shapes and sizes. However, because you also need the volume of the bathtub to calculate, it’s better to choose a standard-sized rectangular one.
Remember that the more unique shape or size your bathtub is, the harder it is to calculate. Of course, I also exclude the case of having water, objects, people or anything inside.
Instead, a simple empty tub is used to calculate. Because when the tub contains water or other items, the calculation will be more complicated, and the results vary depending on what is in the bathtub.
In this case, you must determine exactly what is contained in the tub and related specifications in order to get the exact calculation of the entire space to be filled with balls.
That is not easy, and probably not typical for most cases. Therefore, keep everything simple by using the standard ones.
A standard tub will typically measure 60 inches long, 32 inches wide, and 18 inches tall. I also use these measurements for calculation here. However, you are not required to choose a bathtub with exactly similar specifications.
If you have a tub of different sizes, you may have to use your own measurements to calculate the tub volume, then apply the result to figure out how many golf balls can fit in your own bathtub.
However, the shape of your bathtub must be basic, such as rectangle, round, square or oval. These shapes are easier to calculate volume because they all have a simple and available formula for volume calculation.
In this case, the most ideal and standard tub to use measures 60 x 32 x 18 (L x W x H), equal to 34,565 cubic inches in volume. Together with the volume of one golf ball, this number is used to calculate how many golf balls can fit in a bathtub.
How Many Golf Balls Fit In a Bathtub?
Having the necessary numbers determined, you can now calculate the number of balls needed to fill a tub. Typically, the number of golf balls will be equal to the tub’s volume divided by the volume of one ball as in the following formula.
Number of golf balls = Bathtub volume ÷ one golf ball volume
With the standard-sized rectangular bathtub and a standard ball, the calculation is 34,565 ÷ 2.5 = 13,824 (balls).
However, this is only the theoretical result. In fact, golf balls are spherical, which means certain gaps exist among the balls even if they are stacked. Hence, the above number is only true if the balls fit tightly together.
To get the closest answer to reality, you must eliminate the gaps between the balls by multiplying by 0.74. The final result is 10,229.76 balls.
Thus, there will be around 10,230 golf balls that fit in a Bathtub. This result may vary slightly depending on the gap among each ball, which is mostly undefinable. However, the difference is not so great to be considered.
This is just one of many ways to find the answer, and there are more methods to calculate how many golf balls can fit in a bathtub. However, if the measurements of the ball and tub are similar, you may get a result without any considerable difference.
Also, the current calculation only applies to empty bathtubs. If there is water or anything else inside the tub, you will need more additional and complex formulas. Obviously, the number of balls will be fewer in this case.
FAQs
Besides the bathtub, you may apply a similar method to determine how many golf balls are needed to fit in different things.
Here is some interesting information that you may also be curious about!
How Many Golf Balls Would Fit In a School Bus?
Using the similar method of having the container volume divided by one golf ball volume, the result is approximately 600,000 balls. However, unlike the bathtub, the bus is normally occupied by seats and other stuff, which varies significantly depending on the bus design.
Therefore, the approximation error is greater in this case, which is estimated at around 100,000 balls. Taking the approximation error into consideration, you may need about 500,000 golf balls to fill a school bus.
In case you are still unclear about the calculation, I have also provided a detailed explanation of how to get that result step by step. Refer to a separate article on the number of golf balls needed to fit in a school bus if you are curious.
How Many Golf Balls Can Fit In a Boeing 747?
A similar method of dividing volume is also used in this case, but it is probably much more sophisticated. Like the bus, a plane has seats and even more stuff.
There are several assumptions of the human volume, cargo, and other occupied spaces. It’s too complicated to explain right here, but I would assume that the Boeing 747 has 31,104,000 cubic inches to be filled with balls, and one golf ball is 2.5 cubic inches.
After having Boeing volume divided by 2.5, the result is 12,441,600 balls. When taking the sphere into consideration, it seems that you may need about 8,709,120 to 9,206,784 golf balls to fill the unoccupied space of a Boeing 747.
How Many Golf Balls Are in a Bucket?
For golfers, you may be familiar with the buckets of golf balls that you have to pay for when joining golf ranges. These buckets are standard in their size, and normally contain around 40 balls.
However, the number may differ as the buckets are not exactly the same for all golf games.
Conclusion
We have finally found the answer to the question “How many golf balls fit in a bathtub?” Probably, it is a very interesting knowledge that you can use to impress anyone.
If you find this information interesting, leave a comment or share the article with your friends so that I have the motivation to create more useful content.
Thanks for reading!
