"...for cripesake, it's just a game...ball!"
 

NASA Ames Research and Tsukuba University does the aerodynamics research for the Addidas 'Brazuca' the official 2014 FIFA World Cup football. The last 2010 WC ball, 'Jabulani', was very unpredictable as it knuckles in it's flight towards the goal. Some players, goalies especially hated the ball. At faster WC kicking speeds, the smooth surfaces combined with deep asymmetrical seams caused the ball to suddenly swerve. The new ball was designed to bring back that predictable control. They made it with less panels but with shallower seams. It has six symmetrical panels with a dot-textured surface. That critical rough surface creates a thin boundary layer that smooths out its flight and was stable in their trajectories. Sounds very familiar...golf dimples...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH7cbLfxmbM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdKvtyaqO9A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKKxIMVFiVg

I'd like to see green florescent smoke applied to this:

http://i.imgur.com/VIfyCX3.jpg

Less drag than a smooth surface?

Don't know about Kansas. Here's how they do it in Indiana:

http://d6673sr63mbv7.cloudfront.net/...862d2f10ba.jpghttp://www.kokomotribune.com/archive/x2002150228

Don't they have something better to do?

You didn't know that chasing after balls is the very meaning of existence?!?

Oh, really? :D

The World Cup is big business. An unpredictable ball can spell disaster for the sport.

And bad feedback from the best players in the world can spell disaster for the ball maker... which is why Adidas is trying their darnedest not to muck it up again.

Only if you're a Border Collie - and then, you've got the problem of training your human to come get the ball and throw it again. "Bring the ball back? What's this 'back' thing?"

hail 'stone'
 

Can you imagine the updraft velocity necessary to keep that aloft long enough to build up to that mass! :eek:

turbulators
 

In college,I worked for Jimmy Vickers,of Vickers Aviation,west of the airport.Jimmy had a Link Trainer and did instrument training,as well as vintage aircraft restoration.
The 1st time I saw his house,I noticed 2X4s,evenly-spaced, attached to the roofing.This is Lubbock,Texas.
Jimmy said that they were turbulators,to discourage straight-line winds from lifting the asphalt shingles when storm fronts blew in.
Later,I noticed mobile homes with their roofs festooned with old tires which performed the same function.
I've seen geodesic doppler radar enclosures,I suspect that the beautiful dome would hold up well in rough weather.:thumbup: