The beautiful Goal

This summer's World Cup got me all excited about soccer. It's no wonder I felt compelled in making a comeback on N2S3 with this nugget that speaks of science's ubiquity. A goal, hailed as the best free kick ever and forever linked to the beautiful game

Scientists studied Brazilian Roberto Carlos' 1997 free kick against the French team, a free kick that looks physically impossible... if you don't know your physic laws, that is.



The scientists observed two phenomena. First there was the Magnus effect, which give a spinning ball a curved trajectory. But this phenomenon has been known for a long time. The spinning ball faces air resistance at different velocities on its different sides which introduces a curve to its trajectory. (The World Cup's Jabulani was actually criticized for being too sensitive to the Magnus effect due to its perfect spherical shape.)

In addition to the magnus effect, the scientists reasoned that a ball launched at a particularly high velocity from a particularly great distance will, at some point, lose enough speed to abruptly change its initial trajectory. This is hardly a big revelation either. We've seen this before and quite often at that.

In fact, I liken this to a baseball pitcher who will handle its balls in different orientation before throwing it so the air affect the ball in different ways, creating its arsenal of pitches. The changeup, curveball, screwball and other pitches are all the result of how the ball and its seams interact with the air.

It's understandable the seams break the uniformity of the ball to the point where we see some wicked trajectories in baseball, but such a feat in soccer, where the ball is mostly uniform is, no doubt, remarkable.

Though we already knew the basics of how the seemingly magical goal happened, it's still fascinating to have it explained in one comprehensive coherent way.

But what could have pushed the scientists to devote their effort in validating and making sure the goal wasn't an hoax? Well... did I mention they are French?