Backspin Basketball Flies Off Dam

Veritasium3 HN recommenders · 2015–2021
61.1M views · demo · evergreen · Uploaded 2015-07-15

A short Veritasium video showing how far a backspinning basketball would travel dropped off a dam. It demonstrates the Magnus effect and links to Flettner rotor ships and aircraft.

HN uses it as a quick, clear demonstration of the Magnus effect behind spinning-cylinder ships and planes.

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5 comments from Hacker News

@tfigment2015 · in “What is the most ridiculous aircraft design?”

My favorite is the Flettner aeroplane since it uses the Magnus effect [1][2] as it generates lift without a wing. Screenshot linked in the original post [3]. [1] [LINK] [2] [VIDEO] [3] [LINK]

@sndean2016 · in “Bouncing bomb”

There's a decent video by Veritasium about the Magnus Effect, where the bomb is essentially given lift by its backspin: [VIDEO]

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@cgag2018 · in “Wind-powered ships are making a comeback”

This is the video they reference at the end that elaborates and shows off the use in ships, as well as some planes that have spinning cylinders instead of wings: [VIDEO]

@pqdbr2020 · in “Rotating Sails Help to Revive Wind-Powered Shipping”

There's a great Veritasium video explaining the Magnus effect and the Flettner rotor here: [VIDEO] The Norsepower company (which installs Flettner rotors on ships) also has a short video explaining the effect here [LINK]

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@krisoft2021 · in “How to design a sailing ship for the 21st century?”

I'm not an expert on it really. They rotate the giant cylinder and the wind is blowing by. The rotation forms a low pressure zone one side of the cylinder which acts as a lift force perpendicular both to the rotational axis of the cylinder and the wind. It's the same effect which "turns" a soccer ball if you kick it with a spin. There is a really nice demonstration of the effect in this video: [VIDEO] This wikipedia page has a way better summary than my attempt above: [LINK]

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