It’s March, and that can only mean one thing, basketball is king. Indiana has a rich history with the sport, and it’s making history again because right now, it’s the focal point for thousands of college basketball fans.
68 teams have descended upon the Circle City, all hoping to still be here on April 3rd. To do that, it will take strategy, grit, determination, and science. Yes, science. Science plays an integral part in our daily lives. We just don’t always think about it.
Physics is one of the science disciplines involved in basketball, scientifically speaking. Newton’s Laws of Motion plays an essential role on the hardwoods. We talked to Andy Gavrin, Ph.D., Physics Department Chair at the IUPUI School of Science, about the physics involved in a free throw.
Why free throws? Because they could make or break the team, especially when it comes down to the last few seconds. Check out the video as Gavrin divulges the ‘sweet spot’ for a free throw and what it takes to be among the best free throw shooters.
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Description of the video:
It's all Newton’s laws of motion that's all the physics that there is on the basketball 00:12 court. 00:13 The speed that the ball leaves the player’s hands and the angle that the ball leaves the 00:19 player’s hands is what determines what is going to be doing when it gets to the rim. 00:25 That's the trajectory that the ball takes once you pick a speed and an angle, the way 00:30 the ball arrives at the rim is pretty much fixed 00:33 You want the ball going pretty slowly when it gets to the rim. If it's going really fast, 00:42 then it's going to bounce harder and any little imperfection that causes it to hit the rim 00:48 is going to be worse. 00:49 It's more likely to bounce out so you want the ball going slowly when it arrives and 00:54 that unfortunately happens when the ball is coming at the smallest angle. 00:59 So, there's a little optimization thing to go to go by. A really high angle is going 01:05 to have the ball going really fast, a really low angle is going to have it going slow 01:14 To release the ball at about a 51-degree angle, but you know, because of that bounciness thing 01:20 a lot of players will release at a somewhat higher angle. 01:28 That angle, it really doesn't vary much depending on the size of the player. 01:32 It turns out whether you're 5 foot 8 or 7 feet tall you know that angle kind of ranges 01:37 from 49 to 52 degrees so it's a pretty narrow effect and it doesn't really depend on how 01:44 big you are 01:46 You know the best players all shoot for that swish. 01:51 You think that might mean to aim for right in the center of the basket, but it turns 01:56 out it's a little bit better to aim just a little bit behind the center. 02:00 And that's again because of the balance, if you miss by a little bit and you hit the front 02:05 of the rim and that could go anywhere, if you hit the back of the rim it's likely to 02:11 just drop in. 02:12 You know good shooters will aim for just a little behind the center of the basket. 02:19 Another thing that's important is spin, when the ball has a little bit of a backspin on 02:24 it that also improves the chance mostly by allowing the ball to be more likely to drop 02:31 in on a slight bounce when it hits the back of the rim, that backspin is going to direct 02:37 it down and into the rim. 02:41 The people who are great at this are the ones who have a completely uniform system. 02:46 They put their feet in exactly the same place, hold the ball in exactly the same way, bounce 02:52 it a couple times in exactly the same way, do exactly the same motion and they've got 02:57 it totally perfected. 02:59 They're doing their shot.