http://difusion.df.uba.ar/sabermas/futbol.html

as I teach Mathematical Methods of Physics here in Naples, I
felt obliged to explain the physics behind those kind of stikes, using
a simplified two-dimensional model (plane flow around a cilinder)
and conformal maps. You will perfectly understand that I called it
the Maradona effect.

Best regards

On a short business trip to France last week I read an article on the plane in the June 10 The Economist comparing the World Cup to the Olympics and why the World Cup is ‘better’. The article made a strong case that the World Cup is pleasantly divorced from the global pecking order because it has its own hierarchy and reflects a satifying characteristic of the global game. The article said that despite the undoubted prestige to be had by becoming champions of the world, it is extremely hard – if not impossible- for a determined and well-resourced government to create a World Cup-winning team. Moreover, a winning football team needs not just athleticism but also a spark of creativity and style that cannot be manufactured by sport’s centeral planners. It is the capacity to surprise that helps make the World Cup such a gripping event.

So after my daylong business meeting, I ducked into a cafe to relax, and with a nice coincidence, it was 15 minutes before the start of the France-Togo match. I stayed in that cafe for the entire game watching it with the two French girls running the cafe and experienced for the first time in years, the thrill of the World Cup and with two enthusiastic supporters of their country’s team. So now, I must say, ‘Thank You, World Cup’ for giving all of the world such a wonderful event.

I am rooting for England, I want to see some underdog nation do well, but as far as I can predict the final, I believe it will be the reverse of 1966:England v Germany-score 2-2, Germany wins 4-2 after extratime.

40 years ago it was the other way around, England home nation, 2-2 England won after extra time.

About the physics of Beckham, does not the balls “inside pressure” have a lot to do with it motion?..the pressure give the ball weight, the more pressure inside the ball will, according to the accepted Newtonian view?..produce the “less” curved passage from an impact force?..example a lighter ball will curve and bend (a slice-shot) as it will be more affected by the surrounding air presure?

Getting the ball to “bend”, “slice”, “swerve” and generally decieve the goalkeeper whilst in transit, is one of the most spectacular sporting skills in existence, as clearly shown by the amazing Joe Cole goal, and early in the competition, by Germany’s Miroslav Klose.

Amazing for us football fans!

Robert Carlos from WAY back. My jaw dropped the first time I saw this.

Because of the dimples on golf balls, they behave differently in mid-flight and I believe that was analyzed too in one of the issues of Physics Today (Working Knowledge).

And speaking of Germany being the favorite, the prediction now finds support in Physics Today too (June, 2006, Soccer obeys Bessel-function statistics ).

My understanding of how to effectively bend a soccer ball began when I was six or seven years old learning to chop wood with a double bladed ax in the Sierra Nevadas of northern California. The individual who taught me was a local Native American, whose name I can’t recall any longer. But well I remember that first day of my training when he showed me the advantages of “pulling” the ax handle at the precise moment just before the ax head struck the wood. Anyone who’s ever used an ax or a pickax will immediately understand what I’m talking about. For reasons that I’m sure the physicists can better explain than I, this action seems to increase the effectiveness of an ax stroke by 1 to 3 times. When you’re a kid it seems almost magical because you have very little strength in comparison to an adult, and learning this little trick enabled me to split much larger pieces of wood much more easily than I had previously.

Some years later when I learn to play soccer at age 8, I began to unconsciously employ the same technique I’d learned splitting wood to the ball on the soccer field. To my mind at the time, the effect was amazing. Whenever I had time to set up the ball, as in a free kick, I was able to produce that bending effect which allows you to launch the ball in one direction, and at a specific point in flight the curvature, which initially it was only slight, seems to overcome the forward inertia to some degree allowing for that dramatic change in direction midflight.

Later in life I was able to create this same effect in a volleyball serve, and later in a golf drive. Unfortunately my ability to make the golf ball radically change direction 150 yards out from the point of strike was never particularly desirable. I believe they call it a slice, and I have one that seems to be able to make near perfect right angle turns sending my ball off into the woods or through a neighbor’s window. Apparently once you learn this ability, it’s rather hard to stop doing it.

In the world of volleyball it allowed me to develop a trick serve, which I always referred to as the “Death Drop Serve.” By striking the ball with just average or light force, while at the same time dropping to the ground at the precise moment, I was able to create a serve which seem to bend at a right angle in midair. So what the opponents saw was a ball coming straight at them over the net at a relatively high velocity, and at a specific point it would drastically change direction and drop to the ground in front of them, seemingly dead, totally depleted of its energy. This little trick serve won me many a must-have point on on the volleyball court.

I was never a great soccer player, but even to this day I can still bend the ball around a half a dozen players standing in front of the net, leaving them rather bewildered as to what just happened.

Everyone always thought I had some special ability, but I guess all I really did was develop an instinctual grasp of physics early in my youth.