Air Resistance

Air Resistance

To simplify calculations we often just assume that air resistance is negligible

In some sports, players often use air resistance to move the ball through the
air

Even a small amount of change in the ball’s expected path can sometimes
create an advantage
 The Effect of Air Resistance

• Any ball that moves through the air experiences a retarding force due to
fluid friction
• This force is called drag
• When someone throws a ball, it would follow a perfect parabolic path
• Since the additional drag force acts upwards and backwards, it reduces the
range of the ball
• It also causes the ball to ‘hang’ in the air a bit longer
• The new path is known as a ‘ballistic curve’ and shown above
Why Some Balls ‘Swing’ in the Air…
To continue the cricket model (sorry those who don’t like it!), the easiest way to create swing on a
cricket ball is to shine one side of the ball

When the ball is bowled, the polished side will experience less fluid friction (drag) and the ball will
swing towards the rough side

The actual formula for calculating drag is , which is in the textbook but I couldn’t be less interested in
making you use that horrendous equation

is density, and as drag is proportional to the density of the fluid the ball is moving through (as per ugly
formula above), the higher the density the air the higher the drag force

This is why a cricket ball will swing a lot further in humid conditions when the air is more dense
Magnus Force
If air flows more quickly over one surface of the ball
than another, it creates an area of low pressure on the
side of the ball where the air is moving faster

The difference in pressure will cause the ball to move

towards the low-pressure region, which will make the
ball curve in mid-air

If you do follow cricket, you will have seen this as ‘drift’

when a spinner lets go of the ball after imparting a flurry
of rotations, causing the Magnus force to take effect