Over the past several weeks, I have been watching and keeping up with the EUFA Euro Cup

2012. It is a soccer tournament similar to the World Cup, but only includes the best European countries competing for the championship. This past Sunday the tournament ended with Spain winning the tournament. In relation to our physics class, I began to wonder how the different physics concepts play a role in the sport. An important part of soccer is obviously the kicking of the soccer ball and being able to determine distance and direction where the ball goes. So as most topics that include some type of force we can relate it to Newtons Laws. In relation to Newtons second law, F=ma, the acceleration of a ball can be determined how hard the ball was kicked divided by the mass of the ball. Also with Newtons third law, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, when kicking a ball we will experience the same amount of force the ball experiences. Although we may not realize this because of our own mass compared to the ball is substantial. In going a little bit further, there are many different concepts of physics in play when the ball is kicked. The ball has Inertia which can be represented by I=2/3MR2, due to the balls hollow spherical shape. Since the ball is relatively small it has little inertia, which makes it easy to stop or change the direction of the ball after it has been kicked into motion. Another component of how a soccer ball moves is our own body. How big you are and how fast you are moving when you make contact with the ball is an important factor, too. Your momentum, whether you are running toward the ball when you kick it or toward the goal when someone passes it to you - can move that ball down the field at very high speeds. Momentum is a vector quantity which has direction and can be represented by p=mv. Ones mass multiplied by the velocity, or motion in a particular direction, equals a lot of momentum. When your body collides with the ball, you share your

momentum with it. The more momentum the ball gets from you, the faster and farther it will move. The bigger you are and the faster you are moving, the greater your momentum will be, and the more momentum you will have to share with the ball. Other than momentum, the soccer also carries energy. In motion, this energy is kinetic energy, which was transferred to the ball again by kicking the ball. The formula for this is KE=1/2mv2. Here, the kinetic energy equals one-half of the mass of our leg multiplied by the velocity of your leg, as it hits the ball, squared. Once the ball is in the air its predetermined path is a perfect parabola, but in soccer, wind factors comes in to play thus making the game more difficult. Nonetheless, while the ball is in the air it also possesses potential energy which is represented by PE=mgh. Kinetic energy trades off with potential energy as the ball flies through the air, also checked by factor such as air resistance. Another topic that can be related to the Physics concepts learned this semester would be friction. Friction is what causes the ball to stop moving when it is kicked on the grass. The grass and the surface of the soccer ball rubbing against each other represent the surfaces in contact. The force of friction generated is parallel to the surface and is in the opposite direction of which the ball is traveling. Which uses the equation f=uFn . Therefore, the coefficient of friction will tell us how fast or slow a ball will travel. Thus the higher the coefficient of friction is, the slower the ball will travel. As I have discussed soccer deals with several different aspects of physics learned this semester. I have been playing and following this sport since I was a young boy. This is the first time I have analyzed the sport from a scientific point of view. Studying soccer from this point of view was an enlightening experience. By understanding the physics of the sport, these concepts can actually be applied to how the game is played.