Physics in the sport of Basketball

[shaolinfightr]

New member, so first of all Hello all! Writing this paper on the topic of physics involved in the sport of basketball.

There are numerous factors involved and I thought it would be fun for everybody to contribute a few factors. Such as but of course not limited to projectile motion (make or miss?), gravity (dribbling, passing, shooting, footwork, fakes etc).

How does the first Newtons law effect passing?

 

[daisy11]

Concerning the first law...the basketball, once passed, will stay in motion in that direction unless an external force such as a player stops it from doing so by catching it.

Your paper should be easy to write...what grade level is this for?

Surely gravity has nothing to do with footwork and fakes..!

Your topic is very generic and broad.

 

[shaolinfightr]

Concerning the first law...the basketball, once passed, will stay in motion in that direction unless an external force such as a player stops it from doing so by catching it.

Your paper should be easy to write...what grade level is this for?

Thanks daisy, I'll be adding that. This is not for a grade level. I'm writing a paper for my own studies and for future reference.

 

[shaolinfightr]

Might be a bit random topic but I'm sure there are some basketball fans here and there on this site. Physics has a big impact on the sport of basketball and I'm thinking some people can give good examples of how physics plays a part in the sport of basketball.

So you got rebounding, dribbling, shooting, flopping and other aspects of the game.

How about dribbling?

When the ball is dribbled by a hand pushing down on the ball - it bounces back. Why does this occur?

I'd say it's partly due to elastic collision that occur between the basketball or more specifically, the air particles in the ball and ground. What is the definition of a perfect elastic collision? air pressure of the ball will greatly affect the elasticity of the ball and the conservation of energy. following?

Why does the basketball take a parabolic path towards the hoop during a free throw?

 

[shaolinfightr]

What about flopping?

 

[carboy79]

You could explain the force and momentum applied to a pen as it signs a 85 million dollar contract

 

[cragar]

you could talk about when they shoot that the ball would follow a parabolic path , and you could talk about the range and trajectory equations ,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trajectory_of_a_projectile
and you could talk about when they jump , based on their hang time you could figure out how fast they are going when they land , this would be interesting especially when Michael Jordan can dunk from the foul line ,

 

[shaolinfightr]

this would be interesting especially when Michael Jordan can dunk from the foul line ,

The parabolic and trajectory equations could be most helpful. anything else?

Michael Jordan didn't jump from the FT line, it was actually a few inches inside. There have been players that have dunked from behind the FT line though.

 

[dasafan]

Unbelievable. Trolling from the ESPN NBA boards brought to a new level. Nice job Robin.

 

[my_wan]

Angular momentum, spin on the ball to make it bounce off the floor in a different direction than it was thrown, when passing to a teammate. Same for making it drop into the net off the backboard, both down and from an angle. Frequency, dribble rate.

 

[dasafan]

If you are interested in wasting 10-15 minutes of your life or interested to see the workings of a professional troll and his victim-
http://boards.espn.go.com/boards/mb/mb?sport=nba&id=sas&tid=7092102&lid=78

Sad. Really sad.

 

[whodat4lyfe]

If your interested in how physics is applied to physics, I would recommend the show Sports Science really help me understand the physics behind shooting and throwing a ball.