In 1997, Brazilian soccer player Roberto Carlos took a free kick from 35 meters against France that seemed to defy the laws of physics as it curved around a wall of defenders at an angle that seemed impossible. ⁠ ⁠This “miracle goal” led a team of French physicists to publish a study in the journal New Journal of Physics, in which they explained that the extreme spin and speed created a “spinning spiral of the ball” that overcame gravity and air resistance.⁠