Now that the World Cup is over, it's time for me to tell you that a soccer ball doesn't need to be spherical. With the help of Ivars Peterson in his last Math Trek column, "Bending a Soccer Ball," let ...

Most people know that a traditional soccer ball is black and white and that the black and white panels are in a pattern. You might even know that there are 32 total panels on a traditional soccer ball ...

Since about 1970, soccer balls have been stitched or glued together from 32 patches of material—12 of them five-sided and 20 of them six-sided. These patches are arranged so that each pentagon is ...