Q: Which laws of physics pertain specifically to basketball?
A: There are many ways of answering this question. If one were to start at the microscopic level, virtually all of physics could be used! But I'll bet you are really interested in which laws are relevant to an understanding of the game at the level we experience it --- on sizes and time scales relevant to a human player. In that case we're talking what is called "classical physics", or the physics invented by Isaac Newton. His three laws of motion would be the ticket: (1) Any object not acted upon by a force will continue to follow its current motion (either stay still, or continue to move in a straight line with constant speed). (2) When a force acts on a object, the object will accelerate in the direction of the force. The acceleration is proportional to the force (e.g., twice the force, twice the acceleration), and inversely proportional to the mass (amount of matter) of the object (e.g., twice the mass would mean half the acceleration). (3) If an object (call it object 1) exerts a force on another (call it object 2), then object 2 must be simultaneously exerting the same amount of force back on object 1 (an "equal but opposite'' force). Finally, Newton also discovered that gravity is a force describable by the above laws. For our game, the Earth exerts a gravitational force on the ball, players, refs, building, etc., which would accelerate everything downward, except in some cases there is also an upward force, of equal magnitude, keeping the thing stationary (e.g., the player standing on the floor is not accelerating downward because the floor exerts an upward force on his body, balancing the downward gravity force on his body).
Now for some examples of how these laws come into play in basketball. Take a player making a shot. Clearly, if she jumps up from the floor it is because she exerted a force on the floor --- so, by the third law, the floor exerted an equal, but opposite force, on the player, pushing her up! The player then exerts a force on the ball accelerating it out of her hands. Of course, the ball therefore acts back on the player. The result is that the ball, starting from a stop, suddenly takes off with some speed toward the basket. But the player does not take off with an equal speed the other way, because the player is *much more massive* than the ball, so by the second law, the player's acceleration will be much less! The player must be aware (through practice!) that simply accelerating the ball *directly at* the basket will not work --- the ball will end up way below the basket when it arrives. That's because gravity will cause the ball to accelerate downward throughout its flight. The player must actually aim much higher than the basket so the ball will arrive at the basket's height when it finally gets to the basket's vicinity! With that summary of a shot, you can see how each law came into play. Now you can explain any number of other events that occur in the game in a similar fashion, or through other applications of the laws.
Now for some examples of how these laws come into play in basketball. Take a player making a shot. Clearly, if she jumps up from the floor it is because she exerted a force on the floor --- so, by the third law, the floor exerted an equal, but opposite force, on the player, pushing her up! The player then exerts a force on the ball accelerating it out of her hands. Of course, the ball therefore acts back on the player. The result is that the ball, starting from a stop, suddenly takes off with some speed toward the basket. But the player does not take off with an equal speed the other way, because the player is *much more massive* than the ball, so by the second law, the player's acceleration will be much less! The player must be aware (through practice!) that simply accelerating the ball *directly at* the basket will not work --- the ball will end up way below the basket when it arrives. That's because gravity will cause the ball to accelerate downward throughout its flight. The player must actually aim much higher than the basket so the ball will arrive at the basket's height when it finally gets to the basket's vicinity! With that summary of a shot, you can see how each law came into play. Now you can explain any number of other events that occur in the game in a similar fashion, or through other applications of the laws.
Q: Do the Same Forces act on the ball that act on the person shooting?
A: Yes!... But in the opposite direction. See answer to the previous question.