The Physics of Soccer - Essay Example

The Physics of Soccer Soccer refers to a game which is usually played between two teams. A spherical ball is used during this exercise and each of the two teams involved has a total of eleven players. Soccer is one of the most popular games in the world as it is played by about 250 million people I the globe. This sport is usually played in a rectangular field with a goal at every end. The scores attained in this game are earned through kicking the ball into the rival goal. In this sport, it is only the goalkeeper that is allowed to touch the ball with the hands, when it is in progress. There are rules and regulations that govern this game. The official laws of this game are 17 in total. Each law contains guidelines that apply to all levels of soccer. There are other groups though, that are taken into consideration where some rules cannot apply to them. These groups include: seniors, juniors, the disabled individuals and women. There are at times when the ball becomes out of play. At this point, the play is restarted by one of the eight methods present, in relation to how it went out of play. The eight ways for restarting a play in soccer are: Kick-off: This refers to a situation where there is following a goal by the rival team or generally initializing each period of the play. Throw-in: This is where if a player touches the ball beyond the touchline, the opposing team is awarded. Goal kick: This is when the ball is touched by a player and it ends up in the goal without a goal being scored, then the defending team is the one that is awarded. Corner kick: This is when the ball crosses the line of the goal and a goal has not been scored. In this case the ball is touched by a member of the defending team where it is then awarded to the attacking team. Indirect free kick: At this point the rival is awarded this due to technical infringements, non-penal fouls or when the game is stopped for cautioning or dismissing an opponent without a particular foul having taken place. Direct kick: It is awarded to the team that is fouled following some penal fouls. Here a goal is likely to be scored as it is a direct free kick. Penalty kick: It is also awarded to the team that has been fouled following a foul that is usually punishable by a direct free kick but one which has taken place within their opponent’s penalty region. Dropped ball: It takes place when the referee has stopped the game for any other reasons for example interference by a party that is not from within, a serious injury to a player, or when a ball is going out of order. Generally there are many rules and regulations that should be adhered to. The association of football around the world has its governing body. The governing body that is recognised across the globe is FIFA. This is the body that is known to associate wit football in all over the world. Its headquarters are in Zurich and there are other bodies that are associated with this main body of football. These bodies are: Confederation of African Football (CAF) Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL). Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF). This essay will therefore talk about the physics of soccer. For the ball to be kicked for the goal keeper to get the ball before it goes through to the net and for all the other activities that take place in soccer to occur, there are various physical movements that support all of them. All soccer players always work hard to make certain that they maintain their shape and that they improve their kick. This essay will cover certain topics to see how they physics of soccer is. The questions that will be answered in this essay include: 1. What happens when a player kicks a ball? 2. How much vigour, in heaviness would a soccer player experience on their foot in a kick. 3. How do football players twist a soccer ball? 4. Does a huge follow through give support to a kick? 5. Who kicks the ball harder between the short and the tall people? 1. What Happens when a player kicks a ball? Initially when the ball is kicked, the leg of the player puts in kinetic energy. Kinetic energy is that energy that is put in order to make something move. In this case, since the ball has to be moved, the kinetic energy has to be put inside the ball. The formula for this kinetic energy implementation is KE=1/2 MV2 . In this case, the kinetic energy used is equal to half of the totals mass of the player’s leg, multiplied by the speed (velocity) of the leg as it hits the balls, squared. The ball loses its shape when it is kicked (Gay, 8). This is the other thing that happens when a player hits the ball. It deforms due to the energy that has been exerted to it where the place that is hit turns out to be flat within a shirt tie that is over 0.01 seconds. The energy therefore, that collides is that kinetic energy from the foot plus the energy stored in the deformed ball whereas the energy that comes out, is the kinetic energy in the ball plus heat. The number of kicks given determines the energy that is exerted and that which is lost. This means that the more the ball is hit, the more it deforms thus a lot more energy is lost to heat. Conserving energy make the move ball move faster than the speed of the foot. The formula for calculating the speed of the ball is: V ball= V leg M leg (l+e) M leg + m ball The ‘e’ in this equation formula is referred to as the coefficient of compensation. It measures the velocity at which the ball bounces compared to the velocity it hits the surface. 2. How much vigour, in heaviness would a soccer player experience on their foot in a kick Here Newton’s law on force is applicable because it helps in providing information on how force is used and how to determine power that is used to carry out an activity. Force in this case, is calculated by getting the product of acceleration and mass. The mass of a ball is usually 0.4 kg meaning the only thing to be determined is the acceleration which is the change in speed of the ball. The force presently acting on a ball that is being kicked is the mass of the ball and when it is multiplied by the acceleration which will eventually lead to finding the amount of force that is used in kicking the ball. Another law by Newton states that force is balanced by similar but dissimilar force. This shows that the force acting on the ball as well as the leg of the player is equal. The amount of force used can be converted to weight. Giving an example, I will show the amount of force used can be converted to weight. The mass in this case will be 9.8 in which it will be equated to 1200 kilograms. This means that ‘m’ which is the weight being calculated will be 1200/9.8= 122 kg. With this calculation, it is clear that a professional football player would experience force on the leg which amounts to a weight of 122 kg. 3. How do football players twist a soccer ball? “Bend it like Beckham,” this is the term that is used by players to describe how they spin the ball. There are many individuals among players who are able to do this but those who know and clearly understand the physics about it are few. To spin a soccer ball one needs to give it a kick slightly off centre which makes it to spin in a horizontal manner. As the ball is kicked, air moves it. The air around the ball tends to move faster around one particular side making pressure on that particular side of the ball to be less. This gives a clear impression that with fast movement of air there is low pressure which in real life situation it is a fact. Looking at the other side of the ball where there is high pressure the air on this side tends to move slowly. This is the reason why pressure is low as it is directly opposite to the other side where pressure is low as air moves faster around it. At this side where the pressure is high, the spin goes directly against the flow of air. The ball is therefore pushed from the region where pressure is high to where it is low making it to curve this effect of curving is what is referred to as Magnus effect. Another fact about spinning a soccer ball is that the ball will always travel straight after it is kick de. The theory behind this fact is that there is less pressure around the ball immediately after kicking it while the ball itself is moving faster. This means that the ball is able to withstand the pressure round and since no force is stronger around it, it moves straight. The ball will only slow down because of the turbulent flow of air and since it slows down the air around it moves faster making pressure on one side to be higher than that within the ball. In this case the ball will curl when the Magnus effect occurs (Palmer, 190). This is the effect that makes the ball to curl and the more the ball moves slowly, the more it curls. Other spins can result to different effects on the ball. If an individual puts backspin on the ball, the air will move faster over the soccer ball with more pressure beneath it. This will make the ball to rise and move farther. Giving an example of the golf balls, they have hollow features on the surface to cause an increase the resistance of air so that the impact of spinning is larger (Serway, Vuille and Faughn, 182). Generally the golf balls always travel aster because of the method in which they are hit. Those who take part in playing golf always hit the balls with the back spin and this is one feature which makes the golf balls travel faster. Scientists have shaped a soccer ball that uses similar principles to make a soccer ball that as the dimple feature that will make the ball spin faster and immediately after it is kicked. Here the scientists have done away with the feature of the soccer ball moving straight immediately it is hit. Below are images showing how a soccer ball curls with the effect of changes of force around it. 4. Does a huge follow through give support to a kick? A huge follow through, does not generally offer support on the kick that has been exerted on a soccer ball. A huge follow through in turn, takes away a lot of power from the kick. Taking an example of where soccer players are in the field. The time taken by a player to stay with the ball as the game continues is usually very minimal. A player only stays with a ball for a very short time because there are many opponents who intend to snatch the ball from the player. At this point, the player has to figure out a way to pass on the ball to a colleague with the aim of moving the ball to the rival team goal for the purpose of scoring. The energy that is used in the body while making movements to kick the ball and in the follow through process, would have instead been put in to the ball with the kick. The best kick that can be given to a soccer ball is one with minimal follow through and no other body movements as it has more strength and impact compared to the one with high follow through (Witzig, 20). The kick with the minimal follow though is known to have the strongest impact because the energy used is focused on the ball and nothing else. This is because if there is high follow through some energy is concentrated on the other activities that are carried out while playing. This shows that at this particular point, there is division of the use of energy making it difficult to give a hard and best kick(Stephen, 193). In a situation where a player just focuses on the ball exerting all energy to the ball, the kick given at this point is usually the best making the ball move fast and many at times, the balls that are given the best kicks are those that are likely to move straight into the net and give the team in question victory by scoring goals. For a team to score and acquire victory, it all depends on the players as they are the ones who are expected to concentrate of the game, give the best kicks for them to achieve their set objectives. It is therefore the determination of the players that determines whether they can easily lose or win a match. Coaches at the same time need to train up their players and make them focus on the game making certain that all of them are mentally and physically fit to participate. This is because such an activity that requires focused strong and healthy participants. 5. Who kicks the ball harder between the short and the tall people? In the contemporary society, many individuals tend to think that taller people give a harder kick that those who are short. Research shows that this is not true. The truth is that the shorter people have high leg velocity even though the taller people might e heavier than them. In this case it is clear that it is the velocity of the leg that will determine the energy used in kicking the ball. This means that those who apply more energy are likely to give the best kick because of the high speed that the ball gets from a strong hit (Polani, 459).A short player in soccer can get the leg to a velocity of 28m/s meaning that a kick form a short player will give the ball a velocity of up to 45m/s. Normally a tall player is known to give a ball a kick with a velocity of up to 32.7m/s. With this type of data, it is evidently clear that a shorter player gives the best and hard kick. Work Cited Gay, T. Football Physics: The Science of the Game. Rodale, 2004. Print. Palmer, A. Physics for Game Programmers. Apress, 2005. Print. Polani, D. RoboCup 2003: Robot Soccer Worldcup VIII. New York: Springer, 2004. Print. Serway, R. A., Vuille, C., Faughn, J, S. College Physics, Volume 10. Asia: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print. Stephen, P. W. Physics and Chemistry of Fullerences: A Reprint Collection. World Scientific, 1993. Print. Witzig, R. The Global Art of Soccer. CusiBoy Publishing, 2006. 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