We are St Joseph’s N.S from the Mardyke in Cork City. We are an all-boys school. We
are a very sporty class and everyone plays at least one sport. We are particularly
interested in football, soccer, rugby, tennis, hurling and basketball. We chose to do this
project because we continuously strive to be the best that we can be in whatever sport
we play. We recently lost in a “Sciath na Scoil” (an inter schools football tournament)
semi-final, so we decided to practice our kicking which also lead us into this project. We
were trying to find a way to get distance and accuracy in our kicking, and also in our
throwing and striking so we needed to study the forces acting on the ball in order to
fully understand this. We have worked very hard and I hope you enjoy our project.
Our thoughts before investigation
We had a class discussion on why we thought some balls travelled further than others- we
recorded our thoughts:“The size of the ball matters, smaller balls will always go further.”
“The ball that’s pumped the hardest goes further”
“If its windy the heaviest ball will travel further”.
“The shape of the ball counts, a football will go further than a rugby ball
“Friction from the ground will slow the ball down.”
“Balls kicked from hands will travel further.”
We decided we would do three experiments as part of our investigation.
Experiment 1:Investigation of the distance each ball would travel when kicked out of hand.
Predictions->
No of predictions on balls that will travel the least distance
14
12
12
10
10
8
8
4
No of predictions on ball that will travel the
least distance
6
6
No of predictions for the ball that will go
the furthest
2
0
4
2
0
pumped zumba ball golf ball rugby ball tennis ball
football
sliotar
basketball beach ball
REsOURCES: Trundle wheel, metre stick, cones, tags, Zumba ball, football, golf ball, tennis
ball, basketball, rugby ball, sliotar, beach ball.
STEP 1.We lined up all of our balls at the start line.
Step 2.We marked the field, putting a cone at every 10 metre mark. Firstly we used a trundle
wheel. Then we used a metre stick to ensure our measurements were accurate.
STEP 3. We got five people to kick the balls out of their hands and measured them with a
metre stick, we used to closest 10 metre mark to help us do it quickly.
20
21
15
14
10
11
9
5
10
8
5
4
0
zumba ball
basketball
rugby ball
football
sliotar
tennis ball
golf ball
beach ball
Series 1
EXPERIMENT 3: STRIKING BALL WITH TENNIS RACKET
We did this experiment because we wanted to find out which ball would travel the
furthest distance.
PREDICTIONS
“The ball with most mass will not go furthest”
“The tennis ball will be most aero dynamic”
“The lightest ball will go furthest”
“The air resistance will affect the beach ball most”
“The more mass equals greater effect of gravity”
“It’s to do with the density of the ball”
MATERIALS
Cones ,Tags ,A Racket ,A Football ,A Basketball, A Tennis ball ,A Zumba ball ,A Beach
Ball , A Golf ball , A Rugby ball , A meter stick , A trundle wheel , A recording sheet
PROCEDURE
Step 1. Measure the field with the trundle wheel and mark it with cones every ten
meters up to fifty meters
Step 2.Hit all the balls separately roughly with the same force.
Step 3. Measure the distance of each kick.
Step 3. We were trying to find a pattern from all the kicks.
Step 4. We put our findings into a recording sheet.
Step 5. We created a bar chart showing all our findings.
SAFETY PRECAUTION
Please make sure the field is clear when the balls are hit.
OBSERVATIONS
1. The tests were not fair tests because each boys force was different.
2. Air resistance caused some of the balls to spin causing them to change direction.
3. The angle at which the ball was kicked effected how far the ball goes.
4. Air resistance affected the lighter balls more.
5. On a windy day air resistance is higher.
6. The ball with the most mass is affected more by gravity.
Distance balls travelled when struck with tennis racket
Kicked out of hand
30
Step 4. We recorded our results on a grid.
25
44
25
24
Metres
20
19 19
15
19 20
20 20
13
10
9
5
0
3
11
11
7
4
zumba ball basketball
rugby ball
sliotar
beach ball tennis ball
Type of ball
34
metres travelled
No of predictions for the ball that will go the furthest when
kicked
Experiment 2:- Investigation of the distance each ball would travel when kicked
along the ground.
Materials:- Same as experiment 1.
Procedure:- We repeated the procedure as in exp 1 except we kicked off the ground
and measured where the ball came to a stop.
Results:Kicked along the ground
AVERAGE DISTANCE TRAVELLED
Rationale-Why we chose to do this project
31
31
26
golf ball
20
19
20
18
16
STEP 5. We made a multiple bar chart of the results of all the measurements on Excel.
1st attemt
34
32
13
2nd attemt
11
11
1
1
1
ZUMBA BALL
2
4
4
5
1
FOOTBALL
3
5
2
2
RUGBY BALL
3
3
2
10
7
8
1
BASKETBALL
BEACH BALL
balls used
Joe
14
13
8
7
2
13
Oscar
Max
Jimmy
Thomas
SLIOTAR
TENNIS BALL
GOLF BALL
Further study
We learned about Isaac Newton. Every boy in the
class did a presentation on him. His work
contributed to our understanding of our
experiments.
Newton taught us about gravity.
Newton’s three laws of motion.
Newton’s first law.
Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to
remain in that state of motion unless an external
force is applied to it.
Newton’s second law.
The relationship between an objects mass M Its
acceleration A and the applied force f is f=ma
when the same force is applied an object with
greater mass will not accelerate at the same
speed as an object of less mass.The lighter object
speeds up quicker.
Newton’s third law.
For every action there is an equal and opposite
reaction.
Newton’s Cradle
Newton’s cradle shows five small balls held by
strings. If you bring one ball back and let go of it,
it will hit the ball in front of it until it reaches the
fifth ball, but the fifth has nothing to hit against
so it will go in the air. It keeps rocking until it
gradually stops.
Isaac Newton was a scientist who made
Newton’s Cradle. if you pull two balls at an angle
of 45 degrees and let go of it, it will cause the 2
balls at the other end to rise to an angle of 45
degrees. The first 2 balls that you let go of will
stop until the other 2 will hit off the middle ball
again. This is an example of Newton’s third
law=for every action there’s always an equal and
opposite reaction.
In order to do a fair investigation of the forces acting
on the sports balls as they travelled along the ground
and in the air we needed to design an instrument that
would exert the same force each time – so the force
would be constant.
We worked in pairs to construct this instrument. We got our
inspiration from Newton's cradle. We hoped that we could
transfer force from a swinging pendulum onto the ball.
Materials:-Clay, lollipop sticks, straws and string.
We figured out how to make it stable by using lollipop sticks
in vertical triangular form on both sides. We had to make
sure they were parallel. Then we put one lollipop stick
horizontally across The two triangular supports. Everything
had to be precise. We used clay to stick them together. We
had to construct a clay ball and attach it to a string which the
other end had to be tied to the horizontal lollipop stick.
Some of our instruments worked others broke apart some
were unsteady. Our teacher challenged us to come up with
other ideas.
Thomas designed a Lego kicking simulator to shoot mini
sports balls down a track.
Kicking simulator experiment
Materials:-mini sports balls, Lego kicking simulator, Lego
sheets & bowling pins, Lego pieces for walls and ramps!
Purpose:We wanted to replicate kicking or striking a ball
along the ground where the force was constant.
Procedure: First we shot it down a normal table with bits of
card on the side to stop the ball from rolling off. We then
realised there was not enough friction so we put down
sheets of sandpaper on the track. It still didn’t have enough
friction so we came up with the idea of putting sheets of
Lego on the track. We observed how the Lego STILL didn’t
have enough friction so we made Lego speed bumps to
make friction to stop the ball from going too far.
Conclusion:
We observed the mini sports balls and
realised that Newton’s 2nd law was truethe ball with least mass accelerated the
most ,overcame the force of friction and
got to the end of the track, knocking over
the bowling pins.. 
Ball launcher
I, Max made this ball launcher with a cup, a balloon and
some tape. First I cut the bottom of the cup out, then I
cut the top of the balloon off, then I stretched the
balloon around the cup and applied tape around the
balloon to secure the balloon to the cup. It works based
on the force of tension.
Experiment Using ball launcher, determine if angle at
the distance a ball travels through the air.
Materials: ball launcher, ping pong ball,, ruler
Procedure: Our experiment works like this:
STEP 1: Place ping pong ball in ball launcher.
STEP 2: Aim your cup at a 30 degrees angle.
STEP 3: You pull balloon back 10cm.
STEP 4: Let go and record where the ball bounces,
measure this distance.
STEP 5:Repeat steps 1-4 but this time change the angle
to 45 degrees
Step 6. Repeat steps 1-5 with the angles 60 and 75.
Step 7.Record results.
Conclusion
We saw that the angle affected the distance of the balls.
Da Vinci catapult
Olan made his very own Da
Vinci catapult.
Experiment Using the da Vinci catapult, determine if air
resistance affects the distance a ball travels through the
air.
Materials: catapult, ping pong ball, marble, soft ball,
hairdryer, ruler
Procedure: Our experiment works like this:
STEP 1: Place ping pong ball in ball launcher.
STEP 2: Aim your launcher at a 45 degrees angle.
STEP 3: Let go and record where the ball bounces,
measure this distance.
STEP 5:Repeat steps 1-4 but this time blow air from a
hairdryer towards the launcher (this changes the air
resistance).
Step 6. Repeat steps 1-5 with the marble and soft ball.
Step 7.Record results.
Conclusion
We saw that the hairdryer really affected the balls
distance. This is because it shoots air molecules at the
object which is known as drag.
Spin
We observed that spin often changed
direction of the ball and sometimes
caused it to speed up.
This is called the Magnus effect
Gustav Magnus explained the Magnus force for
the first time in 1853. The Magnus effect is
commonly used to explain the often mysterious
and commonly observed movements of
spinning balls in sports like soccer, tennis, table
tennis, golf, football and hurling.
Ball curves downwards because it is deflected
from a high pressure to a low pressure.
It can curve from left to right and vice versa
see “WONDER GOAL” by Roberto Carlos in our
report book. We have been practising!!
Angles and follow through
Angles affect the height and distance of an
object when kicked or struck. 45 degrees is
the peek distance an object can go when
kicked. 90 degrees is the peek height an
object can go when kicked. If an object is
kicked at an angle lower than 45 degrees it
will go low and short. If an object is kicked
between 45 and 90 it will go high and short.
Importance of angles in sideline cuts
It is important to get under the ball when
taking a side line cut. In hurling there are
many great players at side line cuts. But how
do they do it.
Step 1. Place the ball on a firm piece of grass.
Step 2. The point of contact between the
hurley and the sliotar should be as low down
as possible on the sliotar. This means that the
sliotar will be at the best angle possible.
Step 3. Hit the ball with the butt of the hurley
Step 4. Before taking side line cut know your
angles.
Step 5. Take a run up and try and get your
body as ow as possible.
Step 6. Hit the ball at a 130 degree angle.
.
friction
The angle
at which
the ball is
Air
resistan
ce
struck
Spin
Density
of ball
Gravity
Materi
al and
mass
“If I have seen further it is
by standing on the
shoulders of giants”
Isaac Newton