StarTalk Radio - #ICYMI - Cosmic Queries: Sports Physics Trivia, with Charles Liu

Episode Date: September 27, 2018

In case you missed this episode on the Playing with Science channel… Football on Mars, tricky cricket physics, curving curling rocks, and more – Hosts Gary O’Reilly and Chuck Nice sit down with astrophysicist Charles Liu to answer fan-submitted Cosmic Queries that span across the sporting world. Photo Credit: Xiaphias [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.

I'm Gary O'Reilly and I'm Chuck Nice and this is Playing With Science. Today you listeners will be the stars of the show. Yes we've opened up the cosmos for your particular queries. Call it office hours if you wish, but this is going to be our show. Of course, it's going to be ladled with science and have a bit of a sprinkling of sport. That's right. So who else is joining us? Of course, when you say science, you can't say science without the one, the only, the astrophysicist who knows the most about sports of any scientist I've ever met, the one, the only, Professor Dr. Charles Liu. Hey, Charles. Hey, Chuck. Hi, Gary. You are too kind in your introduction. There are many,

many people who know much more about sports than I, but I'm very happy to be here. But not on the level that you know sports and not the way you're able to relate sports to science, my friend. I'm sorry. I mean, not even our fearless leader, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, I would say, has the breadth of knowledge of all sports that you do. Well, I humbly live to serve, and I hope that i would be able to answer the questions from our excellent audience as always they bring good stumpers to the table they do and we're opening up their inquiring minds and here we go this this one caught my eye straight away this is from joe anderson 2429 on instagram the waves are affected by the moon. He sounds English here because he goes,

the waves are affected by the moon, right? What if the earth had another moon? How would adding another moon to earth impact sports? I'm guessing surfing, sailing. That's one I've not thought about that before, but over to you, professor. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it is a great question yes the reason that the moon affects the waves right is because the moon's gravity has a subtle effect that's stronger when in on the part of the earth closer to the moon than away from the moon now solid rock doesn't really feel that so much but liquids like water on the surfaces of say lakes, rivers or most likely the ocean will actually move a little bit toward the moon and the center of the earth moves a little closer to the moon than the backside.

So you basically have an elongation of the earth. The liquid pops out and then backs in and it's just kind of this undulating motion of the waves back and forth and that's because we're the moon. So if the moon is here, then the tides are strongest along the axis, and it just kind of follows this way. So imagine you have two moons. In that case, you have a moon here and a moon here, and if it goes around, it's going to cause even more pulling. Under the right circumstances, you could get double the wave action, right? So maybe if you were a surfer and you're looking for that monster wave, you would be getting a seriously double monster wave,

right? Whereas at other times, depending on the positions of the moon, they might actually help counteract each other's motions so that you'll have a reduced amount of moon action. So one way or another, the tides can be strongly affected, and it has all to do with the relative positions of the moons and the Earth at any given time to where you are. Oh, wow. So the relationship in terms of their orbit around the Earth would be critical as to which way that that takes place. That's exactly right. Would it also have to depend on the size of the moon itself? I mean, you would have to take that into consideration too, right? The size of the moon itself is not as

important as the mass of the moon. That's what I meant. I'm sorry. See, this is why you're a scientist, because you actually are specific enough to say mass, because there are lots of things with great size, but not great mass. Right. You can imagine some basketball players with tremendous size, but they do not have as much mass as your perhaps smaller, more compact football player. Right. Okay. Yeah. Yes. So a small moon, like with a small size, but made up primarily of something heavy, like metals, might actually have more mass than a larger moon that's made up primarily of something heavy like metals might actually have more mass than

a larger moon that's made up of primarily something like ice or rock. Or even our own moon, which by the way is not made up of metals. That's right. It has mostly rock. Mostly rock. Cheese. And cheese. Oh, okay. I believe it's Gruyere. It's the good stuff. The distance between the moon and the earth also matters. So both mass and distance, and then position relative to the earth and where you are. All of that puts a really interesting tug on the various oceans and rivers and seas and so forth. Cool, man. Hopefully Joe Anderson's got the answer he was looking for. And listen, if he didn't get it out of that, then Joe's just being a dick.

No, I'm joking. I think we lost a listener. Maybe just one. Maybe more. No, Joe, you know we love you, and that's a great question. And by the way, that's a really great question. Look how fascinating it was. So he's a thinking man, and we like that, that's a really great question. Look how fascinating it was. So he's a thinking man, and we like that, Joe.

Did I kiss his butt enough? You did. Okay, good. All right. This is Hamed Isham from Facebook. And I only say that because he spelled it out actually phonetically. He must have known that I was going to read this. Hamed Isham says this.

What if a football player kicked a ball with a strong kick on the moon? Will it stop at a certain level, or will it continue to climb up out of the atmosphere and on forever? Signed, Hamed from Egypt. Now, the one thing I will say with that question that might be a little suspect is he says atmosphere with respect to the moon. So could that even be the case? Right. The moon does not have an atmosphere. Very occasionally, some amount of volatile material may vaporize from the surface and temporarily create a little bit of a vapor.

But it doesn't have a standing atmosphere, and that's something that's very important. So, Ahmed, the first thing that you should realize is that without an atmosphere on the moon, if you kick the ball, it won't curve. You can't make it spin in such a way that the ball will either go toward the sidelines, for example, or say, do some sort of weird thing against the wind and so on. So wait a minute. So the end over end of a football on the kickoff that we see, that flipping motion, that's caused by, we'll call it resistance that's caused by the air resistance it's originally caused by the kick okay it's caused by the kick and then after that when you have the end over end or when you have a flipping sort of turning position then the air will affect it to change either its direction or its pace or things like that. I got you. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, one of the greatest punts in the history of all-time college football was Harvard versus Yale

in 1987, and it was a 40-mile-an-hour wind going in one direction. And Yale was on fourth down, needed to punt, and they were going to wait till the third quarter ended to switch over to the fourth quarter and then they could kick with the win and the harvard coach called time out with only a few seconds left in the third quarter forcing yale to kick into the wind and the ball went like this and then like that the total net yardage because the wind just pushed it all the way back, was nine yards. Wow. A beautiful nine-yard punt, which then led to Harvard scoring the winning touchdown in the fourth quarter, and it was a glorious victory.

But nobody knows it because it's Harvard-Yale. Those guys aren't playing in the NFL anymore. Anyway, it's a great story to tell you how important atmosphere is in football. But on the moon, there is no atmosphere. So the ball can go end over end. It can spin however it wants, but it will still just go in a parabola up and down. And the primary question, which Ahmed had, you asked, would it go on forever? No, it would not. The answer is that the ball would come back down because the moon still does have surface gravity. It's only one sixth the level that of the earth. But what that means, it'll slow things down one sixth the speed. It'll take six times longer

for the ball to land than it would be on earth, which means that it should travel six times longer for the ball to land than it would be on Earth, which means that it should travel six times farther before it reaches the surface of the moon compared with being kicked on the surface of the Earth. But it will come back down again. Wow. Another comprehensive answer with the sprinkling of Harvard and Yale. But, of course, you, sir, have the Boris manners of a Yale-y. However, there wasn't.

sir have the Boris manners of a yearly. Did he not, Ryan Fitzpatrick, the former Jet and now Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback. He's really kicking. Yeah, he's rocking and rolling down there right now. Yeah, he's rocking and rolling and I believe he is a Harvard man.

Smart guy, by the way. And who else is going to Harvard? Is it who is it? Is it Urschel? Who's – John Urschel, right? Oh, John Urschel, who played on the offensive line for the Baltimore Ravens. For the Ravens. But isn't he going back – no, he's going to MIT.

I'm sorry. He's going to MIT. Either he is about to get his doctorate or is getting his doctorate at MIT in pure math. Correct. Pure math. Pretty impressive stuff. I've read a couple of his papers. He really knows what's going on.

Yeah. This isn't a hobby for him. It's not just blocking and tackling. This guy is all out on the math. Isn't it cool that these guys are dedicated to academics and academia. And yet at the same time, they're able to play professional football. What scares me? Guys who are built like tanks, who hit like tanks, are very super intelligent.

Yeah. Scary people. That is a scary thought. That's scary people. That'll hire them for think tanks, Gary. That's what you got to do. A think tank. Oh, Charles, that's fabulous.

I see what you did there, Charles. I see what you did there. Think tank. I'm in awe of that one. I got to tell you something. This is why you're an astrophysicist, sir. It's why I'm not a comedian. All right, here we go.

Another right boy, right spelt with a w just in case anyone was worrying on instagram how hard would you have to kick a football for said ball to reach orbital velocity and orbit pluto oh my god kane from kamloops british columbia um and there's a hashtag pluto is a planet so just as well neil's here. Interesting. Wow. So what is the escape velocity for a football? Well the escape velocity for any object is the same regardless of whether it's a football or a golf ball or an elephant. Okay but I haven't calculated the escape velocity of Pluto yet. That's not something that normally sits in my head. But there's a fairly well-known calculated formula for the escape velocity, which is the square root of two times the gravitational constant of the universe, g, times the mass of Pluto, divided by

the radius of Pluto. So the square root of 2gm over r, where you plug in the mass and the radius of Pluto. So the square root of 2 GM over R, where you plug in the mass and the radius of Pluto respectively, will give you the escape velocity on Pluto. All right. Now here on Earth, the escape velocity at the surface of the Earth is something like 20 something thousand miles per hour. Pluto is significantly smaller and significantly lower mass than the Earth. In fact, significantly lower mass than the moon itself, which is part of the reason why our distinguished friend Neil argues for its demotion to below planetary status. But that's a discussion for another time. Right, yes.

We don't want to be controversial. Really? Actually, yeah. It's probably less than 20,000 miles per hour, and I just don't know exactly how much it is. But it's not, say, 10 miles an hour, but it's definitely not 10,000 either. It's somewhere in between there. Okay, cool. So now, escape velocity puts you into orbit. Once you achieve that, though... Escape velocity puts you beyond orbit. Beyond orbit, I'm sorry. Orbit of velocity.

That's what I'm saying. So escape velocity puts you out of orbit and allows you to just... Now you're headed out into space. That's right. You're gone forever. Okay. So now, because space is a vacuum and you're not in, let's say you're not, and space is mostly empty, you're not, let's say you don't encounter anything. Would you just keep going at that speed forever? Yes.

Until you interact with something else. Right. And you bring up an excellent point because the question was indeed not just for Pluto to – for the football to escape Pluto's gravity but to orbit around Pluto, right? And so I'm glad you made that distinction between orbital velocity and escape velocity. It turns out orbital velocity is about 71% that of escape velocity. So it's a little bit slower, okay? But it's still a very high speed. Right. And basically the answer is no matter if it's orbital velocity or escape velocity, you have a job with any NFL team on earth.

Or pretty much any football or soccer team too, right? The thing is, once you've got a leg like that, it's controlling it. Right, I guess so, yeah. Because you'd be just kicking it through the stadium. But would you really need to control it? I mean, it's just like – That's true. You just kick the ball, right? Who needs to control because no one's going to stand in the way.

Exactly. Nobody's going to – Nobody's going to stand in the way. Exactly. Nobody's going to write your leg. Goalie is going to stop at a 15,000 mile an hour. No one's going to sit near the goal. Could you imagine if it was a soccer team? No one's, no fans are going to sit behind around the goal because all of a sudden this thing's coming at 10 plus thousand miles an hour. You know, I'm not stopping that. It's going to vaporize me. All of a sudden soccer is the coolest sport in the world to me right now. This is amazing. Uh, let me ask you this. I'm not stopping that. It's going to vaporize me. All of a sudden, soccer is the coolest sport in the world to me right now. This is amazing.

Let me ask you this. I know we're running out of time for our first segment, but this is so fascinating, man, when we do these little thought experiments. Let's say, because it's an actual football or a soccer ball, either one, and you do reach that kind of velocity, would the ball just burn up because of the friction of the air before it does anything? Would that be really what would happen? It would burn up. There would be no question about it. I just don't know how fast it would burn up. Okay. Because I'd have to make that calculation as well. It is true that the viscosity of the atmosphere will cause this thing to slow down. And as it slows, it also heats up. But I don't know if it will burst into flame in a few feet

or if it might take a few miles or some other distance. I'd have to do that calculation. That would be very- That is so cool! See, the only thing that would make that an unnecessary calculation is the fact you've put so much energy through a soccer ball or a football, it would explode. Surely. It just wouldn't be able to contain itself. And before it gets to combust, it would

just go. Right. So the typical football probably can't take more than a hundred pounds per square inch from the interior before it blows up. Right. Maybe 50 in a regulation ball is much lower than that. So if you're going to kick it, that means you have to put from the outside and you're going to compress that ball that the interior pressure will substantially exceed 100 PSI or even more, which would probably cause it to explode first. That's a score one point for Gary. But what you could do is shoot it from a rail gun, right? There we go. Oh, sure. Yeah, you could shoot it from a railgun and watch it burn up.

I just want this bad boy to burn up is all I'm saying. The problem with the railgun is that it usually requires a magnetic push. Right. And soccer balls, footballs don't have a lot of metal in them, so you can't exactly continue to accelerate them using electromagnetic force. Plus, the agent for the railgun needs to negotiate a contract. Yes.

Don't worry. I have a super lightweight magnetic thread that I've actually put through the entire football so that I can get it up to that speed and watch it burn up, baby. I totally would want to see that. Burn, baby, burn! You're such a science villain, aren't you?

You are a science villain. This is why I'm not a scientist, because the universe knew that if it gave me this type of knowledge, I would definitely use it for bad and not for good. I'm sure there are many excellent scientists who would

love to fire a soccer ball fast enough to watch it burn up in the air. That would be a true science thing to do. And you're not allowed to meet them. Right. We are going to take a break. I'm going to have to talk to Chuck during the break and kind of talk him off the ledge of badness and bring him back to the good and the light. When we come back, more sports physics one-on-one with the magnificent professor charles

lou stick around welcome back to playing with science um we've taken sport into the universe and off world as it were and uh professor charles lou has given us some most brilliant answers. We're going to kind of bring it back down to Earth if we can. We've had so many fabulous questions. And Jennifer Mirjam on Facebook, if I've pronounced that incorrectly, I apologize. How long, and this is theoretically speaking, would it take Usain Bolt to run around the Earth? Oh, what a great question. Usain Bolt, of course, the fastest sprinter in the world yep uh if you sort of pick up his top speed as he's running 100 meters is somewhere between 27 and 28 miles per hour which is ridiculously quick yeah it's just like 40 something uh

kilometers per hour uh and so that's really good. Now, the radius of the earth is just under 8000 miles, which means that its circumference at the equator is about 24,000 miles. Okay, so if he's running at that top speed, let's say 28 miles per hour, going 24,000 miles would take him a little under 1,000 hours, which I guess at 24 hours per day brings you out around several weeks. Wow. That's pretty impressive for a human being to be able to do that. Right. But remember, he can only keep up this pace for 10 seconds at a time, right? So he's going to run that fast, then he's going to walk

it off, take it easy, take a break, breathe, whatever, whatever, and then run that fast again, then breathe and take it easy. So you got to build in all that extra rest time. And then take out the terrain. So the real answer is 200 years. It could be a little while. Remember that near the equator, Mount Kilimanjaro is like more than 19,000 feet. So he's going to have to do a little bit of a altitude trek as well if he runs around there. So he's got to stay on the lowlands, you know, run through. So now what about the Flash, the real Usain Bolt? Okay. Do we know what the top speed of the Flash is? Well, it keeps changing depending on what the comic book writers decide. There was a period of

time where the Flash could literally go faster than the speed of light. I think this might be the case in certain universes right now. There was another period of time when the Flash could only run about the speed of sound, maybe a little bit faster. That was like in the 1980s or something like that.

It really depends on who you're talking about. He was lazy back in the 80s. He was a lazy dude back in the 80s. He also gained a few pounds, so that's what did it. Well, it had to do with something called Crisis on Infinite Earths, where Barry Allen, the original Flash, had to sacrifice his life to save the universe. And Wally West took over. But Wally West, in his efforts to save the universe a second time or multiple times from the anti-monitor he had to sacrifice some of his speed power and then nowadays of course there's this thing called the speed

force we're getting a little bit into the fiction and out of the cosmos but you know this is fun stuff to talk about yeah and let's let me ask you this when you said the speed of sound flash breaking the speed of sound if you were running at the speed of sound, flash breaking the speed of sound. If you were running at the speed of sound, okay, as a human being, all right, and let's just say that you have, like, I don't know, a special suit or a little force field around you, okay? And you're running at the speed of sound. Will you make, as a human being, a sonic boom? Yes, you will. On the ground as you run. That's right.

You have this thing. Yes. What you're doing, sonic boom is happening. You're creating basically a shock wave. Right. You air in front of you and you're running you're basically impressing the air so the air starts bending around you when you pop through that barrier what we call the shock front then you literally create that sonic boom in kind of a wake behind you so you zip by and there's this is again another example of why you're not allowed

to be good at science. You want to run past people you don't like and create sonic booms outside their house and break their windows. That's why I own a Harley right now. Same reason. Yeah. Kettlebells

and Quaso on Instagram. Now you know who you are are so how heavy of a kettleball can chuck swing and does he know what a kettleball is wow i don't know i don't know why he's got to diss me like that man but you know um i actually do have have an answer to both of them. One is I do know what a kettlebell is. And two, how heavy of a one can I swing? Whatever it is that will break your foot when I drop it on it. Oh!

Oh! Oh! Fuck! Yeah! That may not be the answer you wanted, but possibly the answer you deserved. Oh, that was great, man. Thank you for cheering Chuck up. Yeah, man.

That actually made my day. I'm happy. All right. Here we go. This is TonyLE738 from Instagram. He says, how does the rock and curling turn by the broom action oh great question great great question see the path that the little rock goes in curling is not a perfectly smooth sheet of ice that's right there's rough bits on the ice uh shavings almost like um

and uh smooth slushies they make it unlike a a hockey rink right they make it with so it's stippled on the top that's right and that's where those come like pills on a sweater yeah kind of yeah but they're stiff and and they're. And so over time, when the rock slides down, when it touches those things, it'll cause whatever spin you've put on the rock to either magnify or decrease. And this causes the changing of the direction. the sweepers i guess are using the broom they're getting rid of wearing down those stipples or the other non-smooth environments which allows the smoothness to take over as opposed to the curliness and the stippledness uh that's a great word by the way gary stippled that is something we should use more often in the english language. Yes. There are some great words in the English language. Right.

And so the brooms will allow the rock to go farther. Sorry, Professor, what are you giggling about? Because it's like, there's some great words in the English language. And by that, I mean the British language. Yes, it is British. And I'll see you stipple and raise you rummage. Rummage. What a wonderful word. It and raise you rummage. Rummage. What a wonderful word.

It's a fabulous word. Yes. Rummaging through my past. Stop rummaging through my past, damn it. Completely science and sport unrelated. Yeah. Sorry, Professor. Sorry, Professor.

That's okay. No, no, no. I like me a good rummage sale once in a while. Yes. So the brooms basically make it so that the rocks can go farther without curling as much because it's reduced the amount of friction between the rock and the ice. Sweet. That makes sense. When we did the show back in the winter on curling, the science on the initial viewing of curling, you're thinking,

and then you drill down deeper and you're thinking, what an awesome, awesome sport. I get it. I can see why so many people have latched onto curling and they get addicted every four years. Absolutely. I'm missing it right now. I can't tell you how many nights during the Winter Olympics I was up at 3 a.m. drunk watching curling. It was amazing. Look, there are two things about curling that are really great for me. One is the pose that the person strikes as is pushing the rock. All right.

Yep. Beautiful balletic structure. I think you should get style points for that in future Olympics. And then the second thing which I love about curling is the yelling. It's like, hard, hard, hard, hard. I mean, what other sport has that kind of verbal interjection, right? You should get style points for how well you shout at your friends as well. I like it. I like it. And I'm resisting every single inclination in my body and soul to not comment on screaming hard, hard, hard. Please continue to resist all temptation. Please.

Chuck, come on, man. All right. Professor, there are things we know we can ask for and things that we know we shouldn't ask for, and I think that was the latter, because his mind is just going to wander straight to that point. All right, here we go. This is from Chris Tukadik.

I know. This has been set up, hasn't it, for me? Really. Your timing is perfect. Yes. It might take about five minutes before Chuck stops giggling. It might not. It might even take longer. Damn, Chuck. In rugby union or rugby league, you have to pass the ball to your teammate. Stop giggling. Who is in an onside position, which is behind where the ball carrier

passes from. Is it possible for a player running at full speed to pass the ball to a teammate a metre or two behind and in line with him and the ball not go forward relative to where it was passed from? This happens all the time and sometimes it is penalised, sometimes it is not. So, Professor, moving forward while passing the ball backwards seems really quite strange and it's all the time and sometimes it is penalized sometimes it is not so so professor moving forward while passing the ball backwards seems really quite strange and it's not surprised the British invented rugby well this is a good question I don't know the exact rule Gary when is it that the person who receives the backwards pass has to be behind where the person who passed it is at the moment of reception or at the moment of departure from the tosser um i think the ball itself has to travel

backwards so you would imagine he has to be in a position behind the thrower the passer in right on catching it yeah this is where this is where something called galilean relativity comes into effect okay if you're moving at 10 miles per hour um should i switch to metric because we're talking rugby no no no the british invented yards we're quite happy okay if you're running this way at 10 miles per hour and your friend is running behind you also at 10 miles an hour, if you're traveling together, even though you are both going 10, relative to one another, you're traveling at zero. Which means if you were to pass it backwards, then he'd be right there as if you were there. When you toss the ball, the ball would have your 10 miles an hour added to its backward motion. So it would actually be still moving forward,

even though relative to the two of you, it's moving backwards. Okay. So let's say if you were moving at 10 miles per hour, but the person has to catch the ball behind the place where you passed it originally, that's back here. Then that case, you'd have to pass it harder than 10 miles an hour, maybe 11 or 12 miles an hour backwards in order for your mate to receive the ball before he reaches the place where you have just tossed it. So the answer to the question is, yes, it's complicated and you definitely have to toss it backwards. But if you don't toss it backwards far enough, let's say you're running at 10 miles per hour and you toss it backwards at eight miles per hour, the ball is still moving forward as far as the referee is concerned at two miles per hour. Right. And what will happen is that

person will end up in the place beyond whatever point and be penalized, even though the ball was actually passed backwards. That can happen. Yeah. Wow. It's a real judgment call depending on what the referee decides. I've seen enough rugby. I have not played it myself. I value my health a little bit too much. Yeah, the big guys hit hard. Let me just say that. I'm told. So I'm told. Yeah, I know. But watching it is a fascinating game, you know. Great game to watch. A lot of really interesting stuff. This next question is definitely for you. question is definitely for you um the uh the reluctant artist wants to know this from instagram please could you explain the physics behind the reverse swing of the cricket ball what

first of all what is the reverse swing of a cricket ball? Okay, I have to tell you, we're going to have to do a cricket show at some point just so that I can know what the hell it is. Because all I know is that there are big-time ads for cricket on the subway in New York City. And this may be the only city in America outside of perhaps Michigan where cricket is advertised. And what it, first of all, what is a reverse swing? Secondly, what is cricket? Professor, all yours, and I'll do my best to pick up some things. More than a sport, it is a lifestyle. It is a true way of thinking of the universe. So I respect all those who live by cricket. The reverse swing is a little bit less metaphysical than that.

I'll use a baseball analogy, right? A baseball has two seams. And so when the pitcher throws the baseball, depending on how the seams are moving when it leaves the pitcher's hand, the ball can curve as it interacts with the atmosphere. Now, the cricket ball has one seam down the middle. And when the cricket person does the equivalent of pitching the ball to what the equivalent person of the batter is, the ball bounces off the ground. And then the ball gets smacked by this wooden paddle, as you know, and heads out into the field.

Now, this ball is used over and over again. Unlike in baseball, where if the ball gets hit and goes far away and the umpire decides the ball has been deformed or been damaged by the bat, then it gets tossed out and a fresh ball is put in. That cricket ball is reused. And so some people figured out that if they could make sure that every time they pitched the cricket ball, they only got the side, one side damaged. And then the other side, they tried to keep smooth and polish it as much as possible. Then after 30 or 40 such pitches called overs, right? The ball will start looking very asymmetric. One side will be roughed up and beat up. The other side will be smooth and polished. And you've got the leather seam in the middle. That's that you just described my marriage.

Okay. Marriage or otherwise, imagine that ball. Now the person who's doing the equivalent of pitching of this ball, he can throw the ball down and make it look like it's going to bounce left. But because he uses exactly the side of the ball that is damaged, as opposed to polished to hit the ground first, instead of the ball bouncing and going left, as you might expect, it'll bounce and go to the right. That's the reverse swing. And that causes batters to get fouled up. Wow. So the thing here, Chuck, the seam that Professor Liu was talking about, you would normally place your fingers either side. So the seam is in the middle.

But now you would come over maybe like a 20-degree angle over the seam. And if you watched cricket for long enough, when they wear all white, the players will have a red scuff down one thigh. Because that's the bowler, the pitcher in this cricket. He's shining one side. And they have learnt,

and the Pakistanis, their love for cricket is every bit as strong as the Indians. And they really brought this art, and it's an art form. They brought this forward, and they've been awesome at it. And they just befuddled, another lovely word, right, for batsmen for so many years.

And now everybody is thinking how they do it because there's other things. If you've got some moisture in the atmosphere, they use everything. Plus the fact, unlike baseball, you use the ground to make things happen. Right. And if the ground is hard enough,

if it's not, if it's crap, all sorts of different things. And I agree with the professor. Cricket is such a cerebral sport. Sounds awesome. I might have to check it out. However, all this talk of cricket and the way that they damage their balls has given me a new phrase for baseball.

Baseball, watch us. Our balls are always fresh. And on that note, we'll take a break. Yes, this has been Playing With Science, and I'm not sure if we're still on the air. However, if we're still on the air when we come back after this break, it'll be great because there'll be more from Professor Charles Liu and Chuck will be on the naughty step for about the next six weeks. See you shortly. Welcome back to Playing With Science and your cosmic queries,

your inquiring minds have opened up a whole Pandora's box, all full of questions, and we have the perfect person to answer them for you. Yes, Professor Charles Liu. And we'll be looking now, Chuck, at the perfect throw. Question number one for you, sir. The perfect throw. Will J.,

which is Will in third, is actually, he's a Patreon patron, and therefore, when you support us on Patreon, we like to give you priority because you give us money. All right? Thank you. Also like my marriage.

From a physics standpoint, he says. Focus, focus. My wife is going to kill me for that one. Oh, yeah. Can we edit that, please? here we go uh he says from a physics standpoint when i go bowling which is about once a year at the most hey thanks for that little insight into your life there will jay um should i go for a lighter ball that i can throw faster or a ball with more mass that I can send down slowly will in Houston. Interesting concept. A lighter ball probably gives you the ability to throw it

harder, right? But then what are the advantages of a heavy ball? Well, the thing that you're going for is momentum, right? The momentum of the ball is the mass of the ball multiplied by its velocity. So whether it's a heavy ball moving slower or a light ball moving faster, if you have the same momentum, the ball will transfer the same amount of impulse to the pins. So what you're looking for instead, I think, is a matter of your technique. Are you going to spin it more? Are you going to try to contact as many pins as possible? Are you going to try to whack a pin particularly hard so that you can cause it to do something funny, like knock into other pins? By the way, that's called mob bowling. When you whack a pin, hey, let me tell you, I'm sorry, but we got to do this. If it's got to be done,

it's got to be done. Nothing personal. This is the business we've chosen. So it really, I have found, of course, I'm not a very good bowler, but I have found that I prefer a heavier ball, move it more slowly as possible as it heads in, right? Or to have each pin that gets hit transfer as much information sideways, the energy, so it'll knock out more pins off to the side. I find heavier balls going more slowly works better for me, but there are friends of mine who are actually really good bowlers, they are, uh, of two minds. Some of them even use a light ball in one instance and the heavy ball in another. Let's say they have a, uh, they've taken down nine, 10, nine out of 10 pins. Uh, and the first hit, uh, first ball, I don't, what do they call them? Then your second ball, maybe because they want to aim it more

accurately. They use a lighter one and they throw it hard so that the ball has less of a chance to start changing direction because of its contact with the lane. So maybe a combination is the right answer. Cool, man. Looking at it from my point of view, the heavier ball will allow me more accuracy because I'm a novice bowler. And by the sound of it, Will is a novice bowler. If I've got a lighter ball, I'm possibly going to be trying to throw that really hard. Therefore, as you touched on, Professor, you lose the control. Right. You might twist your wrist just a little bit, causing a curl in the gutter ball. Absolutely. So if you're a novice, possibly the heavier ball for me, thinking about it, would be a better solution, but I can't explain the physics like you do.

Now, see, my take on it is when I'm bowling, what I like to do is just leave the bowling alley altogether and go get drunk because I don't need bowling as an excuse to drink. Okay. All right. Moving on to our next question. Sorry. Yes, Professor. Do you exercise both your arms when you bowl, Chuck, or just one? Yes, I do bowl like a little child.

Both hands, and the ball is between my legs, and then I just push it from the line and watch it go. No, I was referring to the bowling ball in one hand and the 12-ounce weight in the other. Oh, now all you have to do is lose the bowling ball and you see what I'm doing. Awesome. It's a complex workout routine, professor. Okay. Next question. Maddy from Maddy Benj on Twitter. Why does spinning a baseball make it curve? Interesting. Just as we were talking earlier about cricket, right? The roughness of the ball or one side of the ball will cause a change in direction when it hits the ground. The same is true with the laces on a baseball. Depending on how it spins, it actually affects the airflow around it.

And at first, it doesn't do anything. But after some certain distance that it travels, enough turbulence builds up from the interaction with the laces to cause that ball to change direction. So we're talking about late breaks on the breaking ball, or an early break on a breaking ball, or slide or a slider or a sinking fastball, that movement depends very much on which direction the laces are spinning, whether it's going this way or that way, or whether it's kind of slowly ambling or going very fast. Let's see what Grace22Burrows... We just answered that question.

Yes, we did. Yes, Grace22Burrows... Hopefully, Grace22Burrows, you've got your answer in the previous question. So, and just in case you want to hear your question read on the air, here's what your question was, Grace. How do the stitches on a baseball affect the speed at which it travels? And, yeah, it's the same question, but phrased rather differently. It affects the speed because it slows it down. Right. It slows it down ever so slightly,

and it's the rotation of the ball that causes it to break. There you go. All right. All right. So panda, 61, 24, panda. It's like this real dumb panda. It's like panda. Or it could be a Russianussian panda ah panda ah as in an affirmative yes uh panda says is there a way to consistently ensure a perfect throw with a frisbee ultimate frisbee ultimate is great for people like me

who don't have a whole lot of arm strength and just love to watch something go a long distance in the air leaving my hand right um the best way to ensure a perfect throw in frisbee is to do it indoors because you don't have any wind right so? So you have to be in some sort of indoor stadium and toss it. But I think what we're asking here are the mechanics of it. You want to release the Frisbee when the Frisbee is going to go straight. If you let the curve too much and you have the angle to the Frisbee that's not parallel to the ground, you will wind up with a much more curling kind of throw. So the perfect throw every time is pretty much make sure that you're leading forward and you let the frisbee go in the direction you're looking and that when you release, it is in the

direction that you're looking as opposed to going that away or that away. But would it make any difference if it were backhand or forehand? Ah, no, it doesn't make any difference direction that you're looking as opposed to going that away or that away. But would it make any difference if it were backhand or forehand? Ah, no, it doesn't make any difference. If you're doing forehand, you want to also make sure that you're releasing it in the direction you're looking. But forehand is a harder throw than the backhand because naturally speaking, the back throw is you're more able most of the time not to involve the twisting motion of the wrist and just the snapping motion of the wrist. When you're throwing this way with your forward hand,

then you've got lots more motion this way because your hand naturally has more degrees of freedom going forward. But the true experts, of course, they can control that very easily. And I was going to say, when you throw forehand, what you're really doing is showing off. Have you ever seen overhand throw? No, I cannot throw forehand. How about overhand throw?

You guys know about overhand throws? An overhand throw on Frisbee? The Frisbee, yes. I've seen that when you're watching Ultimate. These are amazing people. You hold it vertically. Vertically. The Frisbee travels vertically in the air.

And it's just amazing how they can do this. I've not been able to perfect that move. That's taking showing off to a new level. That's really obnoxious. That's amazing. If you're throwing a Frisbee vertically and it just stays in a vertical position, that's obnoxious. You're really just showing off man like yeah that's that's you just saying to the whole world like i am not mortal you know that's that's all right that's cool all right let us move on and um can we take it back

to space for a second professor we can let's take it back to space for a second, Professor? We can. Let's take it back to space for a second. And this is Fazala Fahad on Facebook wants to know this. How can we play football on Mars? And I'm going to say the answer is $8 billion. No, I'm joking. How do you play football on Mars or how could you?

And what would the difference be? Well, assuming that the football players would like to breathe, you probably need to make a domed stadium. Right. Sweet. You'd have some atmosphere in there. And that would allow you to do all the things you would ordinarily do on Earth with a football because you have the air at the pressure that's required for things to move.

The difference is the surface gravity on Mars is lighter. So someone who kicks the ball upward, as we were talking about, is very similar to kicking a football on the moon. You kick the football on Mars, it will stay up a little bit longer, and then it will fall down low. So all the passes will be longer, all the things will move a little bit faster. Could the players jump higher? Players will be able to jump higher as well, yes. All right.

So it'll be an interesting game. Yeah, it will be. It sounds like a fun game. It'll be a very interesting game. I would enjoy watching a football match on Mars, but it's going to be a while. Right. Do we have one more question?

Oh, here we are. Mm-hmm. Pauling Travis, Instagram, all yours, sir. Yeah, Pauling Travis says, not going to read my ish anyway unless I'm Patreon, dadgum sellouts. JK, you're awesome. There you go, man.

You said it wouldn't happen, but it did. Okay? You said it wouldn't happen. And by the way, let's not create the moral hazard by thinking that you can get your question read by insulting us or saying that we won't read it. Then again, who am I kidding? It'll work every time. I'm glad you understood that because that went straight over my head. Oh me 38 000 feet so here's the thing clearly uh um uh pauline travis is a um star talk fan and on star talk we do patreon questions and if you support us on patreon we

give your question priority and so therefore i always read Patreon questions first. And so he's basically saying, you're not going to read it because I'm not a Patreon. To which I say, just support us on Patreon, man. It's not that deep. Give us some money. What's the problem? It's okay. You can be nice. There you go. Right. That's our show, Chuck. That is a Chuck Lu, man. You are the best. Isn't he? You are the best. Yeah. It is my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. Seriously, it's our pleasure and our listeners' pleasure, Professor.

It has been so good to have you on board and just for you to unlock so many of the secrets involving our listeners' questions. Brilliant. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. Yeah, this was a lot of fun, man. Been to school again. Yep, been to school again. Sat in the front row of the class. There you go. Ring the very welcome. Yeah, this was a lot of fun, man. Been to school again. Yep, been to school again. Sat in the front row of the class.

There you go. Ring the kettlebell. School's out. That's it. That's Playing with Science and your cosmic queries. Please keep your minds inquiring and keep those questions coming in. It's been a pleasure. I've been Gary O'Reilly.

And I've been Chuck Nice. This has been Playing with Science. We look forward to your company soon. And goodbye from Professor Charles Liu.