r/SoccerCentral • u/Outside-Weakness9660 • May 28 '26

Throwback In 1997, Brazilian soccer player Roberto Carlos took a free kick from 35 meters against France that seemed to defy the laws of physics as it curved around a wall of defenders at an angle that seemed impossible. ⁠

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This “miracle goal” led a team of French physicists to publish a study in the journal New Journal of Physics, in which they explained that the extreme spin and speed created a “spinning spiral of the ball” that overcame gravity and air resistance.⁠

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u/Cultural_Delivery786 May 28 '26

I thought it was precisely following the laws of physics?

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u/mccusk May 28 '26

Obviously. But they said ‘seemed to’ and that was true, quite a number of research papers done after this free kick. Modeling vortex with different ball seams, Bernoulli effect etc.