Effect of Soccer Ball Size on Kick Distance

by Christopher Massell

Submitted : Spring 2012

My project involves comparing the difference in travel, through air, between two different sized soccer balls. To begin this project, I first had to assign two different sized balls to study. Than given its initial position, velocity, and angle (from the horizontal) I was able to use Euler’s first order differential equation method to find the difference in velocity(x) and velocity(y) of the two balls. Then, I was able to use Euler’s method again to achieve their max positions in the X and Y. What I found was that, when air resistance is present, the smaller of the two soccer balls not only traveled at a faster velocity but also it traveled further in the horizontal range. This ultimately will cause a high school amateur player to kick the ball further than he is use to if he were to step into the professional level.

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