Football / Soccer
Football Physics
Ball speeds and forces
The movement of the soccer ball through the air is affected by the initial forces applied to it by the head or the foot, then while it is in the air, gravity and aerodynamic forces can cause to to curve. Putting rotation on the ball can cause it to bend in the air like a baseball curve ball. A free kick has been measured at speeds up to 70 mph speed with a spin of 600 rev/min. David Beckham famously uses spin imparted on the ball to curve a free-kick around a defensive wall and goalkeeper to score his goals. Calculations show that at 25 m from the goal and a velocity of 25 m/s, Beckham can swing the soccer ball 4.57 m from the straight path by using spin.
Did you Know?
A standard soccer ball is an Archimedean Solid - a "truncated icosahedron" of 60 vertices and 32 faces. Twelve of the faces are pentagons (5-sided polygons) and twenty are hexagons (6 sided polygons). There is a carbon molecule nicknamed the "Buckeyball" which has the same shape as a soccer ball.
Related Pages
- biomechanics and physics of sport
- how to bend it like beckham
- Soccer balls for sale
