The Physics of Football

By Sadman Ahmed

Introduction
Football and every other sport consists of many concepts
of motion and force that we dont think of. Through the
length of this presentation, Newtons laws of motion,
mass, acceleration and G-Force will be discussed to fully
understand the dynamics of a tackle. Also I will talk about
the specialty of a football and its relation to physics.

A Prolate Spheroid

Football is a unique sport such that it

uses a totally different ball aside from
the familiar spherical ball. With this
special shape, it is able to travel
further distances, travel with a faster
velocity and be more accurate than for
example a soccer ball because the air
flow travels freely over the ball
causing very little air resistance.

Newtons Three Laws of Motion

First Law and Inertia
All objects will stay at rest until
acting upon by a external force.
When a punter kicks the ball, it
accelerates in the direction of the
foot but the ball would stay at rest
otherwise. When a player is in
pursuit of a defender, he runs in a
zigzag to evade him easier.
However, the bigger the mass, the
harder it will be to change
directions. This incorporates the
property of inertia of an object and
how it is able to slow it down.

Second Law

Third Law

(Mass, Acceleration and Net Force)

(Action-Reaction Forces)

According to Newtons second law, an

object will accelerate in the direction
of the net external force. Also the
acceleration is inversely proportional to
mass and directly proportional to the
net force. If a defender weighs 325 lbs
and the offensive player weighs 200 lbs,
the defender will have a slower
acceleration than the offensive player
though the defender. Another example
would be when a quarterback is sacked,
the net external force is greater of the
defender and therefore causes him to
move towards that direction.