Basketball+Bonanza

Matt and Jamie #40

Title: Basketball Bonanza

Lab: Goal/Question: Find the force applied on the basketball to make a shot from the free throw line, the three point line and the half court line.

Materials: Regulation mens basketball, video camera, basketball court

Procedure: 1. Record the displacements from the hoop to free throw line, then to the 3 point line, and then from half court. 2. Jamie will then take the basketball and shoot from the free throw line and make the shot. We will video tape this process, and from there we can record the amount of work done in order to make the shot. 3. Then this process will be repeated again from the three point line, and then from half court. From there, we can record that data, and therefore learn the physics behind making a shot in basketball. 4. Record the videos taken on logger pro, and then finally you will find the data needed.

Data/Calculations: mass of basketball: about 595 grams mass of shooter: 180 lbs or 81.6 kg distance of free throw: 13 feet or 3.96 meters distance of 3 pointer: 19.75 feet or 6.02 meters distance of half-court shot: 42 feet or 12.8 meters acceleration of ball on free throw: 63.54 m/s/s acceleration of ball on 3 pointer: 77.29 m/s/s acceleration of ball on half court shot: 587.2 m/s/s

Equation to find force: Force=Mass/Acceleration

Force of Ball on Free Throw: 0.009 N Force of Ball on 3 Pointer: 0.0077 N Force of Ball on half court shot: 0.001 N

Conclusion: In order for a basketball to go into the hoop, certain requirements need to be taken care of. One, is the force of the basketball, which we experimented with an found results in order to make a Free Throw, 3 Pointer, and a Half Court Shot. We had great success with this project when solving to find what it takes to make these three shots because Jamie is pretty accurate when shooting a basketball. The Basketball weighed 0.595 kg and in order to solve for the acceleration of the basketball we used Logger Pro. Logger Pro then determined the acceleration of each shot that was made by Jamie. In order to solve for the force of each shot, we used the equation Force=Mass/Acceleration. Being that force was what we were determining, we just plugged in the numbers and solved. We then learned that the ball required more force in a Free Throw then a Half Court Shot. Overall it was a fun project as we learned about the physics in basketball.