Picture Post

This is a photo of me shooting a basketball. I never thought basketball would have anything to do with physics until i learned about projectile motion. This picture and basketball in general has something to do with projectile motion because a projectile, in this case the basketball, is shot up at and angle. The ball has a certain vertical velocity and a certain horizontal velocity. The horizontal velocity is constant while the vertical velocity changes. The ball is shot an angle, the angle changes depending on the player and position on the court. While the shot is in the air, it has the force of gravity acting on it. This slows the ball down and makes it drop back down to the ground. As the ball goes up, it is slowing down at 10 meters per second, and once it gets to the maximum height, it continues to move in the horizontal direction, while in the vertical direction movement is paused for a fraction of a second. When the ball drops, the speed that it hits the floor with will be the same speed it initially started with. To clarify though, this would be the case if someone shot an airball. In actuality, the factors of speed and time in the air would change because the ball is hitting a rim almost every time it is shot. If there was no backboard or rim and the ball was shot, the path of the ball would look like a parabola. Other sports like football, soccer, and baseball all connect with projectile motion. Is there anything in your life that connects to projectile motion?