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Mathematicians Solve the Topological Mystery Behind the "Brazuca" Soccer Ball

Posted by timothy on from the nature-is-scrambling-to-keep-up dept.

KentuckyFC (1144503) writes "In the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, teams used a new kind of ball called the Telstar made from 12 black pentagonal panels and 20 white hexagonal panels. This ball has icosahedral symmetry and its own molecular analogue in the form of C60, the famous soccer ball-shaped fullerene. In 2006, a new ball called the TeamGeist was introduced at the World Cup in Germany. This was made of 14 curved panels that together gave it tetrahedral symmetry. This also had a molecular analogue with tetrahedral symmetry among the fullerenes. Now teams at the current World Cup in Brazil are playing with yet another design: the Brazuca, a ball constructed from six panels each with a four-leaf clover shape that knit together like a jigsaw to form a sphere. This has octahedral symmetry. But here's question that has been puzzling chemists, topologists and..errr...soccer fans: is there a molecular analogue of the Brazuca? Or put another way, can fullerenes have octahedral symmetry? Now a pair of mathematicians have finally solved this problem. They've shown that fullerenes can indeed have octahedral symmetry just like the Brazuca, although in addition to hexagonal and pentagonal carbon rings, the ball-shaped molecules must also have rings of 4 and 8 carbon atoms. The next stage is to actually synthesis one of these fullerenes, perhaps something to keep chemists occupied until the 2018 World Cup in Russia."

5 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. And another question by Z00L00K · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Which ball is the best for the players?

    Personally I prefer the Telstar.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  2. why new balls by ILongForDarkness · · Score: 4, Interesting

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...

    It looks like every world cup but perhaps a couple has had a different stitch pattern on the ball. Is there really that much need for innovation? I think it might be cool to have a "better ball" but doesn't the sport at some point lose something from the equipment changing so frequently? Comparing stats when the balls have different characteristics like how smoothly they'll roll, air resistance etc must be the explanation for soccer riots.

    1. Re:why new balls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Comparing stats when the balls have different characteristics like how smoothly they'll roll, air resistance etc must be the explanation for soccer riots.

      No, the lack of any sort of concept of what's really important and what isn't causes ALL sports related riots.

      Seems most of the point of team sports is for the mediocre to identify with something bigger and more glorious than their own lives and then to cling to that constructed image fiercely, as though the effort they expend in doing so is proof of its reality. Hence they say "WE won" when they themselves were not out on that field because it has become an extension of their ego. Fighting and rioting over it also provides the assumption that something important must be going on. Something worth fighting and rioting over. It's false of course. It appeals to people who have no concept of the profound, the sacred, or the meaningful.

    2. Re:why new balls by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      >Hence they say "WE won" when they themselves were not out on that field

      I agree with most of your post, but when I made that claim to a friend who's into sports, he pointed out that the fans are financing the whole thing.

  3. Is it too much to ask... by hendrips · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In an article about a breakthrough in molecular topology, I'm currently seeing, while browsing at 2,

    -7 comments about the relative merits of the soccer balls that inspired this discovery,
    -6 comments condemning sports fans in general and soccer ball buyers in particular,
    -4 comments whining about the fact that the U.S. doesn't have the same regional dialect as the commenter,
    -1 terrible almost-pun,
    -1 comment that is completely incoherent and incomprehensible,
    -1 complaint about religion,

    and a grand total of 1 comment about molecular topology. Is is too much to ask that we could have some comments from posters who are interested in, you know, math and science? Here I was getting ready to dredge up all that symmetry and topology that got drilled in to me in grad school. Oh well.