Early soccer balls began as animal bladders that would easily fall apart if kicked too much. As time went on soccer balls developed to what they look like today. This was possible with the help of people like Charles Goodyear, who introduced rubber and his discoveries of vulcanization to the design of soccer balls. Today, soccer balls continue to be modified by scientist for the best performance possible.
History edit
Soccer balls have gone through a dramatic change over time. During medieval times balls were normally made from an outer shell of leather filled with cork shavings.[1] Another method of creating a ball was using animal bladders for the inside of the ball making it inflatable. However,these two styles of creating soccer balls made it easy for the ball to puncture and were inadequate for kicking. It was not until the 19th century that soccer balls developed into what we believe a soccer ball looks like today.
Vulcanization edit
In 1838, Charles Goodyear introduced the use of rubber and his discoveries of vulcanization, which dramatically improved the soccer ball. [2] Vulcanization is the treatment of rubber to give it certain qualities, for example strength, elasticity, and resistance to solvents. Vulcanization of rubber also helps the soccer ball resist moderate heat and cold. "The chemical process involves the formation of cross-linkages between the polymer chains of the rubber’s molecules." [3]Vulcanization helped create inflatable bladders that pressurize the outer panel arrangement of the soccer ball. Charles Goodyear's innovation increased the bounce ability of the ball and made it easier to kick. Most of the balls of this time had tanned leather with eighteen sections stitched together. These were arranged in six panels of three strips each.[4]
Reasons to improve soccer ball edit
During the 1900’s soccer balls were made out of rubber and leather which was perfect for bouncing and king the ball, however when heading, hitting the ball with the player's head, the soccer ball it was usually painful. This problem was most likely because of the water absorption of the leather if it rained during the game, causing head injury. Another problem that the early soccer balls had was that they deteriorated too soon. Because of the leather quality the soccer balls varied in thickness and in quality sometimes worsening during the soccer match.[4]
Ball Construction edit
Today’s soccer balls are a little more complex than past soccer balls. Modern soccer balls consist of twelve regular pentagonal and twenty regular hexagons, positioned in a condensed icosahedrons spherical geometry.[1] The inside of the soccer ball is made up of a latex bladder which enables the soccer ball to be pressurized. The ball’s panel pairs are stitched along the edge; this procedure can either be stitched manually or with a machine.[2]
Present Developments of Soccer Ball edit
Elements of the soccer ball that today are tested are the deformation of the soccer ball when it is kicked or when the ball hits a surface. Two styles of soccer balls have been tested by the Sports Technology Research Group of Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering in Loughborough University; these two models are called the Basic FE model and the Developed FE model of the soccer ball. The basic model considered the ball as being a spherical shell with isotropic material properties. The developed model also utilized isotropic material properties but included an additional stiffer stitching seam region. The result was that the Developed FE model resisted deformation more than the Basic FE model ensuring that the soccer ball will continue to develop even in the present.
References edit
- ^ a b Price, D. S., d.s.price@lboro.ac.uk Jones, R.Harland, A. R. 2006. Computational modeling of manually stitched soccer balls. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers -- Part L - Journal of Materials: Design & Applications. Vol. 220 Issue 4, p259-268.
- ^ a b Materials Science and Engineering: A Volume 420, Issues 1-2, 25 March 2006, Pages 100-108
- ^ The History of the Soccer Ball. www.soccerballworld.com/Historypg2.htm. Date retrieved: October 12, 2008
- ^ a b Viscoelasticity of multi-layer textile reinforced polymer composites used in soccer balls. Journal of Materials Science. Volume 43, Number 8 / April, 2008. 2833-2843.