Title pretty much sums it up.
It would look more like a curved slice of orange or something - a quasi-triangular cross-section.
No, the intersection of two spheres would look like a convex lens - circular from one direction, and 2D football shaped from any direction at right angles to the first. Add another sphere and it could be various shapes, but 3D football shaped is not one of them.
They do…4 Converging Spheres…
https://www.google.com/search?q=football&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=R3W&tbo=d&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=mWWkUMXuKYz29gS_rYHIBw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAA&biw=1366&bih=641&sei=nGWkUI3XM4mw8ASh64CACg
I wonder if it can be made in Bubble Magic form though?
Jamicat - Thanks, the laces gave me the aha moment. Each quadrant is a slice of a larger sphere.
What? No they aren’t! The radii of curvature are very different in the two directions. In the short direction, you have a 90 degree arc, and in the long direction, the arc is less than 90 degrees*, so the radius of curvature in the long direction is much larger than the radius of curvature in the short direction.
If you could use ellipsoids, instead of spheres, you could probably get a passable football shape from four sections.
- ETA: Looking again, the angle is actually pretty close to 90 degrees. But the distance is still longer, so my argument is correct.
No, I don’t think even that is true.
Iy can if you use a lot more than two of them.
Well, on this side of the Atlantic you only need one 3D sphere to make a perfectly good football.
ZenBeam - “What? No they aren’t! The radii of curvature are very different in the two directions.”
Ah yes, you’re right. Oh well, so much for that idea.
Soccer balls, like footballs, are made from flat sections that curve somewhat under pressure. All the soccer balls I’ve seen use polyhedral shape consisting of hexagons and pentagons (I forget the name they use for this in geodesic domes). The football is made from shapes that can be described as intersections of plains with… what?..maybe a sphere…not sure, my spatial-fu is weak at the moment.
They used to be (a spherical truncated icosahedron, to be precise), but nowadays they are mostly much more spherical, using moulded panels (e.g. the 2010 World Cup ball.
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The Premier League still uses a ball with the traditional pattern, although it looks rather wonky in the pic on this page.