Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I really need help before noon. I need research help for my project. All the info about what i need is on the side, i didn't want to put it again. Any help at all would be really great. The research has to be pretty recent, maybe from 2007-present day.

Hi missymay14,

I don't normally answer questions in the physical science forum, but since you need help right away I decided to give you some input.

I did find some articles about soccer ball aerodynamics, which is related to your project. Here's a few:
http://www.weizmann.ac.il/home/fnfal/FreeKick.pdf
http://iweb.tms.org/ED/01-5085-185.pdf
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr= ... cs&f=false
http://www.springerlink.com/content/jn223653r5612171/

Try searching for "aerodynamics soccer ball" or "sports ball aerodynamics" in google scholar and you should be able to find more articles. If the full article is not free (and you can only see the abstract) put the full title of the paper into google and you can often find a full version of the article for free.

I did a quick search in google scholar with "soccer ball" and "soccer ball distance size" but didn't get anything useful (most of it was tracking systems for a soccer ball). It is probably going to be difficult to find research articles on this exact topic because it is a very simple experiment and any official research was probably done years ago. You could try looking for research about soccer in general, through that won't be as helpful for your project. I would keep trying different keywords with "soccer" in google scholar and google to see if you can find anything. Soccer ball construction could also be an interesting topic that might have some more recent patents or research articles, and it is a bit more related to your topic.

You might also ask your teacher for some tips.

I found this post about the size of soccer balls and distance traveled:

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/p ... y99424.htm

Here's the wikipedia article on soccer balls (it talks a little about construction):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soccer_ball

For future reference, ask your questions on this forum AT LEAST a few days in advance of your due date. Expect a response within 24-48 hours, depending on how specific the question is (we don't have an Expert for every single subject area, and Experts check in on different days of the week). Most of the time your question will not be answered within a few hours, as we have a limited number of volunteers that staff this board.

Good luck and let us know if you have any more questions!

Thank you so much for your help. My dad was wanting it done by 12 so that was why i needed it so soon.

Thanks again

Also, I should note that it will also be difficult to find research from 2007 to the present day. Is this a requirement of your teacher? "Recent" should be more like 2000 and later. There are probably some articles that are 2007 and later, but there are many more available from 2000+.

Science Buddies has a couple of pages that talk about doing research on your topic:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... pers.shtml
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... aper.shtml

Keep in mind that many of these papers would be difficult for high school students to read. Since you are in middle school you probably won't understand everything at first pass. Scientific papers are generally not very well written, and the style of writing is not easy to read in general. So don't be discouraged if you don't understand what they are talking about! Just take each sentence and look up words until things start to make sense. You might need to read something 20 times or more before it makes sense, and that is completely normal.

2007 to present day is not a requirment i was using that to start. Also, i found something from madsci; it was posted in 1999 and i was wondering if you think that is a good website
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/oc ... .Ph.r.html

I don't know anything about madsci. But if the paper you found using their website is legitimate (i.e. it was published in an official journal or something similar), then you might as well use it.

If you find other sources on the internet that are not official (published) papers, I think that is also fine, though it depends on what your teacher requires. There are sites out there that give incorrect information, but there's also a lot that could help you, too. Comparing the information in textbooks or other websites will help you determine whether the information is most likely correct.

That is very helpfull, i will try my best to use the info. that you have given me. Thank you.