How Physics Makes “Impossible” Soccer Kicks Possible
You can't bend it like Beckham without a little help from physics.
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Lee Goldstein
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Transcript
No.
It completely fell apart once it turned the corner, so.
Of course, soccer is a projectile moving around on a field.
The very first weeks of physics is, you know, how projectile moves around when you kick it.
Now, what soccer players often do, they are able to curve the ball around the defenders.
The famous saying “bend it like Beckham.”
You know, Beckham was notoriously great at doing these free kicks.
You can only do that because of air.
And I have...a ball here to show this!
Okay. Say you four are the defenders.
So I am going to kick the ball this way. I’m going to kick it over here. The ball is spinning this way.
And the air is kind of curving with the ball, so it's bringing some air around. So it's making a low pressure over here.
But when it brings this air around, it’s making a high pressure area over here. Because you’re getting high pressure over here, that’s going to move the ball this way.
The original direction I've given it, is that way, You eventually see the curve happen as goes over the longer distance.
And this is called the Magnus effect, after a 19th century physicist, and this happens not just in soccer, but, pretty much any sport where you want to throw a ball in one direction and fool someone.
Even if you, you know, know this effect and know why happens, there's still something magical about it because they have
an intuitive grasp, almost in their soul, of how this is going to work.
It's still surprising.
It completely fell apart once it turned the corner, so.
Of course, soccer is a projectile moving around on a field.
The very first weeks of physics is, you know, how projectile moves around when you kick it.
Now, what soccer players often do, they are able to curve the ball around the defenders.
The famous saying “bend it like Beckham.”
You know, Beckham was notoriously great at doing these free kicks.
You can only do that because of air.
And I have...a ball here to show this!
Okay. Say you four are the defenders.
So I am going to kick the ball this way. I’m going to kick it over here. The ball is spinning this way.
And the air is kind of curving with the ball, so it's bringing some air around. So it's making a low pressure over here.
But when it brings this air around, it’s making a high pressure area over here. Because you’re getting high pressure over here, that’s going to move the ball this way.
The original direction I've given it, is that way, You eventually see the curve happen as goes over the longer distance.
And this is called the Magnus effect, after a 19th century physicist, and this happens not just in soccer, but, pretty much any sport where you want to throw a ball in one direction and fool someone.
Even if you, you know, know this effect and know why happens, there's still something magical about it because they have
an intuitive grasp, almost in their soul, of how this is going to work.
It's still surprising.
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