The physics of that ‘kickalicious’ kick
Hi- I'm the author of the piece (on twitter at @aatishb) and am happy to field questions on the post. Do people accept that the video isn't faked? The data isn't perfect, but it was good enough to convince me that the video is real.<p>Here's a follow up question, that I haven't thought much about. Assume that Rugland launches the first ball at 64 degrees and at 14.4 m/s (about 32 mph). 1.5 seconds later, and 1.5 meters ahead, he kicks the second ball. (So far these are the numbers I get from the data). My question is, given the size of a football, how accurate does he need to be in the launch speed and angle of the second ball, in order to be able to strike the first ball?<p>You might need to assume a reasonable range for the launch speed to work this out.