This is the Gordon Dam in Tasmania, an island off the coast of south Australia (y’know, where the devil comes from). It’s a whopping 415 ft in height. So what happens when you drop a basketball off the top of it? As you do.
Well, it depends on how you drop it. If you drop it straight out of your hands then it will behave exactly how you’d expect it to. It will fall pretty much vertically. However, if you spin it just a little as you drop it, something incredible happens. It amazingly curves a long distance away from the dam.
This is down to what’s known as the Magnus Effect, named after Heinrich Gustav Magnus who investigated the phenomenon. I’ll leave the video to describe precisely how it works. If you want to take a free kick like David Beckham, I’d suggest you take a look.
