The Perfect Goal Kicking Angle - Numberphile

Comments · 361

• NU

  @numberphile · 3 years ago · pinned

  Patrons can &quot;enjoy&quot; more footage of Ben and Brady kicking (and missing) rugby goals - <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/80100608">https://www.patreon.com/posts/80100608</a>

  64

• OM

  @omarvelazquez1632 · 3 years ago

  &quot;Maths is the art of reasoning from bad drawings&quot; - Numberphile, you have a new T-shirt

  189

• HE

  @Henrix1998 · 3 years ago

  Surely someone has a database of kicks and it probably lines up quite well with this result

  330

• TI

  @timseguine2 · 3 years ago

  As sure as the sun rises in the East, Ben Sparks will have brought a GeoGebra file.

  23

• BR

  @bryn.1tbs · 3 years ago

  I love Ben&apos;s presentation skills. He makes it easy to understand. <br><br>That&apos;s why he&apos;s one of my favorites.

  170

• IA

  @iansimcox · 3 years ago

  The 30 degree launch angle is interesting information too. It means if you wanted to practice launch you put the ball on the 5m line and aim to hit the crossbar

  46

• JI

  @Jivvi · 3 years ago

  Fun fact: a try in rugby was originally called a touchdown, and &quot;try&quot; referred to the subsequent attempt at goal. Originally the scoring was very different, and most of points came from the kick. This changed over the years, and when the touchdown eventually became more valuable than the kick, it started being called a try.<br>American football never changed those terms (an extra point attempt is still officially called a try), but they did remove the requirement to actually touch the ball down.

  4

• RF

  @RFC-3514 · 3 years ago (edited)

  Another factor is that, even for a professional player, shooting <i>harder</i> (meaning the ball goes further) often implies a loss in <i>accuracy</i> (on top of the reduction of the target&apos;s angular size). So, even if they could still clear the crossbar, they might lose so much control over direction and bend that they&apos;d miss the posts. But, of course, to model that you&apos;d need data from specific players.

  81

• JO

  @johnchessant3012 · 3 years ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHdYv62F5fs&amp;t=508">8:28</a> I love that he organized the presentation so that the listener delivers the key insight.

  30

• JU

  @JustinoElArtista · 3 years ago

  This is one of the beautiful things about sports. &nbsp;Athletes aren&apos;t necessarily doing equations in their heads, but they definitely are using their kinesthetic intelligence to understand and solve these angles. &nbsp;The best athletes aren&apos;t just the strongest or the fastest, but also mathematicians. &nbsp;Proper mathematicians, on the other hand, can give language to the rule of thumb athletes use so that those without great kinesthetic intelligence can understand what&apos;s going on.

  3

• FA

  @fatmn · 3 years ago

  The fact that you showed a rare Justin Tucker missed kick during your American Football clip segment makes me VERY happy as a Steelers fan 😄

  8

• RU

  @Rubrickety · 3 years ago

  Of course, if it’s Rugby Union, now you’re getting into set theory.

  7