1.

Introduction

On June 3, 1997, Tournoi de France, Roberto Carlos left the Football world amazed with a still

remembered legendary free kick of this game internationally, being the most famous goal of

Carlos’ career. Goalkeeper Fabien Barthez was almost clueless as the ball seemed to be heading

to the corner flag. But the ball curved unpredictably for many only to hit the net. This paper

reviews a few research papers and articles to study Physics behind Soccer.

2. Forces on a Soccer ball

Following forces decide the motion of a football on kicking, as per NASA official website:

Figure 1: Forces on a football (Source: NASA)

➔ Weight: Center of gravity is located at the exact center of the soccer ball and weight is

always directed towards the center of the earth. It depends on the mass of the ball and it is

determined using Newton’s law of gravitation.

 ➔ Drag: Drag is the resistance to the ball due to air and always opposes the motion of the

ball. Magnitude depends on the physical design of the object, velocity^2 of the object,

and dynamics of the medium like density and viscosity.

➔ Lift: This aerodynamic force acts perpendicular to the direction of football’s flight. This

property is core physics of airplanes in the sky. It’s mostly affected by speed of rotation

for a soccer ball.

3. Swing of Ball due to Magnus Force

Mohammad Ahmad created a model in their paper to accurately simulate the curved trajectory of

the ball for the famous free Kick by Carlos using the Mathematica tool. Author analyzed through

the model simulation (with a few assumptions) that Roberto Carlos’ kick will have 2.6 m of

curvature, if only drag, Magnus force and gravity were considered. If major forces resisting this

motion are only gravity and drag force, the ball would rather move in a straight path. However,

physicists referred to this game changing force on the ball due to the spin, called the Magnus

force. This force acts perpendicular to the motion of the spinning ball.

Figure 2: Straight

line trajectory the ball

was expected to take vs

actual

movement
 (Source: “Bend It like Magnus: Simulating Soccer Physics” by Mohammad Ahmad) nnnnn

Sungchan Hong, Chulsoo Chung, Masao Nakayama and Takeshi Asai conducted a more realistic

study to analyze fluid mechanics of a soccer ball’s parabolic trajectories using actual kicking

mechanism, high-speed video cameras and smoke agents to study airflow over the surface of the

ball.

Following picture depicts the direction of Magnus force on a spinning Soccer ball:

Figure 3: Magnus Effect on a soccer ball (Source: scienceabc.com)

Sungchan Honga, Takeshi Asaia and Kazuya Seob put forward their study on the flow

visualizations on a soccer ball. The conclusion after several experiments concluded that the flight

trajectory of a soccer ball is significantly affected by variations in the shape of panels and

ball’s orientation. Similar study was conducted to evaluate aerodynamic properties of 32 panel

and 14 panel footballs (Alam, Chowdhury, Moria and Fuss, 2010). The results from these

studies are crucial for ball manufacturers to produce new designs with better aerodynamic

properties.

4. Physics involved in kicking the soccer ball

Kicking the soccer ball is one of the primary parts of the game. This action and the physics

involved in it were being studied by many researchers in the past. The action of kicking also

involves the study of biomechanics in the human leg, mainly the kinematics and dynamics of the

joints and muscles involved. More recent study focused on the involvement of the upper body as

well as pelvis section in the kicking action. Moreover, the kicking action is also affected by the

type and shape of shoes as well as the ball. All these factors together determine the success of the

direction and force the player wants the ball to take.

Most of the skilled players who kick a stationary ball approach it along a curved path. Previous

research has found that an approach angle of 45 degrees usually generated maximum ball speed

(Isokawa and Lees, 1988). The reasons for a curved approach mainly focus on making an

effective contact between the foot and the ball just before the collision. The curved approach also

provides a stable framework for the player, which in turn increases the possibility of a successful

kick.

Figure 4: Example of stress contour on deformed shape at impact using finite element model. Units in Pa.

(Source: Asai, Nunome, Maeda, Matsubara and Lake, 2005)

The angular as well as linear velocity of the kicking leg reduces upon impact on the ball, as

expected due to Newton’s laws (Kellis and Katis, 2007). Some studies have used finite element

analysis to determine the prerequisites for maximum impact of kick on the ball. A study found

that maximum velocity was observed for an offset distance below the centre of mass between -40

to 20mm and the greatest angle of projection was 16 degrees, achieved at an offset of -20mm.

This study was carried using the technique of finite element model as shown in figure below

(Asai, Nunome, Maeda, Matsubara and Lake, 2005).

The most successful players in the history of soccer have shown an ability to score goals with

both feet. However, very few players are able to achieve this. A study focussing on the

difference in speed due to kicking with preferred and non-preferred leg concluded that higher

speeds were achieved with the preferred leg as a result of higher foot speed and coefficient of

restitution at the time of impact compared with the other leg (Dorge, Andersen, Sorensen, &

Simonsen, 2002). This study also found that no difference was found in muscle movements, and

the only reason for the result was due to greater amount of work on the shank originating from

the angular velocity of the thigh.

5. Conclusions

In this review, physics behind the motion trajectory of a soccer ball in air is studied in general.

Major forces involved in this dynamics are weight, drag and lift. The review is focussed on how

Magnus effect works on a spinning ball to deviate from the straight path, with the case study of

legendary kick by Carlos in Tournoi de France. Effect of soccer panels on aerodynamic

properties is explored. This review further studied the role of biomechanics and action of the
human leg in effective kicking strategies. Physics supplements the game with efficient apparatus

design as well as playing techniques, so a must consider for equipment manufacturers and

athletes/trainers.

6. References

1. Isokawa, M., & Lees, A. (1988). “A biomechanical analysis of the instep kick motion in

soccer”. Science and football (pp. 449–455).

2. Kellis, E., & Katis, A. (2007). “Biomechanical characteristics and determinants of instep

soccer kick”. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 6, 154–165.

3. Asai, T., Nunome, H., Maeda, A., Matsubara, S., & Lake, M. (2005). “Computer simulation of

ball kicking using the finite element skeletal foot model”. In T. Reilly, J. Cabri, & D. Arau´ jo

(Eds.), Science and football V (pp. 77–82).

4. Dörge HC, Anderson TB, Sørensen H, Simonsen EB. (2002) “Biomechanical diþerences in

soccer kicking with the preferred and the non-preferred leg”. J Sports Sci. 20(4): 293-9.

5. Ahmad, Mohammad. (2011). “Bend It like Magnus: Simulating Soccer Physics”.

6. Hong, S., Asai, T., & Seo, K. (2015). “Flow Visualization Around Panel Shapes of Soccer

Ball”. Procedia Engineering, 112.

7. Alam F., Chowdhury H., Moria H., Konstantin F. (2010) “A comparative study of football

aerodynamics”. Procedia Engineering, Volume 2, Issue 2, Pages 2443-2448.

8. Hong, Sungchan & Chung, Chulsoo & Nakayama, Masao & Asai, Takeshi. (2010). “Unsteady

Aerodynamic Force on a Knuckleball in Soccer”. Procedia Engineering, Volume 2, Issue 2,

Pages 2455-2460.

9. “Forces on a soccer ball”. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Viewed at:

https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/socforce.html
10. Laurentiis F. and Gabriel J. (2017) “Roberto Carlos' Brazil free kick in 1997: The physics

behind 'impossible' strike”. ESPN news.