Kind: captions
Language: en
[Applause]
recently some friends of mine went to
the Gordon dam in Tasmania which is a
hundred and twenty six and a half meters
or 415 feet high then they dropped a
basketball over the edge
you can see that the basketball gets
pushed around a bit by the breeze but it
lands basically right below where it was
dropped now watch what happens when they
drop another basketball but this time
with a bit of backspin this is Brett I
literally just dropped it with a bit of
spin like I didn't even throw and I just
took off I have no idea that was gonna
do that and this is where I come in the
basketball was subject to the Magnus
effect which affects all rotating balls
or cylinders as they fly through the air
and it works like this as the basketball
picks up speed air on the front side of
the ball is going in the same direction
as its spin and therefore it gets
dragged along with the ball and
deflected back air on the other side is
moving opposite to the ball spin so the
flow separates from the ball instead of
getting deflected the net result is the
ball pushes air one way so the air
applies an equal force on the ball the
other way and this is known as the
Magnus effect named after Heinrich
Gustav Magnus who described it in 1852
of course Isaac Newton beat him to it by
nearly 200 years describing the flight
of tennis balls at Cambridge College but
you know he's got enough stuff named
after him this effect is very important
in sports like tennis soccer and golf
but could it have non-sport applications
perhaps this is a sailboat I know it
doesn't look like a sailboat but those
aren't chimneys they are spinning
cylinders called flettner rotors and
they take the place of the sails they
deflect crosswinds using the Magnus
effect to propel the ship forwards and
this is a plane with spinning cylinders
instead of wings using the Magnus effect
the cylinders actually generate more
lift than traditional wings however they
also generate way more drag making them
practical this plane only flew once and
then it crashed
but the Magnus effect is making a
comeback here is an experimental rotor
wing aircraft which generates all its
lift from spinning cylinders and this is
the e ship one which uses for spinning
cylinders that's for flattener rotors to
increase its efficiency and reduce the
amount of diesel it burns so in the
future the Magnus effect may help more
than just basketballs fly now the real
reason my friends from how ridiculous
were at the dam was to set the world
record for the highest basket ever
scored so go check out their channel and
the video and subscribe to them for more
epic trick shots
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