Dimpled golf ball and dimple distributing method

1. A method of forming a golf ball having a surface comprising a plurality of dimples arranged thereon, comprising the steps of:

defining a first portion of the surface in which the plurality of dimples will be arranged;

triangulating the first portion of the surface to form a triangulated surface pattern;

generating a dimple arrangement for the first portion comprising Soddy circles, wherein the Soddy circles are based on the vertices of the triangulated surface pattern; and

forming a golf ball comprising an outer cover comprising the dimple arrangement.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising modifying one or more Soddy circle radii if two or more circles overlap.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the surface comprises the entire surface of the golf ball.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dimple arrangement in the first portion is repeated on other portions of the golf ball.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the total dimple coverage is about 60% or greater.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the triangulation and pattern generated are based on a computer program.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the triangulation comprises generating two or more triangulated surface patterns.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the triangulation comprises a plurality of triangles, wherein the angles of the triangles comprise obtuse, oblique, equilateral, or any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the triangulated surface pattern is randomly generated.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the triangulated surface pattern is based on at least one polyhedra or Archimedean solids.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising optimizing the positioning of dimples based on the electromagnetic theory.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:

defining a second portion of the surface in which a second plurality of dimples will be arranged;

placing a second plurality of dimples within the defined second portion;

assigning charge values to the second plurality of dimples;

applying Coulomb's Law to determine the potential of the charge values;

applying a first solution method to minimize the potential; and

altering the dimple location and distribution according to the solution method.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the first and second portions include regions where no dimples can be defined.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the dimples comprise varied cross-sections.

15. A method of forming a golf ball having a surface comprising a plurality of dimples, comprising the steps of:

defining a first portion of the surface in which at least a portion of the plurality of dimples will be arranged;

determining a dimple pattern for the first portion based on circle packing theory;

defining a second portion of the surface in which at least another portion of the pluarity of dimples will be arranged;

triangulating the second portion of the surface to form a triangulated surface pattern;

generating Soddy circles based on the vertices of the triangulated surface pattern; and

positioning dimples on the second portion based on the Soddy circles, wherein at least about 80 percent of the surface is covered with dimples; and

forming a golf ball cover on the golf ball comprising the first and second portions.

16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein substantially all of the dimples in the first portion are mutually tangent to at least three neighboring dimples.

17. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the step of determining a dimple pattern further comprises arranging a pluarity of circles where at least some of the circles are mutually tangent.

18. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the step of determining a dimple pattern is based on a predetermined number of different circle diameters.

19. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the step of determining a dimple pattern is based on a predetermined number of fixed circle positions.

20. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the step of determining a dimple pattern is based on circles having two or more substantially different diameters.

21. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the step of determining a dimple pattern is based on circles having substantially similar diameters.

22. The method according to claim 15 , further comprising repeating the pattern on other portions of the golf ball.

23. The method according to claim 15 , wherein at least one dimple within the first portion overlaps at least one adjacent dimple within the second portion, wherein the percentage overlap is between about 1% and about 5% of the average neighboring dimple diameters.

24. The method according to claim 15 , wherein at least one dimple within the first portion overlaps at least one adjacent dimple within the second portion, wherein the percentage overlap is between about 2% and about 4% of the average neighboring dimple diameters.

25. A method of forming a golf ball having a surface comprising a plurality of dimples, comprising the steps of:

defining a first portion of the surface in which at least a portion of the plurality of dimples will be arranged;

positioning dimples within the first portion based on circle packing theory and a predetermined number of different circle diameters;

defining a second portion of the surface in which dimples will be arranged;

triangulating the second portion of the surface to form a triangulated surface pattern;

generating Soddy circles based on the vertices of the triangulated surface pattern;

modifying one or more Soddy circle radii if two or more circles overlap;

positioning dimples on the second portion based on the Soddy circles; and

forming a golf ball cover on the golf ball comprising the first and second portions.