CRI听力:Scientist Marvels at Chinese-made New World Cup Ball

It's been described as "horrible" by England's David James, "rotten" by Spain's Iker Casillas, and in danger of "ruining the world cup," according to Italy's Gianluigi Buffon. The world's top goalkeepers were all referring to the new ball specifically designed for the world cup by Adidas and manufactured in China. CRI's Dominic Swire spoke to one scientist that has studied the new ball in detail and brings us this report.

REPORT



Unless you've been living on the Moon for the past few months you will be aware that the World Cup is about to start. You may also know that this year players will be kicking around a newly designed football employing cutting edge technology called 'grip n groove' introduced by German sports firm Adidas.

Derek Leinweber from Australia's Adelaide University led a team examining the new ball and agrees that this design is unlike anything ever seen before.

"The ball this time, for the very first time, has what Adidas is calling a micro texture on it, and that's going to have an impact on the way that the air flows around the ball. This texture, which you can feel with hands… it makes the ball rough and when the air hits ball it will get tripped into a turbulent airflow. "

In layman's terms this means this means the ball will travel longer, and faster than most goalkeepers will be used to. And because of its unique shape, it is also likely to bend more, too.

"It bends very, very nicely. Goalkeepers have been expressing some concern and it's true. We've been doing some numerical simulations. With an understanding of the aerodynamic properties we can then do computer simulations to see how ball is going to fly in air and compare it to conventional soccer balls. We predicting that if you take Beckham's free kick back from 2001 against Greece you would easily be looking at something like 1 metre more bend."

Leinweber says the science behind this new design is so precise that an imperfection of just on millimeter on the ball's surface could ruin the effect. Therefore the ball, which was manufactured in China, had to be put together with extreme precision.

"it is beautifully manufactured. The panels fit together incredibly well… that level of precision is really amazing."

Whether a fan of the new design or not, it looks like the new football is likely to help make this world cup one of the most exciting ever.

For CRI, I'm Dominic Swire.