A basketball player’s smooth, nothing-but-net shot. A softball pitcher’s wicked curveball. A football quarterback’s beautiful spiral toss. These aren’t just athletic spectacles. They’re feats of physics.
Making a ball take a specific path through the air is difficult, no matter the sport. That’s because the tiny details of a ball’s shape and spin can have a big impact on how it interacts with the air — and therefore its motion.
Some physicists study these nit-picky details to give athletes an edge in their game. For example, scientists are trying to use physics to help football players improve their spirals. Engineers, meanwhile, have gone different routes. Some have redesigned balls. While others have applied some of this knowledge to design better vehicles.
For instance, a ball or other object flying through the air experiences a type of friction called drag. This force acts against an object’s motion, slowing it down. But adding dimples to the surface of an object — like those found on a golf ball — allows air to flow around the ball more smoothly and reduces drag. Engineers recently borrowed this concept to design dimpled surfaces that could help vehicles cut through air and water more easily.
A ball’s path through the air also depends on how it spins. That’s because a ball’s spin causes air to flow differently around different sides of it. Softball and baseball players harness those effects to pitch balls that curve in various directions. These airflow affects also impact how other balls, including basketballs, arc through the air. Such effects could be used to improve the spinning cylinders that help power cargo ships.
Want to know more? We’ve got some stories to get you started:
Precise tee placement can improve golf driving, teen finds This middle-school engineer built a golf-ball-hitting machine out of a clay-pigeon launcher. (2/10/2026) Readability: 6.0
How to make a pitched ball curve to your will Pitchers have many tricks up their sleeves. Physics explains how they work. (9/18/2025) Readability: 6.1
Holey basketballs! 3-D printing could be a game-changer An ‘airless’ design makes Wilson’s new basketball quieter and puncture-proof. (7/1/2024) Readability: 7.2
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Want an excuse to play around at the gym or outside while you do science? Check out our experiment from Science Buddies investigating where a basketball’s energy goes as it loses its bounce.
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