Basketball Science Fair Project

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For my science fair project, I will be testing how high a basketball bounces on five different surfaces including: hardwood, concrete, asphalt, rubber, and carpet. I will now talk about the background information of this science fair project and the process and steps of this science fair project. I will first talk about the background information and research behind this project, then I will talk about the steps and process of the project.

First, I will talk about the background information of this project. For people who don’t know how to play basketball or know what it is, I will give a brief summary of this amazing but challenging game. Basketball is played with ten people, five on each side. You can sometimes play with three-on-three, …show more content…

In general, the higher the air pressure is inside the basketball, the higher it will bounce. If a ball is not inflated fully, it will bounce low and not regular. On the other hand, over-inflating a ball to much might break the bladder and cause leaks, badly affecting the consistency of the ball's bounce. According to the NBA regulations, the pressure inside a basketball must be between 7.5 and 8.5 lbs. You can use this as a guide for your own basketball pressure. Another simple test is to drop the ball from shoulder height. It should bounce to a height approximately even with your hips. On the outside of the ball, the air pressure surrounding the a basketball is fairly constant, but environmental air pressure can affect a basketball. At higher altitudes, the air is thinner, or less dense. When the air is thinner, objects are not as affected by air resistance pushing against them as they bounce through the air. It is not likely that outside air pressure would ever affect the bounce of a basketball enough to stop or end the game, but it does contribute to bounce height. People ask “what is the best court to bounce the ball on?” And ideally a ordinary person would say the hardwood floor would be the best to dribble on. I would think the same way. In my testing, I will see if our hypothesis is …show more content…

The materials you will need for this project are a basketball, one of your five locations (wood, asphalt, concrete, rubber, carpet), tape measure, and your iPad to video when you bounce the ball. Now, I will list step by step procedure for this project. First, go to one of the five court options, then pull out your tape measure and put it to the ground at three to seven feet. Next, hold the tape measure while you bounce the ball from about waist level. You need to video the bounce of the ball to get a more exact measurement and measure where the ball hits the peak of the bounce in the video. Repeat this same process three more time in the same exact location then average it. To average it, you add the three measurements and divide them by three. Lastly, go to your next location and repeat the same process, then you will be on your

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