WIP video with Tom Brady — Kindly Requesting Feedback!
Added 2025-05-24 09:44:58 +0000 UTCComing soon: a video about the mystery of how an American football flies. It seems like a simple question—but the real answer wasn’t uncovered until just five years ago. We’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions as we wrap up this video.
Still in progress:
Animations are a work in progress
Placeholders are used for Derek talking to the camera.
Thank you so much for your time and help!
-Team Ve
Comments
In terms of laces we originally had a section talking about the Magnus effect, but found the effect was relatively small compared to the aerodynamic effects we described in this video. But we will be talking about it in the follow-up video where we dive deep into surface effects so stay tuned! - Henry, writer for this video.
Veritasium
2025-05-27 09:21:08 +0000 UTCI've wondered about this issue for a long time. Not as it relates to a football, but how it relates to an artillery shell, which has a much greater mass and reaches into a less dense atmosphere. The Missouri could fire a 2700-pound shell 24 miles. The apogee would be approximately 38,000 feet. The RPM of the shell would be roughly 16,000. That's a lot of mass to alter the 45-degree up angle to a 45-degree down angle. I wonder if the principle is as effective as a football.
Michael Holm
2025-05-27 02:25:57 +0000 UTCHe looks and sounds like a buff Joe Hanson
SkaveRat
2025-05-25 03:00:43 +0000 UTCLove this so much - Tom Brady fan here! Does it matter that there are threads lacing the ball together - like on a baseball that contributes to a magnus force? This reminded me (for some reason) of Feynman's spinning plate in the Cornell cafeteria (see Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman for his story). Would love a detailed analysis of Feynman's plate like this video gives for Brady's football throws!!! I will definitely be sharing this video with students when it comes out. Your videos are so varied and so invaluable.
meg noah
2025-05-24 22:32:10 +0000 UTCOutstanding, and I am not a football fan. At about the 20:00 point the scene is an all-white football in the wind tunnel showing the deviation of angle as the spin and wind affect it. Please superimpose a line over the axis of spin to show the deviation angle as it increases. I can see it, but I did back it up to watch again so that I could see clearly from before to after the change in angle.
Charles S. Cook
2025-05-24 15:17:23 +0000 UTCFini!
Terry Bollinger
2025-05-24 11:19:06 +0000 UTC28:25 - Wow, great cliff hanger! No Brady fan is going to miss seeing him toss weird footballs! Well done.
Terry Bollinger
2025-05-24 11:18:58 +0000 UTC25:12 - Saying the ideal spin is much slower than Brady's is going to confuse folks. You need clarification as to why this statement doesn't matter for Brady.
Terry Bollinger
2025-05-24 11:15:40 +0000 UTC27:54 - The level of science-style parameter observation and optimization Brady described here is astonishing and likely something that even avid football fans don't realize. He is more of a scientist than he gives himself credit for.
Terry Bollinger
2025-05-24 11:10:22 +0000 UTC18:50 - "Brett Favre coin phrase". The preceding gyro wheel, animation, and explanation are all superb and beautifully unexpected. A quick crediting of how passers figured out the need for this wobble intuitively might be nice and would play well.
Terry Bollinger
2025-05-24 11:03:02 +0000 UTC15:42 "max of 49 mph for the day" conflicts with earlier "60 mph" for high passes that day. Max for straight passes, perhaps?
Terry Bollinger
2025-05-24 10:54:22 +0000 UTC15:00 - breaking the plexiglass - Brady fans will love that!
Terry Bollinger
2025-05-24 10:50:06 +0000 UTC13:25 - Amusingly smooth and deeply integrated ad setup. Well done.
Terry Bollinger
2025-05-24 10:46:58 +0000 UTC12:40 - Sudden switch to mph! You need both speeds stated here, "97 kph, which is 60 mph", e.g.
Terry Bollinger
2025-05-24 10:45:14 +0000 UTCWow… this one is going to take off like a rocket, and also break into knew viewer markets. Good show! 11:25 - You say "wind tunnel” for later in the video, but then go immediately to field throws. ”First in the field, then in a wind tunnel,” would be smoother. 11:50 - This is American football aimed heavily at an American audience. You need to be clear the moment you mention ”the gun” that it reads in ”heretical” (for American fans :) kph units.
Terry Bollinger
2025-05-24 10:40:36 +0000 UTCWas this just to wind up Brady Haran? ;P
Stepwolf
2025-05-24 09:56:14 +0000 UTC
