Passing...Another aspect of basketball where calculating the physics can be interesting lies in passing. The idea of catching a pass can be analyzed using the equation m*v = F*t or F= (m*v)/t. In using this idea the greater the time is the lesser the force will be and thus the pass will be a lot easier to catch and not drop.
The idea of catching the perfect pass comes from the laws of motion and energy. If the ball is initially received with the elbows slightly bent the arms should be allowed to absorb the force of the on coming basketball and the ball should end up being caught close to the chest. This can be more easily explained in physics with the help of a couple simple formulas. It is known that in physics that the mass of an object multiplied by the velocity of the object equals the liner momentum of the object. It is also known that the momentum divided by the time it takes the object to impact is equal to the net force the object will have upon impact. In other words by the player catching the ball with arms extended and slightly bent elbows and allowing their arms to slow down the ball before hitting their chest they are increasing the time it takes the ball to impact. Since the momentum is divided by the time in the formula discussed above increasing the time will make the net force smaller when the ball is received into the chest. This will result in a nice soft reception of the basketball and smaller chance that the ball will be dropped. Flores The art of passing the ball and receiving the ball shouldn't be a very complicated process. Basically, as long as a person tries to catch the ball with their arms slightly bent it will be much easier as the person will be able to reduce the force by increasing the time of the pass. http://www2.hesston.edu/Physics/Basketball/Paperpg.htm |