With Norway advancing (yay!!) I’ve decided to dedicate a post to the Magnus Effect, which plays a central role in affecting the trajectory of a ball.

Whenever you kick a soccer ball, it spins; when a spinning object moves through a fluid (liquid or gas), its path can become deflected due to an additional force exerted on the spinning object. This force stems from the object’s rotation; as it rotates, a pressure difference is created due to the drag encountered by the object as it spins in the medium. This pressure difference creates the force that deflects the object as it travels through the medium.