A friend (not Andy) was telling me about this (NRL) Footy Show segment. In it El Masri (who has recently announced his retirement, probably because of this GAGR Exposé [he’s a time traveller]) kicks a regulation (NRL, coke zero) ball inflated with helium over soccer goals from a supposed 100 metres distance. Of course i did not believe him because i have seen it busted twice on mythbusters (once with a throwing machine and then revisited with a kicking [punting] machine).
But then I started searching online video thinking it was a footy show joke where he’d kick it to Reg Regan who’d carry it the rest of the way and dunk it over the crossbar at the other end and then start jerking off. And my friend was having a laugh getting me revved up about a joke.Having found the video there seems to be no joke, they all seem to be legitimate? Check it out:
Looking at the video made me question whether this was actually possible, could mythbusters be wrong and the footyshow be right?
It made me look up wikipedia for some ball dimentions and subsequetly crush some numbers mathematically.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_(ball)
A rugby ball weighs about 400 grams (makes it a bit easier, could be more or less apparently)
Figure the total volume is max 3 liters I cant imagine drilling a hole in one and filling it up with more than 3 litres of water. (the more volume the more effect, if any, helium will have)
The density of air is 1.2 g/L at STP (standard conditions for temperature and [atmospheric] pressure)
The density of helium is about 0.18 g/L at STP.
Ball is inflated to 10 PSI (pounds per sqaure inch, according to wikipedia) or 68.75 kPa. Which is almost an extra 1 ATM, taking our atmosphere and the extra in the ball to almost 2 ATM (atmopsheric pressure).
Thus making the mass of air an air filled rugby ball is about 1.2 x 2 x 3 = 7.2 grams
and the mass of helium in a helium filled rugby ball about 0.18 x 2 x 3 = 1.08 grams
making total mass rugby ball plus air is about 407g.
and total mass rugby ball plus helium is about 401g.
So according to my calcs the difference is 6 grams…
probably the same amount of difference with a wet and dry ball. (thats why the hookers dry it first…)
Mythbusters came to the same conclusion as I about it being lighter but they also pointed out that due to it being slightly lighter it was more suceptable to wind resistance and their results actually showed the heluim filled ball travelling less distance. They said the initial velocity on the ball was the same with the kicking and throwing machines they used and the helium ball lost the momentum faster.
I’m still open with this debate It wouldn’t suprise me if the helium filled ball did go further, but not as much as hazem and the footy show made out.
Also the Wiki Football (ball) page also got me thinking if the rugby (union) balls are slightly heavier that might be why all our drop outs aren’t pathetic and go more than 30 metres. It doesn’t explain why the leagies only get 10 metres on a penalty kick to touch though (seems like a waste to me).
Is there anything i’ve missed?
What are your thoughts?
ps. Gagger, its still deleating any embedding html i add from youtube.
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Yeah shit I mean I really didn’t believe it could and don’t see how it would…i mean a light ball wouldn’t cut through the air with as much power for example, or so I’d think…the video looks kinda legit…but also, it looks like a bit of a joke, hazem and voss going about the whole thing with that air of a wink and a smile…I’d have to surely not but then i would stand corrected
That doubled the amount of time I have ever watched the Footy Show, and I want my minute back.
Excellent number crunching, though, B.
Dont get to excited guys the ball has been rotoscoped out. No more than 1 days work in the edit room.
can you eleborate please? and explain rotoscoping?
It’s basically superimposing. I.E. There’s no ball, it has been added digitally.
.-= Sagerian´s last blog ..Tech stuff: Digital Education Revolution and my Media Centre PC =-.
Mazza’s kicking is seriusly sick with that heeleum ball.
Youse yawnion losers are just jealous.
I think weeze established its been faked.
You wanna see real long kicks see some high altitude south african yawnion, real balls real 70+ metre kicks.
Mazza is good though over 85% success rate for an entire career! pity the blues dont want him for origin, its like having beckham on a football team, never know when he’s gonna win you the match, need him there so he has a shot.
Thank you dwane for disproving all those stereotypes about Rugby League and it’s supporters. Youse is done good.
I think the footy show has indulged in a little electrickery. They must have got someone interested in other sports to help, that’s the only explanation.
But if the density of air is 1.2 g/L at STP, and the density of helium is 0.18 g/L at STP, and the ball is inflated to 10 PSI or 68.75 kPa, doesn’t that make the rational coefficient (which has an approximate value of 3.14), and the net aerodynamic drag (taking into consideration Newton’s second law of motion which states that a force on a moving object is equal to the mass of the object times the acceleration of the object), means that the ball falls short of the crossbar in a kick of that distance? Notwithstanding that the acceleration due to gravity is equal to 32.174 feet per second at sea level.
And I thought league was a simple game played by simple people?
Sorry mate, i dunno what you’re getting at. I only studied projectile motion in yr 11 and 12.
And what i learned from that was.
Newtonian physics takes into account angle, initial velocity and gravity, which is 9.8 metres per scond per second.
Newtonian physics doesn’t take into account wind resistance.
All i’m saying is that its not like the ball floats and travels further, helium only makes it a small amount lighter and hence hinders its distance in this circumstance.
Without wind resistance helium would work and the ball could travel as fast as it was first hit, fired, (lighter would mean it could have a slightly faster initial velocity cos it makes your foot relativly heavier) and keep going until gravity brought it to the ground.
The lighter something is for the same shape and volume the more quickly wind resistance will slow it…
And i think we’re both right cos its been faked as dwane has pointed out.
in simple terms, think about throwing a balloon versus a netball. similar shape/size but the weight of the netball gives it more momentum to combat air resistance….. i think
yes, but on a rediculous scale, obviously there is a happy medium with size and weight when talking about launching it with human power. ie shotput (high weight) harder than a tennis ball (light weight), tennis ball harder than a cricket ball (medium weight)
yeah, that was perhaps a bit exaggerated…
your example makes more practical sense.
The comments on the YT page are classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb2BZwO0n70
From the good ole boys from downtown Bankstown. It’s all mungospeak Sage – I think I need an interpreter? Hey, I was just looking at your own website, you’re some serious techno geek?
Well the comment that made me laugh was the “omg how could it be faked, it’s f**kin helium lol”
Ehehe dunno how serious techno geek, but I certainly like using technology to make my life easy/continue my totally lazy way of life. :)
P.S. Thinking about making my own video in this style. Basically all you do is film a close up with the ball on the tee, then cut to a wide shot where there is no ball (the ball can be added digitally or filmed seperately on bluescreen). Go through the motion of kicking, the camera will pan as if to follow the ball and you’re done.
Where should I kick? I’m personally thinking from the opera house to the harbour bridge. Cop that “magic”
.-= Sagerian´s last blog ..Tech stuff: Digital Education Revolution and my Media Centre PC =-.
You’re a legend. Why don’t you do that and superimpose Tuckey/Bouncer taking the kick and then send it to Gagger to see if he’ll post it?
You never know. I might just inflate the ball with “bullshit juice” and send it in to the footy show.
inflate it with semen and send it to the sharkies!
tucky launching a 100 meter droppie? i might not need a faked video to believe that.
shoot out between he and francie steyn? i think the drop goal king takes it. he’s had all this injury time off to practice anyways.