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The Physics Behind a Curveball: The Magnus Effect

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What makes a curveball curve? How do soccer players (or football players internationally) bend the ball in the air? Physics! It’s specifically called The Magnus Effect, “the commonly observed effect in which a spinning ball (or cylinder) curves away from its principal flight path.”

curveball physics
Watch it in action and find out why it does that in this video by Physics Girl, aka Dianna Cowern, outreach coordinator at UC San Diego’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, with special guest kicker Kyle Kitzmiller.

Cowern with Kyle Kitzmiller
In the archives, more spinning, more physics, and more demos, including:
Surprising Applications of the Magnus Effect
The Stacked Ball Drop (and Supernovas)
Levitate a ball on an invisible stream of air
• An unexpected way to inflate a balloon: Kamifusen physics with Numberphile

via Aatish Bhatia.

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