Ways in which the design of a

ball can affect its motion

through air
The Magnus effect is the commonly observed effect in which a spinning
ball (or cylinder) curves away from its principal flight path. It is important in
many ball sports. When a ball spins, it creates an envelope of air around it
called the boundary layer. This boundary layer moves with the ball whether it
spins forward or backward or sideways. The interaction of this boundary
layer with the surrounding air results in an outside force that changes the
path of the ball.
By conservation of momentum, the deflective force on the body is no more
or less than a reaction to the deflection that the body imposes on the airflow. The body "pushes" the air down, and vice versa. As a particular case, a
lifting force is accompanied by a downward deflection of the air-flow. It is an
angular deflection in the fluid flow, rear of the body.

Golf ball

A smooth golf ball hit by a professional golfer

would travel only about half as far as a golf ball
with dimples does. Most golf balls have between
300 and 500 dimples, which have an average
depth of about 0.010 inch. The lift and drag
forces on a golf ball are very sensitive to dimple
depth: a depth change of 0.001 inch can
produce a radical change to the ball's trajectory
and the overall distance it can fly.
A moving object has a high-pressure area on its
front side. Air flows smoothly over the contours
of the front side and eventually separates from
the object toward the back side. A moving
object also leaves behind a turbulent wake
region where the air flow is fluctuating or
agitated, resulting in lower pressure behind it. The size of the wake affects
the amount of drag on the object. Dimples on a golf ball create a thin
turbulent boundary layer of air that clings to the ball's surface. This allows
the smoothly flowing air to follow the ball's surface a little farther around the
back side of the ball, thereby decreasing the size of the wake. A dimpled ball
thus has about half the drag of a smooth ball.

that
the

Dimples also affect lift. A smooth ball with

backspin creates lift by warping the airflow such
the ball acts like an airplane's wing. The
spinning action makes the air pressure on the bottom of
ball higher than the air pressure on the top; this
imbalance creates an upward force on the ball. Ball spin
contributes about one half of a golf ball's lift. The other
half is provided by the dimples, which allow for
optimization of the lift force.

Physical design: In a two-piece golf ball, the inside of the golf ball is
made out of rubber and the outside of the golf ball is made out of plastic. All
golf balls are covered with a hard plastic shell. The shell is covered with small
indentations called "dimples" that help the ball fly. Generally speaking, the
more dimples on the plastic shell, the better and further it will fly. A golf ball
may have as many as 500 dimples.

Football
When a soccer player kicks a ball off-center it causes the ball to spin. The
direction and speed of the spin will determine how much the ball curves
during flight. It's the same principle as a curve ball in baseball. When
throwing the ball, the pitcher imparts a fast spin which causes the ball to
curve during flight.
As the ball spins, friction between the ball and air causes the air to react to
the direction of spin of the ball. As the ball undergoes top-spin (shown as
clockwise rotation in the figure), it causes the velocity of the air around the
top half of the ball to become less than the air velocity around the bottom
half of the ball. This is because the
tangential velocity of the ball in the
top half acts in the opposite direction
to the airflow, and the tangential
velocity of the ball in the bottom half
acts in the same direction as the
airflow. In the figure shown, the
airflow is in the leftward direction,
relative to the ball.

Since the (resultant) air speed around the top half of the
ball is less than the air speed around the bottom half of the
ball, the pressure is greater on the top of the ball. This
causes a net downward force (F) to act on the ball. This is
due to Bernoulli's principle which states that when air
velocity decreases, air pressure increases (and viceversa).
Therefore, when a soccer player kicks the ball right of
center the ball spins counter-clockwise and the Magnus
force acts left, causing the ball to curve left. When the ball is
kicked left of center the ball spins clockwise and the Magnus force acts right,
causing the ball to curve right. This can result in a ball deviating as much as
several feet from the original trajectory by the time it reaches the net. This is
no doubt a useful strategy when attempting to make a goal, since it makes
the path of the ball less predictable to the goalie as he's preparing to block
the shot.

Physical design: Most modern Association footballs are stitched from 32

panels of waterproofed leather or plastic: 12 regular pentagons and 20
regular hexagons. The 32-panel configuration is the spherical polyhedron
corresponding to the truncated icosahedrons; it is spherical because the
faces bulge from the pressure of the air inside.

Tennis balls

Modern day tennis players not only serve

very fast but also spin the ball at a high
rate. Spinning can affect the aerodynamic
drag and lift of a tennis ball, and thus the
motion and trajectory of the ball. The socalled Magnus effect on a sphere is wellknown in fluid mechanics.
Tennis players use the Magnus effect when
hitting a ball with topspin; a player rotates
the head of the racquet over the top of the
ball during the hit. This exerts a torque
about the center of the ball that causes the
ball to rotate with a forward spin during its flight. As the diagram above
shows, topspin is characterized by the tangential velocity of the top of the
ball pointing in the same direction as the trajectory of the ball.
Hitting a ball with topspin causes a Magnus force to act on the ball
perpendicular to the velocity of the ball in the downward direction. Because
there is an additional downward force on the ball, tennis players can hit the
ball with a greater speed and have it land in the court, if they apply topspin
to the ball when hitting it. In addition, balls can be hit higher above the net,
making the shot more difficult to return, because the addition downward
force pulls the ball downwards. This also results in a higher bounce for the
ball.
To hit a ball with backspin, a player angles his racquet back and slides it
underneath the ball when hitting it. This type of shot is called a slice. It
exerts a torque about the center of the ball that causes the ball to rotate with
a backward spin during its flight. As the diagram above shows, under spin is
characterized by the tangential velocity of the top of the ball pointing in the
opposite direction as the trajectory of the ball. Hitting a ball with topspin
causes a Magnus force to act on the ball perpendicular to the velocity of the
ball in the upward direction. Because there is an additional upward force on
the ball, the ball seems to "float" through the air as it flies. Slice shots are
thus generally hit low over the net and with a relatively slow speed, in order
to keep them from going out of the bounds of the court. This results in the
lower bounce for the ball. In addition, slicing the ball allows the player to hit
the ball to a precise location in the opponents court. However, due to the
way slice shots are hit, if a player attempts to slice a ball that is moving too

fast, or hit a slice shot too

hard, he or she can easily
hit the ball out of bounds.

Physical properties:
The distinguishing feature of
a tennis ball is its filament
surface that manifests as
"fuzz" to the player. This
fuzz dramatically alters the
flight of the ball, especially
compared to a smooth
rubber ball. The average
mass of the balls was 58.03
g and the average diameter
was 65.68 mm. All balls
were marked with
perpendicular equatorial lines to determine spin.
The fuzzy filament surface is primarily responsible for the turbulent flow
around a tennis ball at all speeds of interest. Because the transition from
laminar to turbulent flow occurs at all usual playing speeds, tennis balls do
not exhibit a drag crisis during games. However, as air flows through the
filaments, each filament contributes its own drag force to the total drag force
on the ball.

Table-tennis ball
The ball is a small sphere made of plastic which is white or orange in color
having a mass of 2.7 grams (0.095 oz) and a diameter of
40
millimeters (1.57 in). The game takes place on a hard
table
divided by a net. The main challenge in the game is its
high
speed, which continuously tests the reaction time of the
players. Also to further complicate the game, the players hit the
ball
in manners that cause the ball to spin, which in turn changes
the balls trajectory.
The motion of the ping-pong ball through the air is determined by three
forces, gravity, air drag, and the Magnus force. The air drag is
generally decomposed in two components, a quadratic resistance

against the direction of the velocity of the ball, and torque that slows down
the balls angular velocity. The Magnus force is equal a scalar multiple of the
cross product between the angular velocity of the ball and its velocity
relative to air. The Magnus force rises out of the high angular velocity of the
ball, which rushes more air molecules to one side of the ball (through the
push of friction) than to its other side. The resulting excess pressure in one
side then curves the trajectory of the ball in direction of the spin.
In table tennis, the Magnus effect is observable because of the small size and
low density of the ball. An experienced player can place a wide variety of
spins on the ball. Table tennis rackets usually have outer layers made of
rubber to give the racket maximum grip on the ball to facilitate spinning.

Done
By:
Beverly Britto