Professor teaches football’s physics

Eric Woodyard
Western Herald

Apparently the game of football is as close to physics as meatballs are to spaghetti.

On Oct. 22, University of Nebraska-Lincoln physics professor Timothy Gay proved this theory. Gay revealed the science behind the game in his lecture at Western Michigan University, titled “Football Physics.”

Gay’s teachings have been revealed on various national news outlets, including NFL Films, as well as ABC News, The New York Times and ESPN. Gay has also released a book on the science behind the game, called “Football Physics.” The book was showcased in the NBC’s reality show “Tommy Lee goes to College,” starring rock star Tommy Lee.

Despite all of his success, he still enjoys the pleasure of being able to incorporate his passion of the game of football with his love for physics.

“I’m somewhat unusual in that I was convinced that I wanted to be a physicist, and I could tell you what physics was in third grade,” Gay said. “It’s changed my life in that it’s given me focus. I cannot believe that the tax payers in the state of Nebraska pay me money to have fun all of the time.”

If teaching physics is fun to Gay, then he had a blast while presenting his lecture at Rood Hall. Not only did he teach the audience physics, he also implemented a few experiments to prove that football is just one huge platform for physics. Gay executed various football related experiments that involved showing how helmets work, and revealed why footballs are in the shape that they are crafted.

He also broke a few football myths.

“It is a myth that artificial turf is faster than natural grass. That is true, but it does not make the players any faster. They cancel out with the defense because they are faster as well,” Gay said. “It is also a myth that human air shortens out a football range; that is false.”

Gay also gave specific examples, citing National Football League athletes such as New York jets quarterback Brett Favre, as well as retired players Doug Flutie, Warren Sapp and several other players to show how much force and speed that the NFL athletes apply with their various movements during games.

“When a player like [St. Louis Rams wide receiver] Dante Hall makes a hard cut, about 800 pounds of force shoot through his ankle and planted foot,” Gay said. “If the same force were applied continuously to a one ton sports car, it would go from zero to 60 miles per hour in just 6.3 seconds.”

During his speech, it was apparent why his lessons have been shown across the country, including on the giant screens at Nebraska Cornhuskers home football games.

When Gay started mixing the game of football into his teaching, he would have never guessed that he would have such a big impact to the public.

However, Gay does find it fascinating that he’s gotten so much attention for the concept.

“I can’t take credit for this idea,” he said. “What I’ve learned is that the news media is hungry for something new and interesting to show and this has qualified as the interesting thing.”

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Oct 27 2008. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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