An illustration-packed dive into the geometry, engineering, and physics of soccer balls
The Football takes readers on an entertaining and fact-filled exploration of the mathematical secrets of the most popular spherical object on the planet. The football is familiar to billions of fans across the globe, but how many really look at it? Do footballs all have the same shape? Spoiler: not exactly. How does their shape affect how they play? With Étienne Ghys as our guide, we discover why ballistics, friction, and air flow are key to scoring goals-and why the football is a mathematical problem that engineers are still trying to solve.
Ghys begins with the classic Telstar ball used in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Its twelve black pentagons and twenty white hexagons are what most of us picture when we think of the sport. Following the story through successive World Cups, he shows how engineers constantly challenge themselves to reinvent the ball, aiming for a perfect sphere while accounting for manufacturing requirements and aerodynamics. Along the way, Ghys introduces us to the mathematics of Platonic solids, symmetries, polyhedra, turbulence, roughness, drag, and spin. He paints engaging portraits of the engineers and sports insiders who study and apply these phenomena and explains how the skills of players factor into how the ball behaves, whether the game is being played in stadiums, schoolyards, or backyards.
Featuring a wealth of color illustrations, The Football blends a lively narrative with insights from a world-renowned geometer to tell a mathematical story unlike any other. Étienne Ghys is CNRS director of research emeritus at the École normale supérieure de Lyon and permanent secretary of the French Academy of Sciences. Inaugural recipient of the prestigious Clay Award for Dissemination of Mathematical Knowledge, he writes a popular mathematics column for Le Monde. "Ghys offers elegant and concise insights into the rich geometries that shape the ball at the heart of the beautiful game."-John Eric Goff, author of Gold Medal Physics: The Science of Sports and The Physics of Krav Maga
"A charming book. Perfect for a day at the park, kicking around some truncated polyhedra with friends."-Ben Orlin, author of Math with Bad Drawings
"A fascinating insight into the geometry and physics involved in the humble football. I shall never look at a ball being crossed, headed, or nestling in the back of the net in the same way again."-Clive Gifford, author of The Football Encyclopedia, Goal!, and Atlas of Football "A Scientific American Staff Favorite Book of the Year" "A fascinating mathematical and physical microhistory of soccer balls and the official FIFA World Cup match balls in particular."---Emma R. Hasson, Scientific American "Erudite and whimsical. . . . A kick for fans and nonfans alike."
