Sunday, October 9, 2016

A FOOTBALL REALLY RISING ON ITS TIPPITY-TOES?!

Welcome back, Tom Brady.  You're the man!

In the New England Patriots v. Cleveland Browns football game today I saw Rob Gronkowski  spin  the  football  so that it stood upright.  Do you know what that's called?  It's spinning around its axis of rotation.  

We all learn in school that the earth spins, or rotates, on its imaginary axis.  It's the same with the football. Everything that turns has an axis of rotation.  

Well, as you know, because of the shape of a football, it normally lies the long way.  
It lies in a horizontal plane
like this:         __

When Mr. Gronkowski made the ball spin, we saw the ball move from that horizontal plane,  
up through a diagonal plane,
like this:              / 

rising to an upright position in the vertical plane, 
like this:                                 !