Physics is a part of everyday life. It is evident in the modern technological devices we use in every day experiences and objects around us. Although physics is understood to be only useful in the classroom, physics can also be applied to one the most popular activities on the planet, basketball. Whether jumping for the ball, or leaping for a slam dunk, the human body follows the same laws of projectile motion as do other objects. The sport that includes shooting, passing, running, and dribbling involves topics covered in physics such as force, friction, effects of air resistance, velocity, air pressure and energy. Basketball also involves factors such as projectile motion in making a basket, gravity and its effects on passing and dribbling, and Newton’s First and Third Law on passing and a number of others.
Passing is perhaps one of the most important components of the sport. A game would be impossible without the assistance of passing and team work. To successfully carryout a pass, many factors have to be taken into account. In order to begin a pass, first a player must exert a force on the basketball. Once the ball leaves the hands of the player, it becomes a projectile. A projectile is acted upon by two independent forces: the x and y components. The x component is the force exerted on the ball by the player while the y component is pulled by the force of gravity, -9.8m/s². As a result of the independent components, the ball will travel in a downward parabolic path, or trajectory. Since the ball travels a downward path, the player throws the ball towards a target located a little higher than where the player wishes the ball would go in order to compensate for the downward path. Another factor that affects the successfulnes...
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... the player’s shoes must have good traction, friction that allows movement. Good traction means that the coefficient of friction between the shoe and the floor must be high. A player must also use static friction when planting their feet in order to stop and turn without sliding across the floor due to static friction being greater than the sliding friction.
In conclusion, physics is involved in all things around us. Whether in a classroom, in a car, or playing basketball physics concepts can be applied to the action. Although it is not very practical for a person to stop and calculate the angle, velocity, and position, the use of physics does make it understandable and possible. As much as the physics of basketball seems insignificant and ludicrous, to calculate the principles are in fact very valuable to a player without them even knowing they are doing physics.
Baseball is a fascinating sport that is exceptionally fun to play. This assignment is all about understanding the physics of a few key aspects of this sport. One might ask what physics could have to do with baseball? Like most sports baseball involves physical motion. Baseball encompasses all three planes of motion through throwing, hitting, and fielding. All of the classical laws of mechanics can be applied to understand the physics of this game.
Basketball is growing and becoming a well known sport, where two teams of five players attempt to score points on an opposing netted hoop (basket) 10 feet high while stopping the other team from scoring on their own basket. This sport is not just becoming popular in America but in many other nations such as Spain, Lithuania, Australia, and Croatia. However, one player in the United States named Stephen Curry (Steph) is changing the game of basketball by becoming one of the deadliest perimeter shooters of all time. Despite the opposing views of being unable to change a sport individually, Stephen Curry is evolving the game of basketball himself through his shooting efficiency, his ability to consistently make “bad shots”, and becoming a dominant threat in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion affect every aspect of life, and there are examples of those forces at work all over, not just in baseball. The laws of physics are at play in even the simplest of movements or actions, facts so widely accepted that you don’t even have to think about them. Athletes don’t think about the physics behind their movements before they throw a ball. However, all the information above demonstrates just how much a sport like baseball depends on the laws of physics. Without these forces, America’s pastime wouldn’t be very entertaining to watch or play at all.
When you throw a football across the yard to your friend, you are using physics. You make adjustments for all the factors, such as distance, wind and the weight of the ball. The farther away your friend is, the harder you have to throw the ball, or the steeper the angle of your throw. This adjustment is done in your head, and it's physics. Physics is the branch of science that deals with the physical world. The area of physics that is most relevant to football is mechanics, the study of motion and its causes. The three main categories of motion that apply to the game are:
Shooting is the main part of basketball. If you don’t shoot, you don’t score and if you don’t score you lose, and nobody likes to lose. Shooting the ball is something that takes a extreme amount of time for it to become perfect. I’ve been playing basketball for over 10 years and I still don’t know how to shoot the perfect shot.
The game of basketball is a highly recognized and widely known sport. Basketball was first heard of in the winter of 1891 when a man by the name of James Naismith was told to instruct a physical education class at the Young Men’s Christian Association in Springfield, Massachusetts. Naismith was instructed to put together a game for young men to enjoy while they were at the YMCA. While trying to come up with a brilliant and fun game for these young men, Naismith reminisced back on his childhood in Canada. He remembered a game his friends and him had played all the time: “Duck on a Rock”, which involved trying to knock a large rock off a boulder by throwing smaller rocks at it. Naismith also remembered watching a game of rugby going on in the gymnasium. The game of Rugby involved tossing a ball into a box. After a very short time of trying to make up a game for these young men, Naismith came up with a brilliant idea. Little did he know the game that he came up with just so happened to be one of he most renowned sports in American history. Naismith’s idea pertained to nailing up raised boxes so that players could attempt to throw a ball in the basket. When there were no boxes too be found, he used peach baskets. Supposedly, Naismith came up with all the rules for this game in no more than “about an hour”, according to Alexander Wolff. Shortly after Naismith had invented the game of basketball, graduates of the YMCA traveled internationally which is the main reason as to why this sport is so widely known. The impact basketball has made on the lives of many Americans is incredible in the sense that it has given people the ability to ...
While excelling as an inexperience basketball player, I was taught the improper mechanics and incorrect techniques on learning to shoot an appropriate jump shot. Following in my basketball career I developed as a shooting guard, leading to me being criticized for being a two-handed shooter. While blooming as an athlete and player, my college coach pointed out my distant actions and from then I grew interested in learning the research behind the mechanics I do when performing a jump shot. Because I got the opportunity...
Whether it is the angle needed to swing the bat, the force needed to kick the ball, or the speed needed to run, physics is present in every aspect of every sport. Players become aware at a young age that physics will be a part of their lives for as long as they play a sport, even if they are not aware of it. From the moment a child starts a sport, the many different methods used to improve revolve around physics. Softball is a prime example of this. Physics plays a role in softball because every aspect of this sport requires a certain momentum and force. Players must aim to achieve the skill to be able to use the physics behind the sport to their advantage. Through the use of hitting, catching, and throwing a softball, there is the need to
If you think about it, it’s almost impossible to measure the force that it takes to dribble a basketball, unless you have the right tools. Let’s just think about the basic physics that you should know. In order to dribble a basketball you need to apply enough force for the ball to go from your hand to the floor and back up to your hand. When the ball is in your hand it is holding potential energy. Potential energy is the energy that is about to be transferred into kinetic energy, which is when the energy is in use. The ball is in kinetic energy after it leaves your hand and starts to fall. So the force of gravity has to be less than the force of the bounce to keep the dribbling going.
Physics can be used to explain a lot of things. In this paper I described some basic concepts in physics that are relevant to basketball, particularly the three main parts of basketball, shooting, dribbling and passing. So the next time you are out shooting some hoops just think of all the physics that are being applied and you could be one step away from being a physicist, and have fun.
Skates used to be more like skis. Players glided on the ice rather than actually skated. Artifacts also show the use of animal bones as skate blades as well. Currently, steal blades are used. There is a small arc groove on the blade that provides the friction needed to counteract the slipperiness of the ice (Haché 37). The boot of the skate is hard enough to protect the foot from puck impact but also flexible enough “to allow the calf muscle to push forward and to ease knee bending when the player crouches” (Haché 35).
The motions of throwing, batting, and fielding will be presented in physics terms and ideas. Physics plays a big role in sports. One particular sport is softball, where we will be seeing different motions represented.
Men’s lacrosse, as a goalie, and physics are tied together in many ways. You can explain the effectiveness of a pass, all the way down to picking up the ball from the ground. The main topics that explain the game of lacrosse are all three of Newton’s Laws of Motion; Inertia, Force equals mass times acceleration, and equal and opposite forces, and another law that applies, torque and leverage.
A good service in volleyball is important to a winning strategy. Either an effective serve will not be returned, leading to a point, or it will be returned with minimal strength, providing the serving team with the advantage. One aim of a good serve is to provide the receivers with little time as possible to react. Forces and angles are the two main factors at play when relating volleyball with math (Papageōrgiou & Spitzley, 2003). In short, in order to relate volleyball with math, the force needed to make the ball move a certain height or distance, the angle required to make the ball over the net, and the arrangement of players, such that less players cover more ground need to be well illustrated. This paper connects the concept of mathematics to volleyball, explaining various models of a served volleyball in details.
Basketball can be looked at from a mathematic standpoint. To make a pass from one player to another one can use the following formula: