The Physics of Basketball Review

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(More customer reviews)Make no mistake about it, this is not an introductory book. This is for people who know basketball and a little physics or know physics and a little basketball. It tells basketball stories to illustrate physics and physics stories to illustrate basketball.
I would recommend this book to high school and college physics teachers to add interest to their discussions. It could even be used as text for a college course on physics of sports. Not only does sport interest students, they already know something about 'how it works' and with the help of this book, an instructor can use physics to introduce them to 'why it works'.
I found of the sequence of explanation of the four force model of the flight of the ball exceptionally well done. As with a good scienctist, he started with data. Then he took one force, gravity, explained how it works, what effect it will have on a shot ball and compared the effect to data. He showed how gravity was necessary but insufficient to explain the ball's motion. Through three more forces: buoynacy, drag (air resistance) and Magnus force, he methodically discussed the force, performed measurements, then added the force to the model. Now that he had the four force model, he used it to explain how a good shooter chooses his shot angle to make a shot 'softer' not, as one might expect, easier. Marvelous -- data, theory (or theories), model, prediction, repeat until it matches nature, and finally use the model to explain something not originally in the model. How much more accurate a view of the method of scientist than the "scientific method".
As the motion of the ball gets more complicated, following the physics does get a bit challenging. Through the discussion of deflections off the rim and backboard, I admit I read for a while and then let it sink in before I returned to it. I was however rewarded in discovering how correct I was in trying to use the board when close to the hoop -- only thirty years too late.
As with any good rock concert, one should be left wanting more, and I wished that the discussion of breaking the glass was given a bit more space. I think a figure or two more showing the effect of compression and tension and how this leads to an explosive break would have helped.
Finally, in addition to instructors, this book would be a good read for your scientist friend or science dabbler who would like good basketball stories along with some good stories of scientific inquiry.

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