The sense I get from various web pages is that some felt it was too easy to kick a seam and get unpredictable behavior from the ball. It's not clear how the new design (as well described on the first page of the site below) avoids this. (Six propeller-shaped panels each with 4-fold chiral symmetry, fitting together like the faces of a cube.) I think the improvement isn't just in the geometry of the panels, but also in the way the seams are sealed, making the seams a smaller fraction of the total surface area. --Dan On Jun 13, 2014, at 12:11 AM, Stuart Anderson <stuart.errol.anderson@gmail.com> wrote:
Not being a big soccer fan, not across the latest on the design, authorised use and reasons for the shape and construction of soccer balls. Looking at the opening game I noticed the truncated icosahedron ball is no longer in use. I found this article which compares the properties of different shaped balls http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140529/srep05068/full/srep05068.html Does anyone know why the truncated icosahedron is no longer used in the World Cup?
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