What is the difference between a rugby ball and an American football?
The American Football (skinny and pointed) is great for making accurate overhand spiral (torpedo) throws. The Rugby Football (fatter and less pointed) is great for dropping it on its end and kicking it through the uprights. Both suck for use as make-shift basketballs, unlike the Soccer ball, which can be used for that purpose. Anyway, both the Modern American Football and the modern Rugby Football evolved from the same extremely fat egg-shaped thingy with laces that was used by both codes in the 1800s.
The ball used in American football has a pointed oval or vesica piscis shape, and usually has a large set of stitches along one side. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football A rugby ball looks like a fat football with more rounded ends. It is slightly larger and more ovoid than a football, which facilitates handling and kicking. The football used in rugby is a prolate spheriod essentially elliptical in profile. Traditionally made of brown leather, modern rugby balls are manufactured in a variety of colors and patterns. A regulation rugby ball is 2830 cm (1111.8 inches) long and 5862 cm (22.824.4 inches) in circumference at its widest point. It weighs 410460 grams (14.516.2 ounces) and is inflated to 65.7168.75 kPa (or 9.510 psi).
