September 25, 2018 9:17 pm

Wednesday, Chuck, Gary, and Charles Liu Answer Burning Questions from Our Sports and Science-Crazed Listeners

On this week’s episode of Playing with Science, we’re taking a page out of the StarTalk Podcast Network’s playbook. Our steadfast hosts, Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly sit down with astrophysicist Charles Liu to answer fan-submitted Cosmic Queries covering all areas of the sporting world. 

If you’ve had burning questions about playing football on the Moon to Usain Bolt running around the Earth, this episode is for you. As we’ve seen in previous Playing with Science episodes, Charles Liu can pretty much handle any sports science we throw his way and on this episode, he’s in top form.

We discuss the Moon’s impact on surfers around the globe and what would happen if we had a double-moon system. Charles tells us why the size of the moon is not the only parameter that matters when it comes to the Moon’s tug on the Earth. You’ll find out what would happen if someone kicked a football on the surface of the Moon. Would it leave the Moon and travel in space forever? Or, would it come back down? You’ll also find out how important the atmosphere is in football and Charles gives us a history lesson on one of the most famous punts in college football.

We ponder how long it would take Usain Bolt to run around the entire Earth. Explore the escape velocity needed to kick a ball off of the surface of Pluto and the orbital velocity needed to orbit Pluto. We also discuss what would happen if a player was able to kick a ball as hard as it takes to reach escape velocity on Earth. Let’s just say no one would be trying to stand in the way.

We take a look at why a curling rock curls and Charles gives us his two favorite reasons he likes to watch curling. Then, we explore the complicated physics involved in making a legal backwards throw in rugby. Chuck gets a lesson in the game of cricket and Charles breaks down the “reverse swing.” Find out why spinning makes a baseball curve, and whether using a heavy ball or a lighter ball in bowling can give you the best results. All that, plus, Charles gives us the secrets to throwing the perfect Frisbee and we prepare to play football on Mars.

Please join us tomorrow night for Cosmic Queries: Sports Physics Trivia, with Charles Liu right here on our website, as well as on our Playing with Science channels on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you’re an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Ian Mullen