Today's edition
From Roberto Carlos in Lyon to a still afternoon on a parks pitch, the curving free kick is governed by the same equations that lift an aircraft wing. A close look at the science of a swerving ball.
Conceived in Belfast, resisted in London, and now the most pressure-charged twelve yards in European sport. How a procedural law became a cultural ritual.
From Rinus Michels at Ajax to the contemporary Iberian and German schools, the 4-3-3 is more than a formation. It is a method of organising space.
From Roberto Carlos in Lyon to a still afternoon on a parks pitch, the curving free kick is governed by the same equations that lift an aircraft wing. A close look at the science of a swerving ball.
Conceived in Belfast, resisted in London, and now the most pressure-charged twelve yards in European sport. How a procedural law became a cultural ritual.
From Rinus Michels at Ajax to the contemporary Iberian and German schools, the 4-3-3 is more than a formation. It is a method of organising space.
On a flat table with consistent cushions, the path of the cue ball after a rail contact is one of the cleanest illustrations of mechanical physics in any indoor sport.
An hour, alone, against the clock — and against the air. The discipline that bred the modern aerodynamic revolution in road cycling.
Physics of Play
From Roberto Carlos in Lyon to a still afternoon on a parks pitch, the curving free kick is governed by the same equations that lift an aircraft wing. A close look at the science of a swerving ball.
Read the analysisThe curve of a free kick is not magic, and it is not exclusively skill. It is the visible signature of a turbulent boundary layer doing exactly what a Reynolds number predicts it will do.Dr Rabi Mehta, former chief, NASA Ames experimental aerodynamics
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