

Golf balls are small objects, and there are a lot of big, huge objects in the world.
Sometimes, we get that little itch to learn some random, useless, yet intriguing information. Therefore, you may wonder: How many golf balls fit in a Boeing 747?
In this article, we will tell you exactly how many golf balls fit in a Boeing 747.
How Many Golf Balls Fit In A Boeing 747?
You could fit 15673510 golf balls in a Boeing 747 airplane, assuming you fill the main deck, lower hold, & bulk of the plane with efficient packing of golf balls. In other words, you could fit over 15.5 million golf balls in a Boeing 747 airplane.
Golf balls are tiny, and Boeing 747 planes are huge, so we already know we will be able to fit many golf balls.
This means that if we end up with a small number of balls, say a couple hundred or thousand, then there must be a mistake.
To calculate how many golf balls can fit in a Boeing 747, we will make the following assumptions:
-We are filling a regular-sized Boeing 747, with no accommodations made for our golf ball calculations
-We are filling up the main deck, lower hold, & bulk of the plane with golf balls. Fuel tanks etc. will not be filled with golf balls.
-Golf balls can be packed in cannonball arrangement to save a bit of lost space due to the golf balls not being cubic. The packing coefficient used is 0.74. No golf balls will be cut, deformed, or transformed to save packing space.
With these assumptions clearly defined, we can start by defining the dimensions of a golf ball:
Golf ball diameter = 1.68 inches = 0.14 ft
Golf ball radius = 0.07ft
Volume of a golf ball = (4/3)*pi*r^3 = (4/3)*pi*0.07^3 = 0.00143 cubic ft
Next, we can define the dimensions of the Boeing 747 compartments we are filling with golf balls. There is data available with the exact volume of each of these compartments:
Boeing 747 Main Deck volume = 24462 cubic ft
Boeing 747 Lower Hold Volume = 5330 cubic ft
Boeing 747 Bulk Volume = 496 cubic ft
Boeing 747 Total Volume = 24462+5330+496 = 30288 cubic ft
The total volume of the Boeing 747 that we can fill with golf balls is the sum of the volume of each compartment we can fill.
Down below, you can see a quick graphic explaining the packing coefficient used:
As you can see above, the golf balls can be assembled in cannonball fashion (second arrangement on diagram) when stacked as to save vertical space between the golf balls.
This arrangement of golf balls allows you to save some space that you would otherwise lose if you treated the golf balls as cubes with the same diameter. Golf balls and spheres alike do not occupy the “corners” in a virtual cube with the same diameter as them.
The golf ball cannonball packing coefficient is defined as follows:
Golf ball cannonball packing coefficient = sqrt(2)/2 = 0.74
With all of these elements defined, we can calculate the number of golf balls that we can fit in a Boeing 747 airplane:
Number of golf balls = (Boeing 747 Total Volume*packing coefficient) / (golf ball volume)
Number of golf balls = (30288*0.74)/ 0.00143
Number of golf balls = 15673510.48951= 15673510 full golf balls
We obtain the result of 15673510.48951 golf balls being able to fit on a Boeing 747, but we need to round down to 15673510 since we do not want to cut the golf balls.
In the end, you can fit 15673510 golf balls on a Boeing 747. In other words, you could fit over 15.5 million golf balls in a Boeing 747 airplane.
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Conclusion
There you go! After reading this article, you now know how many golf balls fit in a Boeing 747.
It is a huge number that may quite possibly have surprised you. Make your friends guess how many golf balls would fit!
Do you want to know how many golf balls would fit in other objects? Let us know which objects in the comments down below!