Want to bend it like Beckham? Students at the University of Leicester in England have come up with an equation that describes in simple terms just what it takes to kick a curving shot like soccer legend David Beckham.
Well, maybe not quite so simple.
The four physics students found that the distance a ball bends (D) as a result of the Magnus effect (the phenomenon in which a spinning ball traces a curving arc as it travels through the air) is related to the radius of the ball (R), the density of the air (ρ), the ball’s angular velocity (ω), its velocity through the air (v), its mass (m) and the distance travelled by the ball in the direction it was kicked (x).
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