Physics Of Basketball Essay

onclusions made during this inquiry to my knowledge of the game. Having never taken physics in my academic career I do foresee some challenges but I hope to expand my knowledge of both basketball and physics. The aim of this investigation is to determine several different values of the projectile of a basketball shot with fixed angles.

III) Parameters and Measurements

To simplify the process of identifying an optimal shooting angle and initial velocity to get a ball in the hoop, there are several assumptions and rules that must be made. These assumptions are as follows:

• Shots that count are those which go through the hoop without touching the rim

• Air resistance will be ignored

• Ball spin will be ignored

• Terminal velocity will be ignored

• The trajectory has no sideways error

• The initial shooting velocity remains

Through online research, the horizontal component of velocity was discovered and is a

IV) Derivations Initial Velocity:

To find the equation for initial velocity, the basic velocity equation in the y-direction must be manipulated to isolate v0. The following steps are the process where v0=original velocity, h = y(T) and T = L cos(θ)V:

To start the derivation process, the horizontal component of velocity is as follows: The vertical component of velocity is: Both the horizontal and vertical components of velocity require the initial release angle . The horizontal equation of motion is , where represents the horizontal distance for some velocity v and time t, substitute into and find