#ICYMI: Cosmic Queries: The Physics of Soccer

In this week’s off-season episode of Playing with Science, hosts Gary O’Reilly and Chuck Nice answer fan-submitted questions about soccer, with a little help on the science of “the beautiful game” from returning fan-favorite physicist John Eric Goff. Don’t miss an episode of Playing with Science. Subscribe to our channels on: TuneIn: http://www.tunein.com/playingwithscience Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/playing-with-science/id1198280360?mt=2 Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/startalk/playing-with-science SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/startalk_playing-with-science GooglePlay Music: https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Iimke5bwpoh2nb25swchmw6kzjq NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free. Find out more at https://www.startalkradio.net/startalk-all-access/

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:11Gary O'Reilly?

  I'm Gary O'Reilly.

• 0:12Chuck Nice?

  And I'm Chuck Nice.

• 0:13Gary O'Reilly?

  And this is Playing with Science. Because of the constant requests from so many of our listeners for a soccer-based show, we decided to speak to the boss, yes, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and ask him if we could give it the cosmic query treatment and let you, the listeners, decide which direction the show should take with your questions.

• 0:32Chuck Nice?

  And bringing the science in to answer those questions will be our good friend, physics professor Eric Goff from Lynchburg College in Virginia, author of Gold Medal Physics and all-around sports guru and super soccer fan.

• 0:48Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes, so stick around because we are going to get to grips with probably the greatest free kick of all time, bringing you the science of that and plenty more. And for once, I get to play in my own backyard, which should be fun.

• 1:01Chuck Nice?

  I know, this is, this is your show, my friend.

• 1:03Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes, we'll see.

• 1:04Chuck Nice?

  I'm just gonna sit back and learn something here, you know. We got, we got Eric Goff, who will give us the physics, and then we have a professional footballer here.

• 1:13Gary O'Reilly?

  Hey!

• 1:14Chuck Nice?

  Who'll give us the experience and, you know, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna go home.

• 1:17Gary O'Reilly?

  No, no, no, no, no, it's be good, be good, you're all part of the team here.

• 1:20Chuck Nice?

  And speaking of Eric Goff, Professor Eric Goff, how are you, my friend?

• 1:25Speaker 02

  I'm doing great, how are you?

• 1:27Gary O'Reilly?

  It's good to have you back, sir.

• 1:29Chuck Nice?

  And you are indeed a big-time, huge soccer fan, right?

• 1:33Speaker 02

  I really, I didn't get into soccer much as a kid, but I got into it when I started doing sports physics as an adult and I've really enjoyed it in the last, I'd say, 15, 16 years that I've been doing this.

• 1:46Chuck Nice?

  Ah, got it, that's, that's long enough to be considered a fan, 15 years. 15 years of dedication to a sport is enough, yeah.

• 1:52Gary O'Reilly?

  And there's lots of physics in the sport, it's, it's just if you're new to the sport, you don't quite realise it's there, but hopefully by the time the show finishes, our listeners will understand just how much is going on within what they call the beautiful game.

• 2:06Chuck Nice?

  The beautiful game, that is, yeah.

• 2:07Gary O'Reilly?

  All right, well, let's get straight into a little bit of our Action. Aaron from Connecticut has asked, can you explain the Roberto Carlos goal against France in 97, as he puts it, probably the best free kick goal ever. And I'm not in a position where I can argue to that. I think it is probably the best free kick goal ever. So Chuck, let's, let's set this one up and get to a clip.

• 2:31Chuck Nice?

  Okay, I definitely want to hear, I just definitely want to see what this is because I'm not familiar with this 97 free kick goal. So why don't we just take a look at what, what, what you are now, if you're saying this is the best free kick goal ever, I can't wait to see it.

• 2:45Gary O'Reilly?

  Yep, let's do it.

• 2:49Gary O'Reilly?

  So the commentary is in French. Roberto Carlos is a left footed player. This is Brazil against France. He's what, 35 yards from goal?

• 2:59Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 3:00Gary O'Reilly?

  This thing is going to do stuff that Eric can explain.

• 3:04Chuck Nice?

  He kicks it, whoa, whoa.

• 3:06Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, it's, it's not just that angle.

• 3:08Chuck Nice?

  Okay, here's the, wow, that was amazing.

• 3:11Speaker 02

  Watch the goal, watch the goalkeeper, he barely moves.

• 3:13Chuck Nice?

  The goalkeeper puts his hands on his hips, like what the hell was that?

• 3:17Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah. And the goalkeeper is Fabian Barthez, one of the, one of the world's greatest goalkeepers, a World Cup winning goalkeeper. Right now, watch, watch how wide of the goal it goes.

• 3:27Chuck Nice?

  Goodness.

• 3:28Gary O'Reilly?

  And then it comes back in. That's why the goalkeeper doesn't move.

• 3:31Speaker 02

  The goalkeeper doesn't move.

• 3:32Gary O'Reilly?

  No, because Barthez is thinking, watch this, this is out towards the corner flag and down into the parking lot.

• 3:36Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 3:37Gary O'Reilly?

  And that's what it's all about.

• 3:39Chuck Nice?

  It's so far outside of the goalpost.

• 3:41Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 3:42Chuck Nice?

  That the goalkeeper doesn't move because he says, this guy just kicked the ball into the stands.

• 3:48Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, he doesn't, he doesn't expect it to cut back in that much.

• 3:52Chuck Nice?

  But then it cut back, it cut back in and drops like a rock.

• 3:56Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 3:57Chuck Nice?

  At the same time.

• 3:58Gary O'Reilly?

  This is like a baseball pitch.

• 3:59Chuck Nice?

  That's what it was like.

• 4:00Gary O'Reilly?

  Only slightly, slightly slower.

• 4:02Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 4:03Gary O'Reilly?

  But, I mean, Roberto Carlos is a... Fullback, so he's a shorter player.

• 4:08Chuck Nice?

  Mm hmm.

• 4:08Gary O'Reilly?

  But if you ever meet him, and I've done on several occasions, he has such powerful quads. And the power that he puts through this ball. Now, Professor, please explain in the physics, what is going on when Roberto Carlos slams this into the back of the net?

• 4:25Speaker 02

  So he's about thirty eight yards out, maybe thirty five meters out from the goal. And of course, you see the the wall set up to defend against this kick. Um, think of it like a screwball pitcher in uh in baseball. So the the he's coming at it with his left foot. And he's gonna kick it in such a way that if you were to look down on the ball from the sky, you'd see it spinning counterclockwise. So what it's actually doing is, as the ball leaves, uh, the boot, uh, it's got this counterclockwise spin. At a fairly hefty speed, we were looking at about sixty miles an hour coming off the foot. And the ball is gonna start deflecting to the left.

• 5:07Speaker 02

  And if there was no pitch, uh, we would see the ball simply spiral down at a smaller and smaller radius. But uh, what we're getting is the the first part of that spiral, which is that nice uh banana kick that you're you're used to seeing in in soccer.

• 5:22Gary O'Reilly?

  So for Chuck right now, if you imagine you just came up and kicked the ball on the very outside of it. It would you would end up going almost laterally on a ninety degree angle. So what Roberto Carlos has to do is understand exactly where it is on the ball, and it's a small space.

• 5:38Chuck Nice?

  Mm hmm.

• 5:39Gary O'Reilly?

  You know, maybe a couple of inches across, where he has to drive through it. But as the boot makes contact with the ball, he's now got to flip his foot to ensure he gets enough rotation on the ball to bring it out. And then at the end, drag it back in.

• 5:53Chuck Nice?

  So you're saying that, cause I noticed in the beginning, he places it down very meticulously.

• 5:58Gary O'Reilly?

  Yep.

• 5:59Chuck Nice?

  Puts the ball down in like a very specific spot and then twists the ball. So you're saying that the spot that he kicks it, it's, he gives foot action, kind of like wrist action?

• 6:09Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 6:10Chuck Nice?

  When you're pitching a baseball?

• 6:11Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 6:11Chuck Nice?

  Oh my.

• 6:12Gary O'Reilly?

  So this is.

• 6:13Chuck Nice?

  That's amazing.

• 6:14Gary O'Reilly?

  This is, uh, when you watch a pitcher and you. See just how they manipulate fingers, thumbs and everything. So now you don't have such dexterity in the foot. But you are able, once you, once you are practiced at the art, and by the way, Roberto is very well practiced at the art of curving and swerving a ball.

• 6:32Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 6:32Gary O'Reilly?

  He, he can do stuff that very few players can do.

• 6:35Chuck Nice?

  So maybe we should have been saying bend it like Roberto instead of bend it like Beckham.

• 6:39Gary O'Reilly?

  Well, bend it like Beckham kinda came before.

• 6:42Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, a couple of years before that.

• 6:44Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, uh, all right, okay. Beckham, Beckham's got all the hoopla, Roberto just is special, is absolutely incredible. I mean, I'm, I don't know if you agree, Eric, but that for me is number one free kick I have ever seen, and I've seen quite a few.

• 6:58Speaker 02

  I, I think that's the best, and I, I think the goalkeeper's reaction to it, uh, is priceless because he just doesn't move. I mean, he, he's not that far from the goalpost. He could have easily gotten that ball deflected out of the goal. Uh, he just never moved. I mean, he thought that ball was going well wide. Uh, and it's got that nice bite curve right at the end.

• 7:18Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 7:18Speaker 02

  You know, if, if Carlos kicks the ball a little bit more toward the center, it's too fast, it's gonna be wide. If he kicks it a little bit more out. Uh, it's got a little too much spin and a little less speed, it's gonna curl into the ground. I mean, it was just the perfect foot placement.

• 7:34Chuck Nice?

  So let me just ask you before we move on from this, uh, the, the way the ball drops like that at the very end, wh- what causes that to happen, uh, Eric?

• 7:45Speaker 02

  Well, it's certainly, uh, the, the gravitational pull. I mean, the, the drop was about three quarters is gonna happen in the last half of the flight.

• 7:53Chuck Nice?

  I got you.

• 7:54Speaker 02

  So i- i- it's no different from any other projectile. I mean, it's, uh,

• 7:59Chuck Nice?

  So it probably.

• 7:59Speaker 02

  Got a little bit of a top spin component to the side spin, but mostly side spin.

• 8:03Chuck Nice?

  So, but, but, so I guess because it's such a long curve, such a, such a wide arc, the drop looks more dramatic because you're seeing it drop and move laterally at the same time. Is that what it is? Like more of a visual effect?

• 8:19Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 8:19Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 8:20Speaker 02

  I- i- if the, if, as I said before, if the pitch wasn't there, I mean, you, you'd just see the ball continue to spiral at, at ever shorter and shorter, uh, radius.

• 8:29Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha, gotcha. Okay, cool.

• 8:30Gary O'Reilly?

  So we touched on the David Beckham, bend it like Beckham thing, and we have another question, um, and I love this name. Who, he who is nobody from Google Plus has thrown a question, can? You explain bend it like Beckham. Now for me, uh, the free kick we've just seen by Roberto Carlos is with the outside of his boot. Beckham's stock in trade was with the inside of the boot. So can you explain the difference and power and energy that is going to be transmitted by using the outside and the inside of the boot, please?

• 9:03Chuck Nice?

  And before you, before you do that, so let me ask you, Gary, is that that you said that, uh, Roberto's left footed?

• 9:10Gary O'Reilly?

  Mm hmm.

• 9:10Chuck Nice?

  So is Beckham right footed?

• 9:12Gary O'Reilly?

  Beckham's right footed. The thing is you get more control. You're able to control the ball better with the inside of your boot as to being accurate as opposed to the outside of it, which makes the Roberto Carlos thing so special.

• 9:26Chuck Nice?

  More, it's much more impressive.

• 9:27Gary O'Reilly?

  He has taken the level of execution to up. So Professor Beckham versus Roberto Carlos, one's outside of the boot, one's inside of the boot. How much difference in terms of energy and control would you expect them to be able to bring to a free kick?

• 9:42Speaker 02

  So the path of the Beckham ball is going to be very similar to the Carlos ball because Beckham's kicking with his right boot. Uh, it's more like a curve ball that a pitcher would throw, whereas Carlos was throwing like a screw ball. It's going the opposite direction of a, of a pitcher's curve ball. So the, the inside, uh, that Beckham is using is going to curve to his left. So it's going to make a big sweeping arc out to the right and then typically bite in back toward his left or toward the goalkeeper's, uh, right, right at the end toward the goal.

• 10:14Gary O'Reilly?

  See, the thing is Chuck, for, for you who are not familiar with Roberto Carlos, I've seen Roberto Carlos, right? Drill from forty, thirty-five, forty yards so far away from the goal with a free kick because it's just completely gone wrong and busted.

• 10:28Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 10:29Gary O'Reilly?

  Because he hasn't made the right connection in the spot. With David Beckham. Because he's using the inside of the boot and he had a sports manufacturer that developed a boot that helped with the precision. Mm-hmm. So his sports manufacturer was Adidas and they had a boot, a range that helped them. And helped, but he was all about accuracy of free kicks. So that'd be one, bit like a quarterback throwing the pass to a, to a planned target, a wide receiver in a certain spot, or he would look at the space that he wanted that player to be in. He would aim the free kick to that space, knowing that player would be there when he arrived, that ball arrived. So that was the whole control thing with Beckham, which is why Beckham is, is so special. All right. While we've got the professor thinking about curling free kicks.

• 11:14Gary O'Reilly?

  Joe Baggett on Facebook, thank you by the way for every single one of your questions. What is the Magnus force and how does it work on a curling football at a free kick, say?

• 11:24Speaker 02

  So the, you know, Magnus effect was actually noticed by Isaac Newton back around the 1670s.

• 11:31Gary O'Reilly?

  Well-known soccer fan.

• 11:32Speaker 02

  Watching tennis. Well, he's actually watching tennis.

• 11:34Gary O'Reilly?

  I was kidding, I was kidding, sorry.

• 11:35Speaker 02

  Magnus was working in the mid 19th century when he got his, the effect named after him. But the idea is when the ball is spinning, and I'll take my bazooka ball here, when it's spinning, the air is being whipped around the ball. And if you're looking at the ball coming at you, the side that's spinning away is kind of pulling the air with it and the side that's spinning toward you is, is, is changing the path of the, the air separating off the ball. So what happens is when you look down on the ball, like a, a David Beckham kick, if it's spinning in a counterclockwise manner, it's going to go from right to left. So that, that, the way the boat rudder works is exactly the same.

• 12:19Speaker 02

  It's deflecting water off to one side while a spinning ball is deflecting air off to one side.

• 12:25Chuck Nice?

  Oh, that's funny. I, I love the boat rudder analogy because that's perfect. It's like the air becomes, the ball itself becomes its own rudder, deflecting the air and it moves in the opposite direction.

• 12:37Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 12:38Speaker 02

  That's Newton's third law.

• 12:39Chuck Nice?

  That's Newton's third law. There you go. Wow, look at that. Super cool, man.

• 12:43Gary O'Reilly?

  All right, Chuck, this one's for you.

• 12:44Chuck Nice?

  All right, so Adam JDS, and he says, Chuck, if you are pronouncing my name, it's Marinus. And I gotta tell you, Adam JDS Marinus, you spell your name wrong, okay?

• 12:59Chuck Nice?

  And he is coming to us from Brisbane, Australia. And he says this, "Hey, gang, as a soccer player from junior days to adult, I'm wondering how much force, or I guess the average amount of force, energy that goes from foot to ball to generate some of the absolutely impressive goals we see from players like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. We're talking big power shots, of course. Thanks. And thank you, Adam JDS Marina, who spells your name wrong. So Eric, what's, um, what, what happens?

• 13:36Gary O'Reilly?

  We're gonna get an email, aren't we?

• 13:37Chuck Nice?

  I'm sure we are. Yeah, yeah. What happens there, uh, what, what, what Adam is talking about? How much force are we talking about? And what happens to the ball when it encounters that kind of force?

• 13:52Speaker 02

  Well, I, I, I love the fact this question's from Brisbane. That's where our next sports engineering conference is going to be in March. So I hope to be down there next year. But, uh, the great thing about these long kicks is you're talking about leg muscles releasing enormous amounts of energy in only about a tenth or so of a second.

• 14:11Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 14:12Speaker 02

  And the type of power that's generated here is of order 10 horsepower. Now, what that is is about seven and a half. That's about seven and a half kilowatts. So you're looking at about five or six microwave ovens kind of working together here for about a tenth of a second.

• 14:26Chuck Nice?

  I was gonna say 10 horsepower, that is like three, that's like three lawnmowers.

• 14:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:35Gary O'Reilly?

  I've never thought of legs as lawnmowers, but here we go, right?

• 14:38Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, like, no, but if you take the blade of a lawnmower and figure, and figure it's spinning, and you see how much force that takes, like, and how fast that's going, that's three horsepower, like you're a little lawnmower. So that's like three lawnmower, that's a lot. What I'm saying is, that's a lot of force for a leg to create.

• 14:54Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 14:55Speaker 02

  It's a lot of power, but remember, this is only happening over about a tenth of a second. You know, the athlete could not sustain it like, like your lawnmower could.

• 15:02Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 15:03Speaker 02

  But, so the accelerations are going to be somewhere between 30 and 50 Gs, depending on how hard this kick is. And given the fact that ball's about a pound in weight, that's, you know, 30 to 50 pounds hitting on the ball.

• 15:16Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 15:16Gary O'Reilly?

  What sort of speed are we clocking the hardest sort of free kicks out of the moment?

• 15:23Speaker 02

  Well, I did a study for the Wall Street Journal back in 2010 of the World Cup. And I remember Manuel Neuer, the

• 15:31Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes, German goalkeeper, yeah.

• 15:32Speaker 02

  Okay, one of the best in the world, had a 82-yard kick from his goal. And the launch speed I had calculated was about 78 miles an hour.

• 15:41Chuck Nice?

  Wow, whoops.

• 15:43Gary O'Reilly?

  That's going some.

• 15:44Chuck Nice?

  That's serious.

• 15:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, terminal speed's about 70 miles an hour. So he's kicking it above the terminal speed of the ball.

• 15:52Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, wow, that's incredible, man.

• 15:54Gary O'Reilly?

  That links into another question. Ali Thierry on Twitter has asked, and it links back into the Manuel Neuer point that you made there. How powerful a goalkeeper's kick should it be to score a goal from his/her goal kick? And he's talking about across the field. Now, I remember back

• 16:11Chuck Nice?

  You mean her?

• 16:12Gary O'Reilly?

  His, him or her.

• 16:14Chuck Nice?

  What? What are you talking about?

• 16:16Gary O'Reilly?

  Dump star.

• 16:16Chuck Nice?

  That's so crazy.

• 16:17Gary O'Reilly?

  No.

• 16:18Chuck Nice?

  Girls play soccer?

• 16:19Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, naughty step, naughty step again. Over there, naughty step.

• 16:23Chuck Nice?

  Okay, you guys are just making stuff up now. Come on, come on.

• 16:27Gary O'Reilly?

  All right, we all know Chuck knows the truth.

• 16:28Chuck Nice?

  Of course I'm joking.

• 16:29Gary O'Reilly?

  Right, so back in the 70s, a very famous goalkeeper playing for Tottenham called Pat Jennings, who went on to play in the World Cup for Northern Ireland. He took a goal kick at Old Trafford against Manchester United and promptly delivered it straight into their goal. So the whole length of the field bar about

• 16:46Chuck Nice?

  All to goal, goal?

• 16:47Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah. Yeah, so how do we deal with that? I mean, I think there might have been a little bit of wind resistance by, but that's, that's, that's awesome. That does happen. It's not, it's not, it's not impossible to do.

• 17:00Chuck Nice?

  How long is the soccer field?

• 17:01Gary O'Reilly?

  It's not, it's not an, it's constant distance. It can be 100, 110, I think. Is that the longest, yeah?

• 17:09Speaker 02

  100 to 110 meters for the World Cup, you know, pitches.

• 17:13Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 17:14Gary O'Reilly?

  So where are we going, Eric? What sort of forces are required to drill a ball that distance and be that accurate?

• 17:21Chuck Nice?

  And wouldn't you have to have a certain trajectory, like in terms of the launch angle, in order to actually just make it the entire length of the field?

• 17:32Speaker 02

  Sure, and you probably need a little bit of backspin on the ball to get a little lift. It's the same Magnus effect we were talking about with side spin, but you get a little bit of backspin on the ball and you get an upward component from the Magnus force that helps it stay in the air a little bit longer. So the Noir kick I talked about was about 78 miles an hour, but it was still about 25 yards short of the goal. The kick that Gary was talking about, I mean, this thing's going to have to be launched probably well over 80 miles an hour off the boot and maybe have a little bit of a backspin. If there's weather, if you've got some good wind at the back, you may need to dial the speed down a bit. I didn't see the kick. Was it in the air the entire time?

• 18:17Gary O'Reilly?

  Uh, I think it may have bounced in front of the goalkeeper who gets dragged off of his goal line and then has the pleasure to watch it bounce over his head and into the net. So it does bounce, but it's got to bounce from the six-yard line into the 18-yard area at the other end of the field. So it's still got some serious distance on it.

• 18:38Speaker 02

  That's right. So he's probably close to Noir's speed, probably about 80, 80 mile an hour launch speed at that point. And I'd love to know what the, the weather was like to see if he did get any assistance from the air.

• 18:49Gary O'Reilly?

  Well, it was Manche-, it was Manchester, so it's likely to be grey slash raining. That is that standard issue weather for Manchester. That's the way it goes. Everybody who's been to Manchester knows it rains. That's it. There's your weather report for Manchester for the rest of the century.

• 19:04Chuck Nice?

  There you go. I like that.

• 19:06Speaker 02

  West of the Peak District, it's pretty out there.

• 19:08Chuck Nice?

  Is that how the weathermen work in Manchester? They just go, "You know what it is."

• 19:11Gary O'Reilly?

  Cut a window. You don't need me for this. Yeah, that's the way it is.

• 19:14Chuck Nice?

  I'm stealing money.

• 19:15Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah. All right. We, we're going to keep the professor with us, but we are going to take our first break. And afterwards, we'll take on more of your questions about the physics of soccer with the good professor on Playing with Science. Don't go away. We'll be right back.

• 19:32Gary O'Reilly?

  Welcome back, I am Gary O'Reilly.

• 19:34Chuck Nice?

  I still suck nice.

• 19:35Gary O'Reilly?

  And this is Still Playing with Science. And today, we are taking your questions about the physics of soccer. And with us by video call is Professor Eric Goff, author of the fabulous book Gold Medal Physics. As always, we recommend you go and grab a copy, and it's all about the science of sports. So, alright, let's have another question. This is from Travis Sherman on Facebook, relating to World Cups. Right, in 2014, we used a ball called the Adidas Brazuka. In 2010, they used...

• 20:10Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, Eric has one of those, right?

• 20:11Gary O'Reilly?

  He does, yeah, and he's... It's a smart little piece of kit, by the way.

• 20:15Chuck Nice?

  For those of you who have the video, you can see he's holding it up.

• 20:16Gary O'Reilly?

  In 2010, Adidas brought out the Jabalani for the World Cup in South Africa. Both balls were complained about for different reasons. One ball, says Travis, I recall, said that they floated like a beach ball when kicked, making it hard on strikers. Another made it hard for goalkeepers by having a tendency to curve. So, Professor, what are the dynamics that made these balls behave so differently?

• 20:42Chuck Nice?

  And why did people hate the South... I've never... Not... As much as I don't watch soccer, to be honest, I'm not gonna, you know...

• 20:49Gary O'Reilly?

  That's fine.

• 20:49Chuck Nice?

  But I do always watch the World Cup, as most Americans.

• 20:53Gary O'Reilly?

  Good.

• 20:55Chuck Nice?

  So I... But I can't ever remember complaints about a ball as much as that South African ball. Two things, that Vezuzza?

• 21:04Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, the Vuvuzelas.

• 21:05Chuck Nice?

  Vuvuzelas?

• 21:06Gary O'Reilly?

  And they hated them.

• 21:09Chuck Nice?

  People hated that, just hearing the stadium all there.

• 21:14Chuck Nice?

  It was just like, "Oh my god." It's like, "Are you guys having sex with a beehive? What is happening?" And, uh, and the other thing was the ball. Every single game, every day that I watched, somebody complained about that ball.

• 21:27Gary O'Reilly?

  And they had every right to. But then again, Eric, just for our listeners, the World Cup in 2010 with the Jabalani took place in South Africa, but stadiums were at sea level, some were at...

• 21:41Gary O'Reilly?

  Fifty hundred meters.

• 21:42Speaker 02

  Half of them, yeah.

• 21:43Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, some are a mile high in terms of altitude. And then not only do you have a ball that's a different kind of ball and flies differently, but you've also got altitude. So, Professor, let's talk to all of those different components.

• 21:55Speaker 02

  World Cup footballs have changed over the years. And 2002 was the Fervinova. And that was the last time that we had a 32-panel ball. So, these nice 32-panel balls. So, these have 20 hexagons, 12 pentagons. If they were flat panels, you'd call it a truncated icosahedron. But then 2006.

• 22:20Gary O'Reilly?

  Just go back to that ball for a second. The panels aren't the same size, are they, Professor? I mean, we have the privilege of seeing that ball. You're holding it up for us. And the panels themselves are stitched, so there's ridges.

• 22:33Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 22:34Gary O'Reilly?

  And so that will affect the aerodynamics. And the panels themselves, being different shapes, are different sizes.

• 22:40Speaker 02

  Yes. And the key thing to note is everywhere where you see a seam, you kind of think of that as a rough area on the ball. And when you see a patch, you think of it as a smooth area. So, you've got a lot of rough areas with these seams. Well, when the 2006 World Cup rolls around in Germany, you had the Teamgeist. And they used a 14-panel ball that was actually thermally bonded. And the panels in there were smooth. So, when 2010 rolls around, the Jabalani ball, they went down to eight panels. And Adidas has had the contract since 1970. So, they're the ones spitting these balls out. So, you've got the eight-panel ball.

• 23:21Speaker 02

  And when Brazuca came out for 2014 in South America, down in Brazil, you had a six-panel ball. So, they keep reducing the number of panels. And Jabalani was the first time that they realized, wait, there aren't enough stitches, there aren't enough seams. We need to actually intentionally texture the ball to give it a little bit of roughness.

• 23:43Gary O'Reilly?

  So the panels, the fact that they they actually had those more panels and created that unintentional aerodynamic roughness, they realized that they'd taken away what was an intrinsic quality of the ball itself?

• 23:56Speaker 02

  That's right, and Jabalani had to be intentionally textured, the Brazuka is intentionally textured. If you feel the Brazuka, it's got little, almost like little dimples on it, or pimples, I guess, they're sticking out. So this is like a golf ball that's got all the different dimples on it. And there's a key piece of physics with the aerodynamics with this ball, and the flow around the ball at low speeds is what we call laminar, and the separation of the air in the back is actually fairly wide. When the speed gets larger, the separation moves back and separates at a much narrower angle off the back. And that transition, a

• 24:39Speaker 02

  colleague of mine in Japan and I were the first to actually publish the paper that definitively showed why the Jabalani ball was so terrible. That transition is what we like to call the drag crisis. And it happens for the Jabalani ball right in the middle of where all the soccer kicks are taking place. So you have these kicks that are happening, and the leveling off of this, what we call a drag coefficient, is at about 54 miles an hour for the Jabalani ball. But that's where all the great kicks are happening.

• 25:14Gary O'Reilly?

  Exactly.

• 25:15Speaker 02

  For the Brazuka, that leveling off happened at about 38 miles an hour, which was back before. So the smaller little passing kicks and stuff, it wasn't noticed, but the hard kicks, the free kicks, the corner kicks, well above 38 miles an hour, so the Brazuka performed a whole lot better.

• 25:33Gary O'Reilly?

  Gotcha. So from the point of view as a soccer player, when you, and the thing is... Remember we did the show with Jeff Blum and he said about each bat had a different sweet spot on it.

• 25:43Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 25:44Gary O'Reilly?

  So you'd be sitting there holding one bat, you'd throw one down because you'd found. The same is with a soccer ball. And soccer players are so in tune with each ball. They'll know that there'll be a different technique with which they have to kick and strike a ball if they want to hit for power, for power and pace, or hit for distance. Now with the Jubalani, all of a sudden, they were kicking it with power and that power, for some reason, Professor, just ended up like a beach ball. It just, if you've ever kicked a beach ball, it travels about a couple of yards in the direction you intended it, then it just goes off up into the atmosphere.

• 26:17Chuck Nice?

  Whatever it wants to do, yeah.

• 26:17Gary O'Reilly?

  And this is, this is the thing. So they had to relearn a technique to kick that particular ball, or, as just the professor highlighted there, shorten the distance of which they kicked. So the ball itself has changed the way the game was played because you can't kick it a certain distance, which is why it was hated so much by the players.

• 26:37Chuck Nice?

  That's amazing. That's, that's pretty cool. And just to let you know, Professor, a drag crisis in New York City.

• 26:43Gary O'Reilly?

  I knew you were gonna go there.

• 26:45Chuck Nice?

  Is when a queen forgets her lashes for a show.

• 26:48Gary O'Reilly?

  I just knew you couldn't resist that.

• 26:51Chuck Nice?

  I am.

• 26:52Speaker 02

  Well, if you really want to see the drag crisis in action, Kasuki Honda's free kick goal against Denmark in the group stage match. If you just Google Honda's free kick against Denmark in 2010, you just see this wonderful knuckling action as the air around the ball is transitioning between turbulent and laminar and back and forth and the, the ball just wobbles like this beach ball we've been talking about.

• 27:22Gary O'Reilly?

  I tell you, one of my ex teammates coached Kasuki, isn't that his, Kasuki Honda? Yes. Right. He said his left foot is so good, he could open a tin of beans with it.

• 27:32Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 27:33Gary O'Reilly?

  And he's, he's right. The guy is just, when you talk about being able to caress the ball and make it do things at other players, that's exactly how good he is. So I'm not surprised that that happened. Right, we have another question from Carter in San Diego. Oh, I like San Diego. What would be the most beneficial element to have in a soccer ball? Hmm. And how would it act differently? Oh, I like this. If there was a vacuum inside the ball. Professor, all yours.

• 28:00Chuck Nice?

  Interesting.

• 28:01Speaker 02

  Well, you certainly want a good bladder in the ball. The thermally bonded seams really help keep the water outside of it. You don't want to get the water adding to the mass of the ball. As far as a vacuum inside, that would probably cause what we would call an implosion.

• 28:19Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I was gonna say, the ball would just suck into itself, right?

• 28:22Speaker 02

  The atmospheric air pressure is putting about, you know, on a square inch, nearly 15 pounds, so about the weight of a bowling ball in each square inch of the ball. But you have to balance that from a similar pressure on the inside. You know, that works also for the cells in our body. They have an internal pressure that's comparable to the atmospheric pressure. You know, the tires, we do overpressure 30-some PSI, but that's because the rigidity of the rubber keeps it stable. So if you had a vacuum inside, I mean, the ball would simply implode.

• 28:57Gary O'Reilly?

  Are we looking at new materials? I mean, we've gone from the ancient hand-stitched leather footballs with 32 panels, all the rest of it, to what we have now. We're down to six panels. Are we going to be seeing space-age materials? Are already, are they in the composition of the ball so far?

• 29:15Speaker 02

  Well, I have no idea what the next World Cup ball is gonna be. Can't wait to get my hands on it and start testing it. But the reduction in panel number is gonna be interesting to see if they can go below six.

• 29:28Chuck Nice?

  And what is the purpose of reducing the panels? I mean, I understand when you, I understand what happens. You just explained what happens when you have a reduction in these rough areas. But why is there a quest to keep going with a lower amount of panels?

• 29:49Speaker 02

  Well, the idea is to create a, you know, a perfect sphere. And this kind of bucky-ball pattern that we maybe grew up with, the 32-panel ball, it's a very good try at a sphere. But of course, you've got all these different seams on it. So you keep reducing the panels to essentially make a more perfect sphere. The great thing about The Jabalani ball is that its total seam length, despite having two fewer panels, is actually longer than the seam length on the Jabalani. I'm sorry, the Brazuca's got a longer seam length than the Jabalani, even though it's got two fewer panels. I mean, the seams on the Brazuca just wrap themselves around.

• 30:32Speaker 02

  And when the media was getting a hold of our work, I likened some of these panels to helicopter blades. My colleague in Japan was a little more media savvy, and he likened it to a ninja star. So then all of a sudden, these articles were written about the ninja technology helping the soccer ball, which was completely silly, but it certainly helped to advertise the work.

• 30:55Gary O'Reilly?

  All right. Nike manufactured a ball some years ago. They just advertised as it's rounder.

• 31:01Chuck Nice?

  It's rounder.

• 31:02Gary O'Reilly?

  That's it.

• 31:03Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 31:04Gary O'Reilly?

  That's the whole thing. They realized that they could reinvent the wheel, or in this case, the ball.

• 31:07Chuck Nice?

  Christopher Mas on Facebook.

• 31:09Gary O'Reilly?

  Okay.

• 31:10Chuck Nice?

  And he says this, "Is there a small plus or minus range on the ball pressure that favors the home team?" And I don't know why it would favor the home team.

• 31:20Gary O'Reilly?

  No.

• 31:21Chuck Nice?

  Because if everyone is playing with the exact same ball.

• 31:23Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 31:24Chuck Nice?

  Whatever advantages come from the ball are available to both teams. But, that being said...

• 31:28Speaker 02

  I think it depends on your style of play. I mean, if you're a team like maybe Spain, who's just got precision passing and is not looking to make a lot of long shots, maybe a little less pressure keeps the speed down a little bit. If you're like, you know, Germany, and you want your goalkeeper to kick the ball three quarters of the length of the pitch, maybe you want a little extra pressure on the ball.

• 31:50Gary O'Reilly?

  All right, I tell you what you do.

• 31:51Chuck Nice?

  I take it back then, Christopher Mas, that was an excellent question.

• 31:54Gary O'Reilly?

  The pressure of the ball may benefit a team, but because during the course of a game, any phase of play, the ball is exchanged between each team so frequently.

• 32:05Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 32:06Gary O'Reilly?

  It doesn't, it kind of balances itself. What will happen is inside the game for you. If you knew you had a team like Spain that's a lot of short, sharp, quick passing.

• 32:16Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 32:17Gary O'Reilly?

  Leave the grass longer. Really? Yeah. Yeah, but that makes sense. Because that drags, that drags the pass. That slows it down. The other, the other thing to do. See, see the team playing. These are, these are, these are. Playing in high weeds, knee to high weeds. Oh, man, it was terrible. We used to play at one stadium back in, back in London, Fulham, right? The groundsman had really long hair, right? An old hippie kind of hairstyle and the grass was equally as long and you couldn't pass on the pitch because the grass was so long, it just slowed the ball down. The other thing is do not water the field because it gets bumpy and bobbly and you try and pass on stuff like that and then you cut the grass really, it just, anything you do to take a home field advantage and up the ante. So it's really a home field advantage in soccer.

• 33:02Gary O'Reilly?

  You can, you. Literally home field. There will be, head coaches will give the groundsman, the staff, direct instructions to cut at a certain height of grass and not above that because they want it super short, then they're going to water that thing forever and then the grass holds on to that moisture so passing becomes super slick. And this is the little tricks of the trade that come with high level soccer. You just think it's grass, you just think it's green with white lines. It ain't just that simple. Wow, look at that. Who knew groundskeeper Willie was so important to the game of soccer? That's awesome. It's all about that. Right, we are going to take another break. Stay with us, more inside tricks of the trade, maybe. We'll certainly have the professor and we'll be back shortly.

• 33:50Gary O'Reilly?

  Welcome back. I'm Gary O'Reilly. And I'm Chuck Nice. And this of course is still playing with science and during the break I exchanged a little story with the professor, Eric Goff and Chuck about a stadium in Yorkshire we used to play in. Terrible, mate. Just terrible. You guys are, you guys are psychological gangsters. The away team locker room, right? You'd go in, the team, all the equipment would come in, all the staff, all the players, coaches, et cetera, et cetera. You'd sit down and you would need to answer the call of nature. There are no toilet facilities in the locker room. You have to come out of the locker room into a public area. So you've got all your uniform on, you've got your soccer boots

• 34:31Gary O'Reilly?

  on, everything. You walk down the corridor and into a facility to do what you need to do, then come back.

• 34:37Chuck Nice?

  Amongst their fans.

• 34:39Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, so this is psychological warfare. Warfare. Anything you do to get the merest advantage, you take. It's it's taking home field advantage to a very, very different level. So, uh.

• 34:52Chuck Nice?

  It's cruel and unusual, man. That's that's terrible. It's like, yeah.

• 34:56Gary O'Reilly?

  It's all about winning. All about winning. There you go. Right. Next question up, I think.

• 35:02Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, let's go to, uh, Vin Vinvalent on Instagram.

• 35:06Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 35:07Chuck Nice?

  Uh, which is Vincent from LA. He says, uh, how does different geography affect the playing experience? Be it weather, elevation or latitude on earth? And what would be the ideal location to play?

• 35:21Gary O'Reilly?

  Hmm.

• 35:22Chuck Nice?

  Interesting.

• 35:23Gary O'Reilly?

  Hmm. Professor.

• 35:24Chuck Nice?

  Wouldn't that change for different teams? Like, um, are there teams that are better in the rain than teams that are not? Some teams that are better? You know, does it work that way?

• 35:33Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, yeah. There's this. When you want to take, I'm gonna do this quite literally. Take home field advantage to a new level. Bolivia. You are playing at such a ridiculous altitude.

• 35:45Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 35:46Gary O'Reilly?

  That I can't, I, off the top of my head, I don't know the stats, but I don't believe they've lost many games in the last 50 years in Bolivia, no matter who they've played, Brazil or Argentina, no matter how good they were. Once you go that far up, boom, all the odds are stacked for the home team because they are acclimatized, quite literally. So.

• 36:04Chuck Nice?

  Not to mention they put cocaine in the water of the visiting team. So.

• 36:09Gary O'Reilly?

  I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't answer that, but there we are. So, Professor, an ideal, is there a Goldilocks zone for for a soccer stadium?

• 36:18Speaker 02

  I don't know that I would identify an ideal location. I mean, certainly elevation's going to affect the air density. I mean, here in the US, we've got Mile High Denver that's got about 80% of the air density of sea level. You go to places like Mexico City or half the venues of the South African World Cup, Bolivia, you said, I mean, you go to these high elevation places where the air density goes down, that has an impact on the flight of the ball, much like the teams playing in Colorado, like the Colorado Rockies. I mean, you've got lower air drag, so the ball can go faster, but you've also got a smaller Magnus force, so you mean you get less curve. So the ball's gonna, it's gonna move faster, but it's gonna have a less curve on it.

• 37:04Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha, gotcha.

• 37:05Gary O'Reilly?

  Plus, the thing is, you don't want it too hot and too humid because you're gonna stress the players themselves that much sooner. Again, with altitude, it's not so much the effect on the ball that you will notice, it's the effect on the players. Because if you're not acclimatized, say you're gonna go and play one game at altitude, you're there, you play, you come away, you're not really gonna have an opportunity to get to grips with the, with the, the lack of oxygen up there. So you'll see a different style of gameplay because the guys are fighting, quite literally, to get breath and oxygen into their lungs. So that, that, again, that's, that's a home field advantage.

• 37:41Speaker 02

  Absolutely. I mean, it's why you see a lot of the, you know, the African runners that win a lot of the marathon races are training at high altitudes.

• 37:49Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, so when they're, when they're down at sea level, it's like, oh, this is a walk in a park.

• 37:54Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, gosh, yeah.

• 37:54Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 37:55Gary O'Reilly?

  I mean, I

• 37:55Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 37:56Gary O'Reilly?

  There isn't, there isn't a continent when there is, where there is not a soccer field. I mean, I've played in Asia, Africa, the Arctic Circle, the Americas, the Caribbean, and it's just, you just try and find a way to deal with the, the, whatever, the geography, the, the field, the grass is different. You go to different parts of the world, it's not standard issue grass for every soccer field. You've got domestic grasses and they're different to Europe as they are to, to Asia and to the Americas. So you come to terms with just about everything that's confront, that confronts you.

• 38:30Chuck Nice?

  Wow. That's fascinating stuff. It truly is the world's sport.

• 38:34Gary O'Reilly?

  Absolutely, yeah.

• 38:34Chuck Nice?

  It's the, it's, is it, I'm gonna say it's the only global sport, like, that's played in every single country on the globe. Is there any sport that's played on, had played in every single country on the globe, other than soccer?

• 38:46Gary O'Reilly?

  Maybe basketball.

• 38:48Chuck Nice?

  Basketball's pretty popular. Basketball's pretty popular.

• 38:50Gary O'Reilly?

  Right on. You see, the thing is, you can just drop a couple of sweaters and there's a goal. In a little area of scrub land, it doesn't have to be pristine grass. And you can go anywhere into deepest, darkest Africa, the Amazon, there'll be a soccer field, there'll be somebody kicking a ball around. That's it. All right, next question. All right, um, David's from Mexico. Uh, which place will be the worst to play soccer? Um, that would be the neighbors, which you hate and have a, you know, for you it would be the Giants, wouldn't it?

• 39:23Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, yes.

• 39:23Gary O'Reilly?

  Exactly. So that would be that, that would be that one answered. And can you explain the chilena? Which, uh, was made famous by the superb Mexican striker Hugo Sanchez. Uh, the chilena would, uh, translate to me in English as the bicycle kick or the scissor kick. It is the most spectacular way, basically, to score a goal is an overhead kick. So, uh, I actually think we've got a clip of that.

• 39:48Chuck Nice?

  Very popular. I mean, everybody knows the bicycle kick from Pele.

• 39:51Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 39:51Chuck Nice?

  That's, that's how we know it here in the States.

• 39:53Gary O'Reilly?

  I mean, Pele, there's no way you can argue against him. But Hugo Sanchez just gave it that little bit more flair and maybe just executed at an even quicker rate. But I think we've got a clip of Hugo doing his thing there. So let's have a look at this.

• 40:11Gary O'Reilly?

  All right, you're gonna watch this cross come over and then.

• 40:17Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 40:18Chuck Nice?

  That is amazing.

• 40:19Gary O'Reilly?

  See, that, I mean, if you watch it, it's a lovely slow motion replay. Look, he pulls away from his marker, gives himself space.

• 40:27Chuck Nice?

  Oh, that is gorgeous.

• 40:29Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 40:29Chuck Nice?

  That is absolutely gorgeous. So two things happened there that you, that I noticed. Number one, the pass, the inlet kick that.

• 40:38Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, yeah, the cross that comes in.

• 40:39Chuck Nice?

  Cross that comes in is on a curve back to him.

• 40:43Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah. And if you watch, watch what he does, as he sees.

• 40:46Chuck Nice?

  That's what you want. That's what you want. Okay.

• 40:47Gary O'Reilly?

  As his cross, as he, as he noted, he's like a, like a hitter watching a pitch in baseball, right? So. And I'll just do this before the professor kicks in with the physics. He's watching the flight of the cross.

• 41:00Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 41:00Gary O'Reilly?

  So watch him then, he moves out away from goal.

• 41:02Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 41:02Gary O'Reilly?

  To get himself in a position to do his thing. So professor, exactly what goes on with the physics of Hugo Sanchez there and that incredible goal.

• 41:10Speaker 02

  So you'd rather have the ball coming at you, much like when you're setting up a corner kick or something. You want, you want the ball coming at you so that it's like hitting a ball with a bat. I mean, you're going to be able to get a lot, a greater launch speed than if it's moving away from you. And the idea behind the bicycle kick, you need an incredibly strong core. Uh, he's going to generate an enormous torque on his body to get that rotation. And as soon as he's off the pitch, of course, uh, the ability to create that torque is gone. Now he's got to start moving his arms and legs to actually rotate his body, much like a cat in the air. If a cat's dropped upside down, you know, the cat can move the arms and legs in such a way to, uh, right itself.

• 41:52Chuck Nice?

  Not if, not if you tie those legs together. I'm just saying, not that I've tried it, not that I've, just saying.

• 41:58Gary O'Reilly?

  But don't try that.

• 41:58Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead, go ahead.

• 41:59Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes.

• 42:00Speaker 02

  So, so the PETA approved bicycle kicks, uh, would keep the, the arms and legs, uh?

• 42:06Gary O'Reilly?

  I like what you did there, professor.

• 42:08Chuck Nice?

  Nice job, Eric. The PETA approved, go ahead.

• 42:12Speaker 02

  Yeah. So, so you need an incredibly strong, uh, core. I mean, I mean, the, the interior stomach muscles are going to be very strong to keep the legs, uh, bicycling like that. And it's a, it's a great play because the goalkeeper initially sees the player with the, the back to him. So there's a, there's a slight delay with the goalkeeper to, to really process what's happening. Cause the, the player's back is doing, and, and once that kicks happens in a, in a fraction of a second, all of a sudden the ball is just, you know, flying right in the direction of the goal.

• 42:45Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 42:45Speaker 02

  The initial reaction to the player kicking just isn't there for the goalkeeper.

• 42:49Chuck Nice?

  Oh, thank you for that because I was just about to ask you guys, aside from the aesthetics, why the hell do you want to make that move in the first place? Because it just seems like I'm showing off.

• 43:03Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 43:03Chuck Nice?

  But the way you just.

• 43:05Gary O'Reilly?

  Welcome to the game.

• 43:05Chuck Nice?

  You're like, hey.

• 43:07Gary O'Reilly?

  You watch this. Ever seen, you know, anyone who's had a kick around with friends? One kid will go, hey, watch this.

• 43:14Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 43:14Gary O'Reilly?

  Thing is Hugo Sanchez isn't on a kick around with his friends in the backyard. He's doing it in the major stadiums. I mean, this guy played for Real Madrid. He actually played for both Madrid clubs, which is almost impossible to do because there's a hatred between them. But um.

• 43:27Chuck Nice?

  But that makes sense though. So what you're saying, Eric, is that because you have your back to the goalkeeper.

• 43:33Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 43:34Chuck Nice?

  The goalkeeper is not able to process what you're doing because you're blocking his vision from what you're doing.

• 43:39Gary O'Reilly?

  Yep.

• 43:39Chuck Nice?

  So by the time he sees it happening.

• 43:41Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 43:41Chuck Nice?

  It's already happening.

• 43:42Gary O'Reilly?

  So the goalkeeper will need to set himself in position to make the save. But to set himself, he's got to be able to read the picture of everything that's happening. And he will not see that. I mean, I'm interested, if if you can, had a little bit of guesswork and I appreciate you'd like to be exact about things. What sort of speed? What sort of exit velocity have we got? Once Sanchez rotates and levers that left foot and then the ball hits. I mean, what sort of speeds are we talking about generated here?

• 44:12Speaker 02

  Well, the ball is going to be able to leave at fifty or sixty miles an hour off the foot. Uh, it's going to be like any other great kick. And in fact, you can elevate that speed. If you can really torque that leg around in a, you know, almost a quarter to a half circle. Uh, before it makes contact with the ball.

• 44:32Gary O'Reilly?

  And see, that's another dimension that the goalkeeper's got to face. Not only does he not see. But once he does see it, he's got sixty mile an hour ball coming his way. His reaction times are going to be nowhere near sharp enough.

• 44:43Chuck Nice?

  Well, that's amazing. All right.

• 44:45Gary O'Reilly?

  So thank you for for reminding me about Hugo Sanchez. That's uh. Yeah, David from Mexico. That's brilliant. Right, um.

• 44:52Speaker 02

  So the first part of his question was asking about the worst place to play soccer. And I'm just wondering if the twenty twenty two World Cup in Qatar might be a good candidate for that.

• 45:03Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, yeah, because it's going to be eight thousand degrees. Um.

• 45:06Speaker 02

  Well, they're playing it in November and December of that year, so it'll.

• 45:10Gary O'Reilly?

  So only four thousand degrees, only four thousand.

• 45:12Speaker 02

  It'll be a balmy eighty six or so.

• 45:15Chuck Nice?

  That's not bad.

• 45:16Gary O'Reilly?

  It's gonna be tough.

• 45:17Chuck Nice?

  Yeah. And by the way, didn't they, didn't they have the entire thing moved? Like it's, so that, is this the first time that we're having a winter World Cup?

• 45:27Gary O'Reilly?

  It is. And I mean, this, Eric, you may agree or disagree here. The big soccer clubs in Europe will not take kindly to that because that is smack bang in the middle of their season. And they are the big powerhouses. So, uh, you might have nailed it with the worst place and that place hasn't, that, that, that game hasn't even taken place yet.

• 45:48Chuck Nice?

  Hey, that's right. Welcome to the 2022 World Cup here in Satan's butthole. All right.

• 45:56Gary O'Reilly?

  That might be edited.

• 45:59Speaker 02

  The devil's in the details, right?

• 46:01Chuck Nice?

  There you go. I'm just saying it's hot. That's all. I'm just, it's hot, people. Hey, let's, let's take our last question. Um, and this is from Cyberzen, uh, from Twitter who says, "How far would a pro kick a ball doing a goal kick on Mars?" So Eric, uh, you have any idea?

• 46:23Gary O'Reilly?

  We've got Manuel Neuer, the German goalkeeper, which the professor has clocked at around 78, 80 miles an hour?

• 46:31Speaker 02

  Yes. So the, the, the, the launch speed of the ball is not going to be that much different, uh, on Mars. You got two big things on Mars to help you kick farther. There's not a whole lot of atmosphere. You still have atmosphere, but you don't have a whole lot of atmosphere on Mars compared to the Earth. The acceleration due to gravity is only about, I think it's 38% what it is on the, the Earth. So you're good. If there were no air around on Earth, the, the added range is going to be about three times farther on Mars. But because of the air resistance on Earth, Mars, you can kick it maybe four to six times, uh, farther, uh, on Mars.

• 47:09Gary O'Reilly?

  Okay.

• 47:10Chuck Nice?

  That's pretty cool. Four to six times is not a bad deal. So would you, I wonder if that means you, well, no, you wouldn't have a larger field because guys would just die of, how much conditioning would you need if you had a soccer field four to six times bigger than the soccer field is now?

• 47:27Gary O'Reilly?

  All the soccer players would be iron men.

• 47:29Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 47:30Speaker 02

  You'd have to wear something to breathe, yeah.

• 47:32Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 47:33Chuck Nice?

  It'd be a marathon. That's cool. Alright, so there you go. Four to six times longer is what you're getting on Mars if you get a goal kick like that.

• 47:41Gary O'Reilly?

  Alright.

• 47:42Chuck Nice?

  Super cool.

• 47:42Gary O'Reilly?

  It is. Professor, thank you.

• 47:46Chuck Nice?

  This is great.

• 47:47Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, I mean, that's an awful lot of, yeah, that's an awful lot of insight into the physics behind and within soccer. And I get a feeling we've only just begun to scratch the surface. So thanks once again, Professor Eric Goff.

• 47:59Chuck Nice?

  I'm sorry, before we leave.

• 48:01Gary O'Reilly?

  You want to keep more questions?

• 48:02Chuck Nice?

  No, I just, no, something just dawned on me because when you brought up the next World Cup, do you have any predictions of what, since we've changed in the ball every single World Cup, you got any predictions of what they might do to the next one?

• 48:15Speaker 02

  It'll be more expensive than the previous one, I can tell you that.

• 48:19Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, you don't buy them anyway, Professor. You get given those.

• 48:22Speaker 02

  This is a hundred and sixty dollars, a hundred pounds in the UK, so these things are not cheap and they fly off the shelves.

• 48:30Chuck Nice?

  You're sounding like Gary with a conspiracy theory now that the only reason they changed the ball is for merchandising purposes.

• 48:36Speaker 02

  That's a pretty good reason for it.

• 48:38Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, well, I am on record as saying, but by the time I leave this mortal coil, the ball will be square and the goals will be round because the governing body FIFA seem to have this desire to change something no matter what it does. So who knows? A square ball in the next World Cup? Probably not, but don't be surprised if it is.

• 48:57Chuck Nice?

  There you have it. Sorry about that. Thanks, Doc.

• 49:00Gary O'Reilly?

  That's alright. That's great. Professor, thank you so much for your time. Professor Eric Goff, physics professor at Lynchburg College in Virginia. Got a feel for soccer now.

• 49:08Chuck Nice?

  Oh, man, I gotta tell you, I'm very excited. This was an exciting show. I learned a great deal. I mean, who knew that it's really, it is the beautiful game, my friend.

• 49:16Gary O'Reilly?

  It can be a ballet at times. It depends if that's your kind of dance. Then we have one thing to say. I'm Gary O'Reilly.

• 49:22Chuck Nice?

  I'm Chuck Nice.

• 49:23Gary O'Reilly?

  And this has been Playing with Science. See you all soon.