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Shoot a Basketball

  • Page ID
    88693
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    Using Calculus to Make a Basket

    You are a coach for a basketball team and need to advise your player how fast, in meters per second, the player needs to throw the basketball so that it lands in the basket when the player is a given number of meters away.  The vertical acceleration is 9.8 meters per second squared and the player will release the ball at an angle of \(\frac{\pi}{4}\) radians, so that the initial upward velocity will be \(\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}s_0\) meters per second and the horizontal velocity will be a constant \(\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}s_0\) meters per second where \(s_0\) is the initial speed of the ball in meters per second.  The basketball hoop is 3 meters high and the player will release the ball when it is 1.8 meters from the ground.  You will be given the horizontal distance \(x\) meters from the basket the player will be releasing the ball, and you must instruct the player at what initial speed the ball should be released.  Then you will watch the player shoot the ball and see if the player makes the basket.

       

    Horizontal distance from the basket: 

    Initial speed:  s =   

    Basketball players and Cinematographers:  Alize Reyes Hernandez and Alberto Morales Cesar

     


    This page titled Shoot a Basketball is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Larry Green.

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