Post created by: Josh
So yesterday I was bored and I had to wait for my first class to start so I decided to hangout in my dorm room and watch basketball highlights to pass the time. I was watching one of my favorite high school players, Josh Christopher, and one play in particular stood out to me. One of Josh’s teammates got a steal and passed it up to him as he was heading up the court. He then caught the ball, took one dribble, picked the ball up, proceeded to take two steps and rose up for the one handed flush off of two feet. Then, after a good five minutes of admiring the dunk and replaying it multiple times, I had a thought. This is more than just a dunk, there’s physics going on in this entire sequence. I didn’t quite realize it until I took a moment to stop what I was doing and let my brilliance take over.
There are several pieces that make up a dunk such as force, acceleration, friction, and gravity. Newton’s third law can also be used to describe the science behind dunking a basketball. The law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Now how might this law be demonstrated when dunking a basketball? Well you see, when a player is going for a dunk the key factor to whether or not they will end up on Sports Centers top ten plays or Shaqtin' a Fool is whether or not they exert enough force into the ground. When a player is going to dunk he increases in velocity, abruptly stops and exerts force into the ground which then propels them toward the hoop. Friction also plays a role because if there was no friction the player would just fall if he attempted this. After the player is propelled towards the hoop they then momentarily accelerate against gravity and at the peak of their jump it may seem as if they are floating. After this comes the descent of the dunk. This process is gravity pulling down on the person and forcing them to decelerate on their way up and accelerated again on their way back down. You see it was never just a dunk, so next time you’re watching basketball and someone goes up for a jam just sit back and truly enjoy and admire the beauty behind it. Physics is everywhere around us, especially in the sports we love.
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