Basketball and Some Physics
Denise Olin
Phys 103x
November 25, 2003
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Brief basketball history and introduction:
Who'd have thought, because a man ( Dr. James Naismith) wanted players to avoid bruising during play of sports, that it would turn out to be such a popular game. Dr. James Naismith was instructing Physical Education at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School, better known today as Springfield College, Springfield, Massachusetts. With a lack of a sport between the seasons of football and baseball, Dr. Naismith invented the game of basketball. It is rare to trace a sport's origination, but with basketball it is traced back to 1891 when an instructor needed a game between seasons to keep his students in shape and avoid injury. (Hollander, 3)
Also, who'd have thought that with the invention of a game would come tremendous amounts of physics that can be looked at. There is physics involved in the players movements, the ball's movements, the court causing friction, the hoop has physics as well, plus there is a lot more physics involved that will go unnamed. A physicist can see a whole world of physics in basketball. Being that I'm not a physicist, I will look closely only at a small amount of various physics involved in basketball as listed below.
