• Question: Wooo the world cup is on go england:) but many people are complaing that the ball is too light and has many problems with it butt does this change how the arodynamics work and how it flys through the air?

    Asked by amango to Betul, Bridget, Ceri-Wyn, Laurel, Maria on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Bridget Waller

      Bridget Waller answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      I guess it must do! Not my area though…but there must be lots of info on the internet about it!

    • Photo: Ceri-Wyn Thomas

      Ceri-Wyn Thomas answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      How a ball curves is controlled by the flow of air around it. For traditional curled
      balls (think David Beckham style) the curl is easier to explain. First watch this video:

      particularly the view from behind Beckham (1:00 – 1:05). When Becks hits it with his
      right foot, it spins anticlockwise. This means that left side of the ball is moving backwards, while the right side moves forwards, so the left side of the ball pulls the air round with
      it faster. The faster moving air has a lower pressure compared to the slower moving air on the right side of the ball, so the higher pressure of the right side forces the ball to the left. This effect is called the Bernoulli effect, named after a man who was working on this problem to understand the flight of cannonballs and shells. This kind of system only develops when the air flows around the ball in a
      laminar fashion (i.e. relatively undisturbed). If you hit the ball fast enough, and with less spin, you get turbulent flow around the ball. This is what Cristiano Ronaldo does. Watch
      this video

      particularly the view from behind, 0:45 – 0:50. Turbulent flow around a ball is much
      harder to predict, it makes the ball swerve around all over the place, which you can see is
      what has beaten the goalkeeper. To get turbulent flow, you have to hit the ball really hard, which is why only a few players can shoot like this. However, it seems like the lightness of the new ball, as well as the ‘grip n groove’ technology they’ve used – essentially the ball has little grooves all over it to’grip’ the air – make the flow around the ball turbulent at much lower speeds of shot, so almost whenever players shoot it is much harder to predict where the ball will go. Lets hope that Rooney, Lampard and co are reading this and can get the hang of it before we play Slovenia! 😉

    • Photo: Betul Arslan

      Betul Arslan answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      I don’t think the ball is the blame! Vuvuzela, though, yes, please ban vuvuzela from the games if you could! 🙂

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