How Does Foot Placement Affect the Spin of a Soccer Ball?

[LethalK]

Hello,
I'm a long time stalker but recently decided to register in this website. I'm have to make an Extended Essay and I decided to do it in Physics and I thought it would be interesting to investigate the spin on a football (soccer ball) when kicked depending on the location of the foot during the kick and different variables too. What kind of variables change the level of spin on the ball? Is it calculable? Or maybe I should rephrase my EE topic?
Thank you

 

[dirtyd33]

It would indeed be calculable and indeed there are many variables to consider. Like, is it in a frictionless environment, or are you interested in the soccer balls change in accelerations? Yes the contact point matters as would the vector the force is being applied from. The mass of the ball and possibly the air density inside/ compression due to impact would also have to be factored. Plus, after contact, does the ball leave the ground?, does it have friction to the ground in your scenario?, or do you want to just model the immediate resultant spin of an applied force at angle on a sphere? I don't have the exact equations you would want to be using, but I wanted to provide you with a response that might help you conceptualize the variables involved and what exactly you want to model. Best of luck.
dd