World What?

Hello, my name is Judy. I’m a Capricorn, and I’m here today to tell you all that I don’t know a lick about sports. If there were a support group for people who were raised in the south and should know a thing or two about sports but don’t – that’s probably what I would say. When I was in grade school we would play kickball on the field and I would routinely get yelled at for picking flowers in the outfield by a very scary gym teacher. Apparently picking flowers is not allowed while playing kickball. Who knew?

Not that I’m jumping on the World Cup bandwagon, because I don’t jump on bandwagons for a cheap increase in blog readership . . . but that’s apparently ALL that anybody and everybody is talking about these days. In fact, this morning Sarah was watching South Africa play Mexico and while I was in the kitchen very much consumed in cutting up a fresh pineapple I had just bought, she proclaimed I had to watch the “cute guys on the Mexican team”. Not that I disagree with her that Mexicans are cute (Hello Gael Garcia Bernal, Salma Hayek, and Jessica Alba! I mean right?!?) . . . but I’ve never watched a complete game from the World Cup Series.

Please stop throwing your tomatoes and glass bottles at me. Hear me out! I’m not *totally useless.

While I don’t know a thing about the rules of soccer or football or whatever the heck you call it. I do know one very interesting fact about the modern soccer ball (thanks to a math-loving friend of mine) that most people probably aren’t aware of. The soccer ball is the only ball made up of an intricate pattern of pentagons and hexagons. Did you know that there is only one way to assemble these pentagons and hexagons together to form a soccer ball? And no it’s not like a rubik's cube where you can take all the stickers off and replace them at your will. The really interesting thing about a soccer ball is that it is made up of 32 panels total so like I said that means that there is only one way to pattern the hexagons and pentagons together to create the sphere. Do you know how many pentagons and hexagons make up a soccer ball? Hint: each pentagon is surrounded by five hexagons. Answer provided at end of post. Don't cheat.

A soccer ball is like math in motion. It’s pretty neat. Even Gael thinks so too!

Hi, my name is Judy and I don’t know how to play soccer, but I do know a thing or two about the soccer ball. Answer: 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons.