Tomonews’s guide to how to bend a soccer ball - TomoNews
- 8 years ago
TOMONEWS — In a soccer game, players can been bending or curving the ball during a free-kick, corner kick, a shot, or a wing play. Players apply spin to the ball to give the ball a certain rotation.
The physics behind this mechanism is called Magnus effect and was first described by Isaac Newton, who noticed this scientific effect in tennis, in which a topspin can cause a ball to dip, while backspin flattens out its trajectory.
When bending or curving a soccer ball, the player’s foot brushes the outside of the ball, causing the ball to spin.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor John Bush told MIT News that the spin creates an imbalance in air flow. Pressure on one side of the ball is higher than on the other side, pushing the ball toward the low pressure zone and resulting in a curved trajectory.
If applied with the correct techniques, the ball can be bended or curved in various ways, depending on the stitching of the ball.
Most soccer balls are sewn with 12 pentagonal and 20 hexagonal panels. The stitching is crucial to the trajectory of the ball.
A rougher surface makes the swerve of the ball easier to control, while a smoother surface makes its swerve less predictable.
The physics behind this mechanism is called Magnus effect and was first described by Isaac Newton, who noticed this scientific effect in tennis, in which a topspin can cause a ball to dip, while backspin flattens out its trajectory.
When bending or curving a soccer ball, the player’s foot brushes the outside of the ball, causing the ball to spin.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor John Bush told MIT News that the spin creates an imbalance in air flow. Pressure on one side of the ball is higher than on the other side, pushing the ball toward the low pressure zone and resulting in a curved trajectory.
If applied with the correct techniques, the ball can be bended or curved in various ways, depending on the stitching of the ball.
Most soccer balls are sewn with 12 pentagonal and 20 hexagonal panels. The stitching is crucial to the trajectory of the ball.
A rougher surface makes the swerve of the ball easier to control, while a smoother surface makes its swerve less predictable.