Rationale-Why we chose to do this project 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.

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-> 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. Step 4. We recorded our results on a grid. STEP 5. We made a multiple bar chart of the results of all the measurements on Excel.

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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:- 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.

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Joe Oscar Max Jimmy Thomas

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:

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!!

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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. .

We observed the mini sports balls and realised that Newton’s 2nd law was true-the 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..

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” Isaac Newton