past / around

Překlad věty Zatímco ležela na písku, míč proletěl kolem její hlavy. “While she was lying on the sand, a ball flew past her head. " Jde taky "around her head” nebo “along her head”?

• While she was lying on the sand, a ball flew past her head. 
• While she was lying on the sand, a ball flew around her head (rozumíme obloukem kolem; when a ball is “flying”, it can only travel in a straight line)
• While she was lying on the sand, a ball flew along her head (rozumíme podél povrchu; a ball can't “fly” along the surface of someone's head)

Spíš bych čekal As she lay on the sand …

While and as

We can use while or as to talk about two longer events or activities happening at the same time. We can use either simple or continuous verb forms …

I think it's because “a ball flew past her head” is an instantaneous event which doesn't take place over the same length of time as “lying on the sand”. The two events, in that sense, don't “happen at the same time” – neprobíhají souběžně, and they're not (both) “longer events”. The progressive/con­tinuous form “lying on the sand” introduced by “while” clearly denotes duration; “a ball flew past” has no comparable sense of duration.

Dane,
nějak to úplně nemůžu pochopit co jsi napsal. Nevidím rozdíl mezi danou větou a třeba větou (proč spíše AS než while): I broke my leg while I was skiing.

píšeš, že they're not (both) “longer events

Zde taky zlomení nohy je an instantaneous even.

I think it's because “a ball flew past her head” is an instantaneous event which doesn't take place over the same length of time as “lying on the sand

Já jsme si právě myslel, že to je přesně situace, kdy past progressive je přesně to pravé ořechové.

Je mne jasné, že je to jak píšeš, ale nemůžu tomu přijít na kloub.

Díky

Neither can I, actually, and while “while she was lying …” isn't wrong, I think the Ngram bears out my observation. I looked it up and found the Cambridge explanation. Before I did that, I wrote (then deleted) a comment that I thought “lying on the sand …” Is felt to describe a STATE rather than an action. So “while” isn't “wrong” as such, but evidently doesn't sound the more natural of the two versions.

Thanks so much anyway.