No 11 July 18 2002 - Communications - University of Canterbury

Mech Engineering puts rugby balls through their paces
With the international
rugby season upon us,
rugby becomes a serious
occupation for some –
including those in the
Mechanical Engineering
Department.
TV3 contracted the department
to conduct a number of trials on
the two brands of rugby ball
available, Adidas and Gilbert. A
documentary on the balls was
aired on TV3 last Friday night
(July 12), the night before the
Tri-Nations Bledisloe Cup game
against Australia at Jade Stadium.
“There has been a lot of
controversy over the balls,”
Graeme Harris, Mechanical
Engineering aeronautics
technical officer, said. “Some say
the Adidas ball doesn’t fly as well
in the air, so when kicked it could
be less accurate. As the All
Blacks are used to the Adidas
ball, it may give them an
advantage over visiting teams.
We wanted to see if the balls
were in fact different and if the
hearsay was true.”
Dr Dave Aitchison, a lecturer in
sports engineering, has also been
involved in the testing and
analysis programming.
The work of one of the 20th
century’s greatest philosophers,
Sir Karl Popper, was celebrated
in Christchurch last weekend,
100 years since his birth in
Austria.
Karl Popper lectured at what was
then Canterbury University College
from 1937 to 1945 and during this
period wrote what is arguably his
most influential work, The Open
Society and Its Enemies.
It is widely acknowledged that the
ideas contained in Open Society
provided the philosophical basis
that successfully challenged
communism and led to the eventual
democratisation of Eastern and
Central Europe.
Popper came to Canterbury in 1937
with his wife Hennie and engaged
in a huge range of teaching and
exposition, fundamentally changing
the University’s thinking on
research and the nature of
University of Canterbury Chronicle
During an investigation which
lasted more than three weeks,
the balls were tested and
measured according to the
international rugby ball
standards for more than 15
variables, including mass,
dimensions, inertia, stability,
aerodynamic ability and weight.
But Mr Harris said more could
be done. “There is enough work
to do a PhD thesis on the subject
if someone wanted to - it is a
complex topic.”
The Mechanical Engineering
Department was chosen to
complete the testing because it
specialised technical equipment
enables the balls to be measured
under stringent conditions. Of
the technical equipment, the
computer co-ordinate measuring
machine measured the
dimensions of the balls down to
microns. Testing has also been
carried out in the department’s
wind tunnel. The ball is passed
into the tunnel and the flight path
and the air flow around the ball is
recorded on video and analysed.
“The testing isn’t to determine
which ball is better. It was to see
if there were differences in the
two models of rugby ball. It was
academic work. He also climbed
Mount Cook. Sir Karl died in 1994.
The University of Canterbury’s
Popper Centenary Conference last
weekend at Chateau on the Park
attracted leading Popper experts
from New Zealand and around the
world. These included Dr Alan
Ryan, Master of New College Oxford
and author of books on political
philosophy and the philosophy of
social science, and Dr Anthony
O’Hear from the University of
Bradford, the Director of the Royal
Institute of Philosophy and author
and editor of books on Popper.
Topics covered included “Science
and Democracy”, “Popper and
Analytical Philosophy”, “Popper’s
Utopia” and “Towards an Open
Knowledge Society”.
The conference was organised by
staff from the Philosophy and
Religious Studies, and Political
Science, departments.
The computer co-ordinate measuring machine shows the Gilbert ball is shorter
than the Adidas one.
Wind blowing (from left to right) in the wind tunnel leaves patterns on the
Gilbert ball (left) and the Adidas ball, which are recorded for later analysis.
interesting to see that both balls
had significant differences. The
dimensions were slightly
different – one ball was 20g
heavier than the other and one
Christchurch hosts conference on leading 20 th Century philosopher
ball is bigger, one was shorter –
overall they were significantly
different,” Mr Harris said.
Jane Lucas
Reminiscing about Popper are, from left, Professor Peter Munz, a Canterbury
University College student in the 1940s, Popper book author and Visiting Erskine
Fellow Professor Anthony O’Hear, and Jeremy Shearmur, a student of, and
assistant to, Popper while he was at Canterbury.
Photos by Graeme Harris, Mech Eng. Dept.
Photo by Duncan Shaw-Brown, C&D