There is a discussion in another thread about humidity and ball carry. Here is what I recall but its been awhile so someone correct me if I am forgetting something here. Fletch, didnt we have this discussion before???? 
Ball carry is a function of a number of factore, mainly air pressure, air temperature, humidity, and the density of air. Of course all of these variable are correlated - some directly (one goes up the other goes up) and some inversely (one goes up the other goes down).
**The important thing to remember is that a ball will carry further in air that is less DENSE. ** So look at what causes air density to decrease........
First, the formula relating Density, Pressure, and Temperature is:
D = k(P/T) where k is some constant.
Air temperature (T) vs. density (D). As air temperature increases, density decreases. This helps explain why balls carry further in summer than winter (all else being the same of course, i.e. not factoring in wind).
Air pressure (P) vs. density (D). As air pressure increases, so does density. As air pressure decreaes, density also decreases. I believe that air pressure decreases as altitude increases, which would explain why balls carry further in Colorado vs. sea level.
Humidity vs. density. If the humidity (amount of water vapor) in the air increases, the density decreases. This is actually counter-intuitive to me. Denser air is actually thinner than dry air (at the same temp and pressure). This explains why a ball will go farther on a humid day than on a dry day.
The above formula doesn't contain a variable for humidity, so this is the only way I can try to rationalize the above claim about humidity and density. For density to decrease in the formula, either P must go down or T must go up - just the simple law of fractions. An increase in temperature will cause air to expand making it capable of holding more moisture. Even though the relative humidity might decrease as temps rise (notice the term relative), the amount of moisture in the air can increase - it just may not increase enough relative to the rate the air is expanding. Therefore, an increase in T would lead to an increase in the amount of moisture in the air which would lead to a decrease in the density variable (D).
This is all I can remember about this stuff. My brain is about to shut down for the night lol.
Ball carry is a function of a number of factore, mainly air pressure, air temperature, humidity, and the density of air. Of course all of these variable are correlated - some directly (one goes up the other goes up) and some inversely (one goes up the other goes down).
**The important thing to remember is that a ball will carry further in air that is less DENSE. ** So look at what causes air density to decrease........
First, the formula relating Density, Pressure, and Temperature is:
D = k(P/T) where k is some constant.
Air temperature (T) vs. density (D). As air temperature increases, density decreases. This helps explain why balls carry further in summer than winter (all else being the same of course, i.e. not factoring in wind).
Air pressure (P) vs. density (D). As air pressure increases, so does density. As air pressure decreaes, density also decreases. I believe that air pressure decreases as altitude increases, which would explain why balls carry further in Colorado vs. sea level.
Humidity vs. density. If the humidity (amount of water vapor) in the air increases, the density decreases. This is actually counter-intuitive to me. Denser air is actually thinner than dry air (at the same temp and pressure). This explains why a ball will go farther on a humid day than on a dry day.
The above formula doesn't contain a variable for humidity, so this is the only way I can try to rationalize the above claim about humidity and density. For density to decrease in the formula, either P must go down or T must go up - just the simple law of fractions. An increase in temperature will cause air to expand making it capable of holding more moisture. Even though the relative humidity might decrease as temps rise (notice the term relative), the amount of moisture in the air can increase - it just may not increase enough relative to the rate the air is expanding. Therefore, an increase in T would lead to an increase in the amount of moisture in the air which would lead to a decrease in the density variable (D).
This is all I can remember about this stuff. My brain is about to shut down for the night lol.
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