Backspin Basketball Flies Off Dam

I'm not an expert on it really. They rotate the giant cylinder and the wind is blowing by. The rotation forms a low pressure zone one side of the cylinder which acts as a lift force perpendicular both to the rotational axis of the cylinder and the wind. It's the same effect which "turns" a soccer ball if you kick it with a spin. There is a really nice demonstration of the effect in this video: ▶ this video This wikipedia page has a way better summary than my attempt above: link

There's a great Veritasium video explaining the Magnus effect and the Flettner rotor here: ▶ this video The Norsepower company (which installs Flettner rotors on ships) also has a short video explaining the effect here link

There's a decent video by Veritasium about the Magnus Effect, where the bomb is essentially given lift by its backspin: ▶ this video

This is the video they reference at the end that elaborates and shows off the use in ships, as well as some planes that have spinning cylinders instead of wings: ▶ this video

My favorite is the Flettner aeroplane since it uses the Magnus effect [1][2] as it generates lift without a wing. Screenshot linked in the original post [3]. [1] link [2] ▶ this video [3] link