Football physics: The "impossible" free kick - Erez Garty 

Roberto Carlos calculated the velocity of the earth minus the pressure of the stadium divided by the number of fans all in mla format the moment he decided to kick the ball

Carlos be watching this rn and say , " i did all of this?"

English: "Magnus effect" Brazil: TRIVELA

Carlos should’ve walked out of that game with a Phd in physics

Everyone is thanking them for saying football but no one appreciates their effort for researching, voicing and animating these videos.

English: physics* Brazil: *GOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLL Gol Gol Gol Gool*

Plot twist:Carlos was a scientist and calculated everything

_Magnus effect_ should be renamed to the _Carlos effect_

Roberto kicked with his left-foot bro.

Good luck with explaining the knuckle ball shot haha

*I love that you called it properly football, and the animation is so good!*

As a fan of both football and physics, thank you. Carlos’ kick is world renown not only because it’s magnus affect curvature but also given the game it was in. I’d love for y’all to breakdown the knuckleball kick next!

I still remeber that goal. Good times.

"Must go in the same direction" Carlos broke the law Get rekt Newton

I remember watching this game live as a kid and I couldn’t believe it.

As someone who has played football for most of my life, i've seen this goal so many times, but I never knew the actual complex physics behind it. Great explanation

Foot + ball = Football Hand + egg = Handegg

i've never heard it called a "banana kick" before >.

We Brazilians call this effect as TRIVELA, tri come from the number of fingers that touch the ball, and vela from candle that i cant explain, not a problem to brazilians, we've created some words out of nowhere.

I hoped to see actual footage of the goal in the video...

Football Physics: The “Impossible” Free Kick (Transcrição) 1 - In 1997, in a game between France and Brazil, a young Brazilian player named Roberto Carlos set up for a 35 meter free kick. With no direct line to the goal, Carlos decided to attempt the seemingly impossible. His kick sent the ball flying wide of the players, but just before going out of bounds, it hooked to the left and soared into the goal. 2 - According to Newton’s first law of motion, an object will move in the same direction and velocity until a force is applied on it. When Carlos kicked the ball, he gave it direction and velocity, but what force made the ball swerve and score one of the most magnificent goals in the history of the sport? The trick was in the spin. 3 - Carlos placed his kick at the lower right corner of the ball, sending it high and to the right, but also rotating around its axis. The ball started its flight in an apparently direct route, with air flowing on both sides and slowing it down. 4 - On one side, the air moved in the opposite direction to the ball’s spin, causing increased pressure, while on the other side, the air moved in the same direction as the spin, creating an area of lower pressure. 5 - That difference made the ball curve towards the lower pressure zone. This phenomenon is called the Magnus effect. This type of kick, often referred to as a banana kick, is attempted regularly, and it is one of the elements that makes the beautiful game beautiful. 6 - But curving the ball with the precision needed to both bend around the wall and back into the goal is difficult. Too high and it soars over the goal. Too low and it hits the ground before curving. Too wide and it never reaches the goal. Not wide enough and the defenders intercept it. Too slow and it hooks too early, or not at all. 7 - Too fast and it hooks too late. The same physics make it possible to score another apparently impossible goal, an unassisted corner kick. The Magnus effect was first documented by Sir Isaac Newton after he noticed it while playing a game of tennis back in 1670. It also applies to golf balls, frisbees and baseballs. 8 - In every case, the same thing happens. The ball’s spin creates a pressure differential in the surrounding air flow that curves it in the direction of the spin. And here’s a question. Could you theoretically kick a ball hard enough to make it boomerang all the way around back to you? 9 - Sadly, no. Even if the ball didn’t disintegrate on impact, or hit any obstacles, as the air slowed it, the angle of its deflection would increase, causing it to spiral into smaller and smaller circles until finally stopping. 10 - And just to get that spiral, you’d have to make the ball spin over 15 times faster than Carlos’s immortal kick. So good luck with that.

I bet some dingdong is going to say, "It's not football, it's soccer."

Roberto intentionally placed the ball with the ball valve in a specific position. The ball valve is an "anomaly" in weight distribution and it's used as a means to influence the ball's movement in the air as it tends to hit the lowest bit (it's heavier on that side). This is also used in volleyball serves

I don't think anyone could have hit that ball any harder than R. Carlos. What a legend!

Thank you TED for calling it Football, the original and logical name for the sport that we love. Than calling it like the uneducated way, "Soccer." Btw that goal is what made football so competitive and impressive sport

they had tennis in 1670?

meanwhile in roberto carlos's head : *kick with the outside of the foot so it curves ok ? *

you know your goal was that good that there is even a video which tries to explain it

Video highly researched, greatly animated and written: no one gives two shits. Calling it football instead of soccer: Heralded solely for that. I just don't get people....

I watched this goal live. It was amazing to see the curve trajectory performed by the ball.

“The trick is in the SPIN” Gyro approves this.

Football physics: Impossible Wind: Anything is possible!

This kick is aka "3 fingers kick".

Thank you so much!TED-Ed :) The sport was more "magical" to me now than it ever was. And for those people wasting their time pointing out "football" was used instead of "soccer," how do you live every day? Do you also say: It's not an electric stove, it's a cooker. It is not zero, it is "o" (in phone numbers). What else?

Cricket ball also has this magnus effect needs a high technique to do that. In cricketing terms, we use the term “Reverse Swing”.

Never thought of things such as magic, till I came across with Brazilian Football team. The one Roberto Carlos was in.

So, can you curve a bullet just like in the movie "Wanted"?

Respect for TED for calling Football Football and not soccer

Roberto Carlos deserved a field medal in mathematics for doing all those physics calculations... in his head!

I watched that game live. I remember that day, my mum yelled at me because it was past bedtime for an 8-year old (it was past 10pm in Germany) and even on weekends I couldn't stay awake that long. So I pretended to go to sleep, waited a few minutes until my parents went to sleep...I then snuck out and watched that entire match. Thats how much I loved the Brazilian National Team. The weird thing is, if you watched that goal live from the standard camera perspective, you couldn't notice anything very unusual. To me as a kid I initially didn't understand why Fabian Barthez didn't just move...until I saw the replay. That curve man...that curve. Dayum. I was sitting there like 😲

Did anyone notice at 2:49 where he said you can't hit the ball and it comes back to you?? Sadly it can come back. For those who play football know that. But it must be in movement when you hit it,then when it hit the ground while spinning it come back.

Could you explain the knuckleball too?

What you're missing out on is that the reason why this goal was so sensational was not the curled shot itself. This had been done for decades already. The reason was that the ball didn't fly a regular, steady curl, i. e. from the moment of the kick to the goal, but changed its direction extremely late, and almost in the opposite direction of where it seemed to be curling. Also, curling a ball that was hit as hard as this was something that hadn't been done before. Good video on curves and rotation though!

No matter how much animation you use, if you do not show the original recording, people will not understand the magnificence of the goal.

Roberto Carlos é foda, melhor cobrança de falta na vida dele foi essa!!

I was watching this live when Carlos scored it. Ah good times...

And to think Roberto Carlos did the 2 impossibles goals: This one vs France, the from from Corner, and the other one at that Real Madrid vs Tenerife where he scored from the backline, while running.

omg i love this animation.. looks so funny and cute and informative at the same time

Physics: bla bla bla. Juninho: hold my beer.

I heard that Carlos called Sir Issac Newton before kicking the ball

My favourite goal to this day. Absolutely breathtaking.

Ted-ed: Banana Kick 🍌 Any Football fan: *Trivela* 🗿

Ted Ed: Newton’s law of physics Soccer fans: Trivella!!

Roberto Carlos representando o Brasil 👏👏👏👏

2:10 It’s not necessary to curve the ball to do that because the corner circle sticks out you can just kick it in but you need the right angle

Its not just the magnus effect.. its also the air pressure inside the ball which moves to the right of the ball at the point of contact with the boot. While the ball is approaching the goal, the air pressure inside the ball shifts from high pressure area to low pressure, creating a movement towards the left. Goodnight.

Thank you for calling it football🙏🏻. Great video, good research.👍🏽

Brasil: O jogo bonito Latinoamérica: ¡Que pedazo de gol!

He also had so much power in his kicks. I don't know how he didn't kill someone with those bombs. Very skilled and strong player

Clicked on the video thinking it was going to talk about Messi, finished the video with a PhD in Physics. Thanks TED-Ed. Really helpful 😉

1997!? I thought it was on 1998 world cup

Some use math to find the answer, others use experience and skill.

It's amazing how this concept is, in practical sense, something so simple that we used to do it in primary school! However the science behind it is so complicated that it gives an explanation as to why we realised we weren't science students.

i saw that kick in a live broadcast, it was a friendly game, and it was astonishing seeing the ball curves, then before it end outside, it changed the direction, and hit the target, leaving the goalkeeper in such a disbelief.

Scientists: “It’s impossible to curve going 100 inches right then 100 inches left” Roberto Carlos: “Hold my beer” Kaka: “Hold my beer” Gorgino: “Hold my beer”

I never knew knuckle balls were so advanced lol

the camera angle and the way it moved with the ball greatly effected the viewers "distorted" ball flight path and curve. Another TV channel showed a camera angle seen from behind the goals which clearly shows a much less glamorous view. The balls true path was in the bottom corner however the significant deflection off of the post gave the effect of landing almost behind Barthez Not to take anything away from the Carlos free kick.. truly one of the greatest shots in football.. with some lucky camera work.

Addison Anderson, your voice is just amazing, it sounds so much clear and I love hearing you, narrating

Beautiful animation and really well explained. Thanks TED Ed! 👏🏽👏🏽

never heard anybody say "banana kick"

English: physics! goal! velocity! calculation! ball! rotation Brazil: in simple terms; TRIVELA

great narrator + great animation = great video

Actually, it's a wrong explanation of the Magnus effect... According to the explanation in the video, ball would go to opposite side, where relative speed between ball and air is higher (and the pressure is lower, according to Bernulli law). But if you consider the layers of air, rotating with ball because of friction between the ball and air, you'll get the correct picture of pressure distribution, causing a curve trajectory

In my book that is the best goal in the history of the football.

It was a windy day and the wind helped it bend. The player even acknowledges that

I love how this videos start with a very exceptional example all the time

So kicking 15x faster than Roberto Carlos Calling Superman ..... Superman :- sorry call Flash

Americans be like, hey you TED-Ed you should call it soccer bc we said so! while entire of the world mostly said football and mpst language take football to apply in their languages -.-

Just to clarify, as it seems to be some confusion both in the video and the comments. "Carlos" is not his lastname, but his middle name. His complete name is Roberto Carlos da Silva

The interesting thing is that even Ted cant explain how carlos bend happened because carlos hit it differently and it made I mean how could it

Even though I'm personally accustomed to calling it fütball, I have plenty of Spanish friends living in the United States who term it Soccer. You know, because they actually respect the cultural norms of countries other than their own unlike 90% of RU-vid comment sections.

Magnus effect?? In Spanish we call it “chanfle” 😂😂😂

Knuckleball: *I am beyond your understanding....*

Very nice video. For me, one of the greatest goals of all time. Just two things: he kicked it with the left foot (which makes it even more dificult). And, normally, it's called a "trivela" kick. But like I said. Interesting video. Please keep up the nice work... 👍🏾

The physics of a knuckleball would be very interesting to see.

1:38, imma stop u right there. I've never ever heard anybody refer to it as "bananna kick" that is called bending the ball, bending it like beckham, curveing the ball, shooting a curve ball, kicking a curve ball. Don't ever say bananna kick is a common term for it. Americans man smh

I don’t like high-school curriculum/standards, but I love learning new things. Thannnnk yooou TEDed!!

The only things that needs physics is his smooth animations

eu vi esse jogo ao vivo foi muito foda

Carlos isn’t his last name, it’s his middle name... his last name is Da Silva.

Great video, although you forgot to mention that he hit the ball with his left foot. This makes a huge difference because anyone scores sending the ball to the opposite side. If you've ever played or watched soccer, you know what I mean

Anyone who plays football doesn't think it's "impossible physics" as curling a ball is so easy and intuitive and ubiquitous.

While it was a great shot, it actually spun only a little. Roberto Carlos hit the ball so hard, it never had time to really spin.If you notice him placing the ball on the grass he identifies where the air valve is and places it forward to "knuckle" the ball. Nice explanation of spin, but a bad example of this concept.

The free kick of Schöne against Real Madrid is an other example of this.

That freekick is literally worth research for Physicists in Mechanica. That's how splendid it was.

I like the way he said "a young Brazilian player named Roberto Carlos " LoL

Wait, he's left-footed.. Right? When I kick the ball with the outside of my foot, I make more spin. The inside is for power. Argo, he didn't go for power, but for curve. (... why am I comparing myself to a professional footballer?)

No one calls it “the banana kick” lol

2:28 Cricket ball: Am I a joke to you?

I believe air pressure is lower when relative air speed is higher, therefore lower air pressure appears on the side where the spin moves in the same direction as the ball, making the ball spiral the other way than the one it did.