# Is professor Neil Degrasse Tyson ignorant of Newton's laws? (motion of a football) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 29, 2025, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-professor-neil-degrasse-tyson-ignorant-of-newtons-laws-motion-of-a-football/1023477 "2025-09-29T11:45:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-professor-neil-degrasse-tyson-ignorant-of-newtons-laws-motion-of-a-football/1023477/41 "2025-09-30T09:53:50Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > But a ball bouncing off the goal post means any small impact is _not_ negligible. The Coriolis effect is negligible in this situation in the sense that you would have a very hard time seeing any difference in results for a kicker who adjusts his aim to account for the Coriolis effect. For a real kicker who aims for the center between the uprights, the actual path of the ball deviates randomly from his aim point by some angle. That deviation angle likely has a [normal distribution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution) with a mean value of zero, and a standard deviation large enough so that he misses the uprights maybe once every game or two. Now imagine he shifts his aim point by a quarter-inch (at the plane of the uprights) to one side to account for the Coriolis effect. Let’s suppose it’s a shift (a hop?) to the left. Statistically, more of his right-deviated kicks will then result in a score, and more of his left-deviated kicks will result in a miss - and, statistically, the difference between those two changes will mean his performance improves. But my guess is you’d have to have hundreds (possibly thousands) of attempts before you’d expect to see a difference of even one more successful kick. A big part of the problem has to do with expecting that a kicker even _can_ adjust his aim carefully enough to account for the Coriolis effect. A standard extra-point kick has the kicker kicking about a 100 feet from the uprights. To offset the path of the ball by a 1/4” at the uprights, we’re asking the kicker to adjust his aim by 0.011 degrees. There’s far more variation in all of the other factors affecting the launch direction of the ball: where the holder plants the ball, how he holds it, how the kicker plants his feet as he runs toward the ball, and finally, how he actually kicks the ball. 0.011 degrees is noise on the noise. You may argue that for a particular kick that barely went in, the Coriolis effect mattered. But for a kick where a 1/4” mattered, it would have to be one where the ball hit one upright, traveled _almost_ parallel to the crossbar, and then bounced off the other upright and just _barely_ went in. ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-professor-neil-degrasse-tyson-ignorant-of-newtons-laws-motion-of-a-football/1023477/42 "2025-09-30T12:14:46Z")
Some of you ding-dongs just can’t enjoy a good bit of hyperbole, can you? Jesus H., pretty soon you’re going to beat the living shit out of Caesar’s Last Breath. Just try to relax. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-professor-neil-degrasse-tyson-ignorant-of-newtons-laws-motion-of-a-football/1023477/43 "2025-09-30T13:27:20Z")
I know of somebody who _must_ be taking the Coriolis effect into account (or, alternatively has powers over it) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/O77vzeFrbjo/maxresdefault.jpg "Messi's Magic at the 2015 Copa del Rey Final | ESPN FC Sport Science") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O77vzeFrbjo&t=102) ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-professor-neil-degrasse-tyson-ignorant-of-newtons-laws-motion-of-a-football/1023477/44 "2025-09-30T13:31:20Z")
What makes that really impressive is a guy from the southern hemisphere adjusting to the northern hemisphere like that. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-professor-neil-degrasse-tyson-ignorant-of-newtons-laws-motion-of-a-football/1023477/45 "2025-09-30T16:00:09Z")
> [@sunacres](#): > > Some of you ding-dongs just can’t enjoy a good bit of hyperbole, can you? Jesus H., pretty soon you’re going to beat the living shit out of Caesar’s Last Breath. “But––and I am only saying this because I care––there are a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market today that are just as tasty as the real thing.” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-professor-neil-degrasse-tyson-ignorant-of-newtons-laws-motion-of-a-football/1023477/46 "2025-09-30T18:47:53Z")
**Moderator Note** > [@sunacres](#): > > Some of you ding-dongs Do not insult other users outside of the Pit. > [@sunacres](#): > > Jesus H., pretty soon you’re going to beat the living shit out of Caesar’s Last Breath. Just try to relax. This is FQ. Focus on the facts of the topic and leave the other types of commentary for more appropriate forums. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-professor-neil-degrasse-tyson-ignorant-of-newtons-laws-motion-of-a-football/1023477/47 "2025-09-30T18:50:16Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > … > Regarding the kicker intuitively adjusting, seems unlikely to me – wouldn’t the amount of offset depend on the latitude, and the direction of the kick? It’s not all all kicks are due east or due north or something. 'Zactly. If a kicker was going to (try to) adjust for the tiny Coriolis factor, they’d need to know the latitude of the field and the orientation of the long axis of the field. The higher the latitude and the more due north / south the field, the greater the effect. But it’s still tiny. Even assuming perfect precision in kicking, somebody who flubbed that calc and aimed e.g. 3mm left when the correct correction was 6mm left would in fact be reducing his success rate. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-professor-neil-degrasse-tyson-ignorant-of-newtons-laws-motion-of-a-football/1023477/48 "2025-09-30T18:55:53Z")
It’s of course impractical, but it’d be a neat thought experiment to come up with reasonable estimates for _all_ the sources of imprecision in a field goal attempt. Then rank order them by magnitude. E.g. - How precise is the spot of the ball left/right & fore/aft? - How precise is the position of the holder and the snap of the ball? - How precise is the vertical angle the holder holds the ball (left/right and fore/aft)? - How precise is the orientation of the ball = where the laces are aimed when the foot makes contact? - How perfectly made is the ball itself and how much dirt or fingerprints are anywhere on it? - How precise are the uprights and crossbar versus the standard? - What is the exact wind field over the entirety of the ball’s flight? Etc., etc., etc., for about 50 more factors. ---
**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-professor-neil-degrasse-tyson-ignorant-of-newtons-laws-motion-of-a-football/1023477/49 "2025-09-30T23:24:31Z")
Well. There goes my theory that Chronos is Neil Degrasse Tyson. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-professor-neil-degrasse-tyson-ignorant-of-newtons-laws-motion-of-a-football/1023477.md?page=2)