US20070004542A1

US20070004542A1 - Soccer ball

Info

Publication number: US20070004542A1
Application number: US11/171,312
Authority: US
Inventors: Tae Park
Original assignee: NS Sports Co Ltd
Current assignee: NS Sports Co Ltd
Priority date: 2005-07-01
Filing date: 2005-07-01
Publication date: 2007-01-04

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a soccer ball, which is made by sewing 12 pentagon panels and 20 hexagon panels, and more particularly, the soccer ball utilizes regular pentagon panels and equiangular hexagon panels, both of which have the same area. By doing so, when being inflated, the regular pentagon panels and the equiangular hexagon panels can protrude evenly. The soccer ball of the present invention has the advantages in that the problems of irregular bounce and deteriorated speed and revolution properties are solved and so the ball can be used for adult or official games, the air resistance and the friction are much reduced, and so the revolution speed becomes increased and the abrasion of the ball is reduced.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ball used for ball games, especially for soccer, and more particularly, to a soccer ball which is made by sewing 12 pentagon panels and 20 hexagon panels.
2. Background of the Related Art
A conventional soccer ball comprises a spherical outer cover formed by stitching the borders of 12 regular pentagon panels and 20 regular hexagon panels, and a spherical elastic tube, which is housed inside the outer cover to provide the ball with elasticity, the elastic tube being spherically inflated by injecting air therein.
In the outer cover of such a conventional soccer ball that is formed by connecting, using such as sewing, etc., the respective borders of the regular pentagon panels and regular hexagon panels, one regular pentagon panel is connected with five regular hexagon panels, while one regular hexagon panel is connected with three regular pentagon panels and three other regular hexagon panels.
Like this, since the conventional soccer ball is formed by connecting together the borders of the regular pentagons and hexagons, as is shown FIG. 1 to FIG. 2 b, one length of the border lines of the regular pentagon panels must be the same as that of the regular hexagon panels.
In this case, referring to a diagram below, the area, S, of the regular pentagon panel is calculated as follows.
First, the area, S1, of the upper triangle component of the regular pentagon is calculated by the following equations.
h=a·sin 36
i=a·cos 36
S1=2i×h×l/2=0.476a ²
In addition, the area, S2, of the lower trapezoid component of the regular pentagon is calculated by the following equations.
H′=a·cos 18
S2=(a+2i)/2×h′=1.245a ²
Therefore, the area of the regular pentagon panel,
S=S1+S2=0.476a ²+1.245a ²≈1.72a ².
Next, referring to a diagram below, the area, T, of the regular hexagon panel is calculated as follows.
Since one area, T′, of the same six regular triangles is calculated by
h=a·cos 30
T′=a×a·cos 30×½=0.433a ²
Therefore, the area of the regular hexagon panels
T=6×0.433a ²≈2.66a ².
From the foregoing, in the conventional soccer ball in which the lengths of the borders of the regular pentagon panels and those of the regular hexagon panels are the same, since S(1.72a²)<T(2.66a²), the area of the regular hexagon panel is definitely larger than that of the regular pentagon panel.
Thus, if the air is injected into the ball having different panel areas, the regular pentagon panels protrude more than the regular hexagon panels do.
Accordingly, strictly speaking, the present soccer ball is a convex polyhedron of which the regular pentagon panels protrude against the regular hexagon panels. So, the difference of the extent of protrusion between the regular pentagons and hexagons causes to irregular bounces and has a bad influence on the ball speed and revolution.
In fact, the efforts to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional soccer balls can be found in the previously filed patent/utility model applications. For example, Korean utility model laying-open No. 2000-15222 discloses a soccer ball which uses 12 regular pentagon panels the same as the prior art, but 30 regular hexagon panels rather than 20 panels. Therefore, the soccer ball uses the total of 42 regular pentagon and hexagon panels to form a real sphere, thereby reducing the air resistance, and so enhancing the speed, directability, and accuracy in rolling.
In addition, Korean utility model registration No. 171508 discloses a trial for forming a soccer ball by utilizing only 12 regular pentagon panels which is largely cut out, instead of both the regular pentagon panels and the regular hexagon panels, thereby minimizing man power required to sewing the panels, and so, increasing a productivity.
However, although such prior arts in the patent/utility model applications have partially solved the problems of the conventional soccer balls, they still have the problems or create new problems instead. For example, since the Korean utility model laying-open No. 2000-15222 uses 10 more regular hexagon panels, the difference of the extent of protrusion between the regular pentagons and hexagons has been lessened. However, since the length of the borders of the regular pentagon panels and regular hexagon panels are still the same, and so the area of the regular hexagon panel is larger than that of the regular pentagon panel, the regular pentagon panels protrudes more than the regular hexagon panels do, and accordingly the irregular bounce is occurred and the speed and revolution properties are deteriorated. In addition, the Korean utility model registration No. 171508, using only the 12 regular pentagon panels, has only the advantage of minimizing man power and enhancing productivity. Since the area of the respective panels is too large, when injecting the air in it, it is difficult to form a real spherical shape, and further, portions except the stitched lines are likely to protrude too much. Therefore, it cannot be implemented for soccer balls for adult use or official games.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop a novel soccer ball that solves the problems of irregular bounce and deteriorated speed and revolution properties, and so can be used for adult or official games, by allowing the regular pentagon panels and hexagon panels to equally protrude when injecting the air in the ball.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the foregoing problems occurring in the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a soccer ball which equalizes the extent of the panel protrusion to overcome the problems of the conventional soccer ball, and hence the present invention has the advantages in that the problems of irregular bounce and deteriorated speed and revolution properties are solved and so the ball can be used for adult or official games; the air resistance and the friction are much reduced; and so the revolution speed becomes increased and the abrasion of the ball is reduced.
To accomplish the above object, there is provided a soccer ball which is characterized in that the outer cover comprises regular pentagon panels as in the conventional soccer ball, and equiangular hexagon panels, each of which is constituted by three longer sides which have the same length and three shorter sides which also have the same length, the longer sides and the shorter sides being alternately connected with one another, and the confronting sides among the longer sides and the shorter sides being disposed in parallel with one another; and in that the ratio of the longer side “a” to the shorter side “b” of the equiangular hexagon panel is set to 1:0.64(b=0.64a), such that the areas of the regular pentagon panels and the areas of the hexagon panels can be the same as one another.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 shows a conventional soccer ball,
FIG. 2 a shows a regular pentagon panel used in the conventional soccer ball,
FIG. 2 b shows a regular hexagon panel used in the conventional soccer ball,
FIG. 3 shows an equiangular hexagon panel used in a soccer ball of the present invention, and
FIG. 4 shows a soccer ball of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
The present invention relates to a soccer ball, which is made by sewing 12 pentagon panels and 20 hexagon panels. More particularly, the soccer ball utilizes regular pentagon panels and equiangular hexagon panels, both of which have the same area. By doing so, when being inflated, the regular pentagon panels and the equiangular hexagon panels can protrude evenly.
The present invention, to equalize the protruding extents of the respective panels, provides the method to equalize the areas of pentagon panels and hexagon panels. This is described in detail, with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 3 is a plan view of an equiangular hexagon panels used in a soccer ball of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a front view of the soccer ball.
In the present invention, like in the conventional soccer ball, regular pentagon panels are used as a pentagon panel. However, as a hexagon panel, equiangular hexagon panels are used instead of the conventional regular hexagon panels. The equiangular hexagon panel, as shown in FIG. 2, is constituted by three longer sides which have the same length and three shorter sides which also have the same length, at which case the longer sides and the shorter sides are alternately connected with one another, and the confronting sides among the longer sides and the shorter sides are disposed in parallel with one another.
The area, L, of such a hexagon panel is calculated as follows, with reference to a diagram below.
The above diagram is rearranged by laterally extending the longer sides of the hexagon panel according to the present invention. Here, both of a larger triangle, containing the hexagon panel therein, and a smaller triangle, whose one side is the shorter side of the hexagon panel, form regular triangles. The area of the larger triangle, M, is calculated as follows. Since the length of one side of the larger triangle is a+2b, the area M is calculated by:
l=(a+2b)·cos 30
M=(a+2b)×l×½=(a+2b)×(a+2b)·cos 30×½=0.433(a+2b)².
The area of the smaller triangle, N, is calculated as follows. Since the length of one side of the smaller triangle is b, the area N is calculated by:
l′=b·cos 30
N=b×l′×½=b×b·cos 30×½=0.433b ².
Since the total area of the hexagon panel, L, is obtained by subtracting the areas of the three smaller triangles from that of the larger triangle,
L=M−3N=0.433(a+2b)²−(3×0.433b ²)=0.433(a ²+4ab+b ²).
Since the subject matter of the present invention is to equalize the areas of pentagon panels and hexagon panels, the area of the hexagon panel, L, can be calculated by calculating the area of the regular pentagon panel, S, earlier introduced in Background of the Related Art.
L=S
0.433(a ²⁺⁴ ab+b ²)=1.72a ²
0.25(a ²⁺⁴ ab+b ²)≈a ²
0.25a ² +ab+0.25b ² =a ²
0.25b ² +ab−0.75a ²=0
0.25(b ²+4ab−3a ²)=0
0.25(b−0.64a)(b+4.64a)≈0
b=0.64a or b=−4.64a.
Since the “a” and “b,” which represent the length of one side of a polygon, cannot be a negative number, the relation between the length of the sides, a and b, of the hexagon panel is b=0.64a.
That is, in the present invention which utilizes regular pentagon panels and equiangular hexagon panels, each of which is constituted by three longer sides which have the same length and three shorter sides which also have the same length, the longer sides and the shorter sides being alternately connected with one another, and the confronting sides being disposed in parallel with one another, if the ratio of the longer side to the shorter side of the equiangular hexagon panel is set to 1:0.64(b=0.64a), the soccer ball, in which the areas of the regular pentagon panels and the areas of the equiangular hexagon panels are the same, can be constituted.
Meanwhile, in the outer cover of the soccer ball according to the present invention, as in the conventional soccer ball, one regular pentagon panel is connected with five equiangular hexagon panels, while one equiangular hexagon panel is connected with three regular pentagon panels and three other equiangular hexagon panels, herein the respective sides of the regular pentagon panel being connected with the longer sides of the equiangular hexagon panels.
Like the above, since the areas of the regular pentagon panels and the hexagon panels are the same in the present invention, the regular pentagon panels and the equiangular hexagon panels can protrude evenly when the ball is inflated by air injection. Hence, while the ball is flying in the air, the air resistance and the friction become much reduced, thereby much increasing the flying speed of the ball. In addition, since the revolution speed is also increased, the curving angle of the ball can be augmented even in the short distance.
The increase in speed and revolution force can lead the game progression to be faster, and the probability of the success of middle- or long-distance shoot to be higher.
In addition, since the extent of pentagon and hexagon panels' touching the ground becomes the identical, abrasion of the ball will be reduced.
As set forth above, the present invention provides a soccer ball which is characterized in that the outer cover comprises regular pentagon panels, as in the conventional soccer ball, and equiangular hexagon panels, each of which is constituted by three longer sides which have the same length and three shorter sides which also have the same length, the longer sides and the shorter sides being alternately connected with one another, and the confronting sides among the longer sides and the shorter sides being disposed in parallel with one another; and in that the ratio of the longer side to the shorter side of the equiangular hexagon panel is set to 1:0.64(b=0.64a), such that the areas of the regular pentagon panels and the areas of the hexagon panels can be the same as one another.
By equalizing the extent of the panel protrusion in order to overcome the problems of the conventional soccer ball, the present invention has the advantages that the problems of irregular bounce and deteriorated speed and revolution properties are solved and so the ball can be used for adult or official games, the air resistance and the friction are much reduced, and so the revolution speed becomes increased and the abrasion of the ball is reduced.
While the present invention has been described with reference to the particular illustrative embodiment, it is not to be restricted by the embodiment but only by the appended claims. It is to be appreciated that those skilled in the art can change or modify the embodiment without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

Claims

1. A soccer ball comprising:

a spherical outer cover formed by sewing the respective borders of 12 pentagon panels and 20 hexagon panels, one pentagon panel being connected with five hexagon panels, while one hexagon panel being connected with three pentagon panels and three other hexagon panels, and

a spherical elastic tube, which is housed inside the outer cover to provide the ball with elasticity, the elastic tube being spherically inflated by injecting air therein,

wherein the pentagon panel is formed in a regular pentagonal shape, and the area of the hexagon panel is the same as that of the pentagon panel.

2. The soccer ball of claim 1, wherein the hexagon panel is an equiangular hexagon which is constituted by three longer sides which have the same length and three shorter sides which also have the same length, the longer sides and the shorter sides being alternately connected with one another, and the confronting sides among the longer and shorter sides being disposed in parallel with one another,

wherein the ratio of the longer sides “a” connected with sides of the regular pentagon panels to the shorter sides “b” not connected with the sides of the regular pentagon panels is 1:0.64(b=0.64a).