The Physics of Basketball Essay examples -- Athletics Sports Essays

The physical science of Basket egg The NBA playoffs are making the headlines all over. Every news channel, sports channel, and report has a story about the big games. Everyone is making bets as to who go forth be the big champions. Will it be the defending champions, Los Angeles Lakers, or willing it possibly be one of the underdogs. This is the most intensive time of yr for field goalball fans as they watch the teams battle out the game. Up and rarify the court, the turnovers, rebounds, fast breaks, and most of all the baskets make the games exciting. But have you eer wondered how these things happen? What enables the basketball to bounce, how does Kobe Bryant fly through the air, and why does the ball short-circuit backwards as it leaves a shooters hand and approaches the basket? These are all interesting questions and believe it or not they flowerpot all be answered with a discussion on physics. Whenever you watch a basketball game you are watching the application o f physics. It is very often at ca-ca in the game of basketball (Hawkins).One of the pick out pieces of equipment in the game is the basketball itself. The ability of the ball to bounce is unaccompanied explained by physics. The law of conservation of life force says that the total energy of an detached system does not change (Kirkpatrick, 131). When the ball comes in contact with the news report an elastic collision occurs in which the kinetic energy of the system is conserved. dickens things determine the elasticity the air pressure in the ball and the get up it is colliding with. The more pressure in the ball, the better the bounce and the greater elasticity. The energy will be stored in the compressed air inside the ball creating a greater bounce. Air stores and returns energy more efficiently than ... ... air, save remember that it takes the same amount of time for him to reach the basket as it does for him to fall. You may also want to notice how the ball spins as h earty as how it bounces. As you are watching the playoffs this year keep in mind that the application of physics is very much at work in the game of basketball. BibliographyHawkins, Bethany. Physics of Basketball. Intro to Basketball and Physics. http//www.kent.wednet.edu/staff/trobins/physicspages/PhysOf1998. 25 March 2003.Kirkpatrick, Larry D., Wheeler, Gerald F. Physics A World View. Fourth edition, Harcourt College Publishers. Orlando, Florida. 2001.Willis, Bill. The Physics of Basketball. http//www.geocities.com/thesciencefiles/physicsof/basketball.html. 13 March 2003.Brancazio, Peter J. Physics of Sports. Physics of Basketball. Department of Physics. Brooklyn, New York. 1981.