The Physics of Soccer

The Physics of Soccer

Have you ever played sports and wondered the physics behind it? Probably not. To be fair, you are probably focusing on trying to win the game and not drawing vectors out in your head. However, you are most likely sub-consciously thinking about these concepts in your head, just in a different way. The way you move, the way you run, the way you kick the ball all has some concept of physics involved.

While there are many factors that we must take into account while playing soccer, I will be focusing on the physics of kicking the ball. Why? Have you ever shot the ball and the ball didn’t travel at a fast speed? Well, there are multiple reasons for that, and using physics, we can figure out why. 

Where you kick the ball pretty much affects where the ball moves. Why? Well, depending on where you kick the ball, you may or may not have rotational motion. Since we now know about translational and rotational motion, we can figure out why that is. When you kick the ball from the top of the bottom, you are essentially giving the ball a higher rotational motion. So, some of the total mechanical energy now has to consider rotational energy. So, we can expect the velocity of the ball to decrease. The same thing applies to if you kick the ball from the sides.

Do you want the ball to be really fast, or do you want precision? This depends on the situation you are in. If you want to rocket the ball at the keeper, you should try to hit the ball directly in the center so that the ball isn’t rotating. However, if you are taking a free-kick and have to curve the ball around the wall, you most likely want to hit the ball from the side. You can use these physics to allow you to react to whatever situation you are in properly. 

Source:

https://davidson.weizmann.ac.il/en/online/maagarmada/physics/physics-behind-soccer-kicks