Momentum in a Soccer Game

Soccer! The most popular sport in the world. The first law of motion is called the Law of Inertia. It states that “any object at rest, will tend to stay at rest, and any object in motion, will tend to stay in motion unless acted on by an unbalanced force.” This unbalanced force could be: gravity, wind, or any moving object. In soccer however, this unbalance force is usually the soccer player’s foot. He or she will use muscle in the body to create a force to move the leg and kick the ball. Because the ball is at rest, it will continue to stay at rest. But once kicked, it will keep moving in a straight line without any intent of stopping. The reason the ball will stop is because of friction and Earth’s gravitational pull.Newton’s second law states that “The change in velocity (acceleration) with which an object moves is directly proportional to the magnitude of the force applied to the object and inversely proportional to the mass of the object.” This can be explained by the equation F=ma. The acceleration of the ball (a) is determined by the force applied (F) divided by the mass of the object that is being moved (m). This simply means that if the ball has a lot of mass, it will require more force to accelerate. If the ball has little mass, it will require little force. In soccer, it is important to know this law because if you want the ball to be moving fast, you must apply more force. If you want the ball to move just a little bit, then just apply less force. Newton’s final law of motion states that “for every action, there is and equal and opposite reaction.” This literally means that if you kick the soccer ball, it will kick back at you just as hard. You usually don’t realize this because your leg doesn’t seem to move, but this is because your leg has more mass, meaning it has more inertia, which is the resistance to move.When a soccer players kicks a ball, he transfers his momentum to the ball. Momentum is the velocity of object times its mass. Also when players pass the ball to each other, they use their feet to slow the momentum of the ball by moving with the ball and resisting it slowly. This way, they can have more control over the ball. It's a simple trick.Momentum applies to soccer when you kick the soccer ball down the field so it speeds up and goes faster.