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The host nation for the 2022 World Cup will be Qatar, a desert country where temperatures in June and July can reach 50 °C. I find it hard to even imagine that level of heat, let alone play football in it! The extreme temperatures are of obvious concern. So, alternative measures are being considered to ensure games at this tournament are not played at extremely high temperatures. These include playing in the winter or more likely building climate controlled stadiums. At present it looks as though 5 brand new climate controlled stadiums will be built. The primary concern is the detrimental affect of extreme heat on human performance. To a lesser extent, temperature is also likely to effect the physical properties of the ball, changing the speed a player can kick it. This blog will explain the effect of temperature on soccer ball dynamics.
Artist's impression of the Lusail Iconic Stadium
Understanding the physics of the groundstroke in tennis is important for the International Tennis Federation, tennis brands and players. As a research centre we recently published a paper in the journal of Sports Sciences on this subject. Following publication the paper was featured in a short article in Men’s Health magazine.
- Cover of Men’s Health Magazine May 2011
It may seem like I have balls on the brain if my last couple of posts are any indication. Balls are such a big part of sport and Sports Engineers are fascinated by the way they behave as they bounce on the ground and fly through the air.
I’ve seen two amazing videos recently which exhibit the way in which balls can still baffle us.
Rugby, the penalty of wind
The video below shows a Rugby player taking a penalty in what the Irish tourist board might describe as ‘a slight breeze’. Be sure to watch from all angles to get a good idea of what’s going on.
When researching topics for lectures and public talks I often find myself on youtube, clicking through an endless parade of videos in search of interesting stories and useful information. It was while looking into the history of the golf ball (a fascinating topic in itself!) that I stumbled across the following clip.
When I started a PhD on golf-green ball impacts back in 1985, my supervisor Dr Alastair Cochran suggested that I look for information on the Dambusters. For those of you not old enough to have seen the 1955 film starring Michael Redgrave, the Dambusters were the RAF’s 617 Squadron who flew Lancaster bombers during the 2nd World War. In Operation Chastise, they flew deep into Germany on a fully moonlit night to drop bouncing bombs onto reservoirs in an attempt to burst their dams and flood the factories in the flood plain below.
Now just what was the connection with golf? It wasn’t that Alastair was a 2nd World War buff (I don’t think), but he remembered that Barnes Wallis’ innovative design required the pilots to fly the bombers just above the water and drop spinning cylinders packed full of explosives. The key was that Wallis optimized the speed, angle and back-spin of the bomb’s bounces, so that it came to a halt at the dam and rolled down the inside of the wall before exploding at a depth of about 10 m.
Figure 1. Diagram to show how the bouncing bomb was used to attack dams (RAF Museum).
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Who has the fastest balls in the land? Part 2:
February 13, 2010 in Golf, Impact, Jai Alai, Shot Put, Sport | Tags: Commentary, Energy, Golf, Jai Alai, Jason Zuback, Paul Glazier, Randy Barnes, Science in Sport, Shot Put | by wiredchop | 6 comments
Part one of this article looked at a video featuring a golfing long-drive champion, Jason Zuback and the attempt to usurp Jai-Alai as the fastest ball sport in the world. Despite the less than scientific methods, Zuback managed to generate a golf ball velocity in excess of 200 mph, smashing two panes of tempered glass in the process.
Thanks to the help of long-drive professional and Sports Scientist, Paul Glazier, I have learnt that such velocities are pretty routine in long-drive golf, suggesting that Jai-Alai may have been dethroned for some time. However, I’d like to suggest a more reasonable method to compare ball velocities and see how golf really stacks up.
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