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How the new World Cup ball was designed to not influence the games
popular science ^ | June 18, 2018 | Dyani Sabin

Posted on 06/19/2018 10:41:19 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper

Every four years there’s a new ball for the World Cup—and every four years players are unhappy with it. Maybe it’s too light and has too much lift, like the 2002 Fevernova. Or maybe it wobbles unexpectedly in the air, making it harder for goalies to predict its motion, like the 2006 Teamgist. Or maybe the ball suddenly changes speed, dropping out of the air and causing accidental handballs, like the 2010 Jabulani.

At the World Cup level, these tiny changes in a ball’s aerodynamics can legitimately impact a team’s performance, so the intense scrutiny of the World Cup ball is perhaps to be expected. “You could argue that it’s the most important piece of equipment in the most popular sport in the world,” says John Eric Goff, Professor of Physics at University of Lynchburg.

Adidas designs every World Cup ball, and on top of being a big seller for them, engineers at the company are constantly a little closer to the perfect ball, Goff says. The ideal soccer ball is a pimple-covered, perfect sphere, its surface just subtly textured enough to keep the airflow around the ball slightly turbulent. Unintuitive as this might sound, the ridges and pimples on the ball make it more aerodynamic, helping the ball to fly through the air more stably.

The Telstar 18, the design for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, is as close to a perfect sphere as you can get.

(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...


TOPICS: Science; Sports
KEYWORDS: soccer; worldcup2018
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To: Berlin_Freeper

3-0


201 posted on 06/24/2018 12:33:59 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (alea iacta est)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

I think I saw Lewandowski’s picture on the side of a milk carton.


202 posted on 06/24/2018 12:34:18 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

That’s the way to score a goal. Run the whole field right down the middle.


203 posted on 06/24/2018 12:35:41 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (alea iacta est)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Poland gets to be the first Euro team to lose to teams from three different continents.


204 posted on 06/24/2018 12:36:53 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

I bet Lewandowski will be happy to stay in Munich.


205 posted on 06/24/2018 12:37:51 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (alea iacta est)
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To: dfwgator

They keep finding these crazy stats on German TV too.


206 posted on 06/24/2018 12:38:54 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (alea iacta est)
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To: dfwgator

“Harry Kane has more goals then Lewandowski has touches.”


207 posted on 06/24/2018 12:39:54 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (alea iacta est)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

He’d better stay out of Poland.


208 posted on 06/24/2018 12:41:00 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

“...touches in the box”, that is.


209 posted on 06/24/2018 12:42:45 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (alea iacta est)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Do widzenia.


210 posted on 06/24/2018 12:54:26 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Tables were updating quicker than this... maybe because it is Sunday.

I#ll post tomorrow.
Too tired to do simple math.


211 posted on 06/24/2018 1:00:48 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (alea iacta est)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

I hope I don’t curse them, but I am now all in for Croatia.


212 posted on 06/24/2018 1:04:08 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Berlin_Freeper
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Japan 2 1 1 0 4 3 +1 4[a] Advance to knockout stage
2  Senegal 2 1 1 0 4 3 +1 4[a]
3  Colombia 2 1 0 1 4 2 +2 3
4  Poland (E) 2 0 0 2 1 5 −4 0

213 posted on 06/24/2018 1:04:38 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (alea iacta est)
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To: dfwgator

Tomorrow starts the third and final round of the Groups Stage and then half of the 32 teams will be going home.


214 posted on 06/24/2018 1:06:40 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (alea iacta est)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Four games played with two at the same time.


215 posted on 06/24/2018 1:07:54 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (alea iacta est)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/


216 posted on 06/24/2018 1:08:16 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (alea iacta est)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Yeah, watch Poland actually beat Japan.

It happened the last time, they lost their first two and got eliminated, then beat the US, but the US still did advance anyway.


217 posted on 06/24/2018 1:15:07 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Switzerland goes on my s-list.

No class at all.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/worldcup/2018/06/23/world-cup-xherdan-shaqiri-granit-xhaka-gesture-switzerland-serbia/727828002/


218 posted on 06/24/2018 3:52:41 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

That was 2002 which was the only time the US reached the quarterfinals.


219 posted on 06/24/2018 4:10:25 PM PDT by darkangel82
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To: darkangel82

Yep, I stayed up late to watch the US beat Mexico “Dos a Cero”, it was fantastic.


220 posted on 06/24/2018 4:12:18 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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