A video of a basketball ball being thrown from the 415-foot high Gordon Dam in Tazmania is going viral — and the reason is much more exciting than you might think.
At first, the man simply tosses the basketball ball straight down. As expected, it lands right below where he throws it. The second time, however, he throws the ball with a back spin. The way it lands is pretty incredible and almost unbelievable. Just watch for yourself at the :22 mark!
The reason? It's something called the Magnus effect named after scientist Heinrich Gustav Magnus, who spoke about it in 1852. They say tennis players use the Magnus effect in their game — Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic surely have mastered the technique!
The notion is perfectly explained in the video below.
"As the basketball picks up speed, air on the front side of the ball is going in the same direction as its spin, and therefore it gets dragged along with the ball and deflected back," the voiceover says. "Air on the other side is moving opposite to the ball's spin so the flow separates from the ball instead of getting deflected. The net result is the ball pushes air one way so the air applies in equal force on the ball the other way."
Watch below and please SHARE if you are fascinated by this!
