Our assignment in STEM was to create a movie that would show its viewers how to do an action in a given sport and get optimal results. We were expected to provide all of the physics behind the action and clear instructions to follow. Our group, including Tak maga, Josh Franks, and Vivian Leida, choose basketball, so without further ado, we present The Physics of a Free Throw.
It was challenging to decide what sport action to because of the endless options, but once we all decided, we set to work. Our first step was to take slow motion footage of a free throw so we could get a foundation of what we were working with. Next, we began formulating a storyboard for our video. Once we were happy with our plan we started filming.
Our group basically needed three kinds of footage: videos to make calculations, videos for the final product, and lastly videos of the board where we wrote the calculations. Once we took the footage that we needed we used it to find the momentum, impulse, and force of impact. We then found the horizontal and vertical distances and velocities and arranged them into a vector diagram.
Our group basically needed three kinds of footage: videos to make calculations, videos for the final product, and lastly videos of the board where we wrote the calculations. Once we took the footage that we needed we used it to find the momentum, impulse, and force of impact. We then found the horizontal and vertical distances and velocities and arranged them into a vector diagram.
- Momentum is a quantity of motion of a moving object. It is the product of mass times velocity. We needed to find the movement of the ball.
- Impulse is the force being applied to one object by another times the time it is being applied. We needed impuls to figure how much pressure you need to throw with in order to move the basketball from your hand to the net.
- It is easier to visial the forces and distances of a moving object when using a vector diagram. The vectors represent forces or distances as well as angles. Then the pythagorean theorem can be used to find the missing values.