Soccer: The Magnus Effect In Soccer

Soccer is a sport that involves two teams of 11 players who strike a football with their feet. When the players kick the ball they can affects the way the ball spins in the air. Factors that affect the way a ball spins include: wind drag, the way the ball is struck, and friction. These affect it due to the change of the air-flow over the ball, which occur when the ball spins in both a translational and rotational motion. This is due to the magnus effect and bernoulli principle occurring when the ball is kicked. The magnus effect is a force on a spinning ball moving through the air, taking some parts of the bernoulli principle. The bernoulli principle states that if the speed of a fluid around an object is slow then the pressure on the object …show more content…
1 When a ball is kicked as a knuckleball there is no spin on the ball. This means the player exerts a force behind the ball just below its middle to give some lift in the air. Due to the ball not spinning it means that the air that the ball flows through determines the way the ball moves. The air pressure is neither high or low on both sides of the ball meaning that as the ball goes through the air it keeps a velocity that is relatively similar to what velocity it started with. The form drag would be greater on a knuckleball than a back spinning ball, because there is no spin giving diverse air pressure levels and creating a small air pocket. With the knuckleball there will be an air pocket which creates further turbulence behind the ball with the drag being greater because of this, but not causing a large enough effect to slow the velocity enough. Knuckleballs are often a shot at goal and do not often hit the ground afterwards. If a knuckle ball does hit the ground then the friction between to ground and the ball creates topspin on the ball, which forces the ball downwards making it begin to roll on the floor …show more content…
The flips involves the jumper to first create a rotational motion around their centre of mass. This is done to create angular momentum which ensures the spin occurs and must have a net force greater than zero. The angular momentum occurs around the centre of mass for the dive, which is often around the belly button region on the body in a tight ball. Angular momentum is the product of angular velocity and rotational inertia. The momentum remains the same throughout the dive, however for the diver to complete different flips or the amount of flips they must either increase the inertia which will decrease angular velocity giving a smaller spin, or the opposite of decreasing the inertia and increasing the angular velocity creating a quicker spin/flip. To increase the inertia the diver must tuck in either arms or legs or both at the same time. Inertia is the resistance an object has to a change from its current state of motion. To maximise the amount of diver can do they should jump upwards and forwards to get more height to their dives and begin forward momentum for the flips. This allows more time for each flip, or more time to have perform another flip, while also ensure that flips occur. To lessen the time each flip takes to complete then they can tuck in both their arms and legs to maximise the velocity they spin at and thereby