Each World Cup, the sportswear giant Adidas designs an official ball to be used in the tournament.
每一届世界杯时，体育服饰巨头阿迪达斯都会为其设计一个比赛时使用的官方用球。
And small changes in the design can create significant differences in how the ball responds during play.
而设计方面的小小改动就会带来比赛中足球球感的巨大不同。
"It's an interesting phenomena that the world's most popular sporting event for the world's most popular sport and the most important piece of equipment in that sport is changed every World Cup," says John Eric Goff, a physics professor at Lynchburg College in Virginia.
“这是一个很有意思的现象，就是世界上最受欢迎的运动的最有人气的体育赛事还有最重要的体育用品，每一届世界杯都在改变，”约翰.艾瑞克.高夫说，他是弗吉尼亚州林奇堡大学的一名体育教授。
The new ball is called the Telstar 18.
这次世界杯的新球被叫做通信卫星18号。
It has six panels and a slick black-and-white design inspired by Russian cityscapes.
它表明分为六块并拥有从俄罗斯城市风光中得到灵感而完成的流畅的黑白色设计。
It's meant to be a nod to a less technologically advanced predecessor, the Telstar ball used in the 1970 World Cup.
这是对之前不那么先进的前辈的一次致敬，也就是1970年世界杯的通信卫星足球。
But how does this ball actually stack up?
不过这个球到底是怎么填充起来的呢?
To find out, scientists stuck it in a wind tunnel with a bunch of sensors attached to a metal rod.
为了找到答案，科学家们把球固定在了风洞里，其中带有很多传感器，这些传感器固定在金属杆上。
"It's actually recording the size of the forces on the ball," Goff says.
“它实际上记录的是足球上加载的力的大小，”高夫说道。
The technology used in making the balls has changed significantly since that 1970 World Cup ball.
自1970年的世界杯以来，制作比赛用球的技术发生了巨大的变动。
Earlier Adidas models featured 32 panels stitched together, Goff says, but more recent models have fewer panels that are thermally bonded.
早期的阿迪萨斯足球模型有32块缝合在一起，高夫说道，不过最新的模型分块数减少了，而且是通过热熔的方式联合在一起。
And the changes have sometimes had what appear to be unintended effects on the physical properties of the official ball.
这些变动有时好像会给官方用球的物体特性带来一些意想不到的影响。
For example, Goff points to "the dreaded 2010 Jabulani ball that was used in South Africa."
比如说，高夫提到了“南非世界杯上使用的糟糕的2010'普天同庆’球”。
The technologically advanced ball is a far cry from those earlier balls with stitching, Goff says, which could actually get waterlogged and change the weight of the ball.
这一届的先进技术造出的球跟以往早期的球相比在缝合技术方面可以说是云泥之别，高夫说道，早期的球可能会进水而改变球身重量。
The Telstar 18 was introduced with much fanfare — in fact, Russian cosmonauts took the ball for a spin on the International Space Station.
而通信卫星18号则有更多可以炫耀的资本——事实上，俄罗斯的宇航员们还把这个球带到国际空间站去环绕了一圈。
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