Blog 2

Cleaning out my house I normally find something I haven't seen in forever.  Normally, I find something small like a stuffed animal, or a book, but today, I unearthed our long lost Nerf Dart Tag set.  I thought for sure my mom would have gotten rid of this crazy contraption by now, finding it hidden away in a shelf, although a little dusty, was a pleasant surprise.  I realized that the small, foam darts were perfect examples of projectile motion.  The dart started off initially with only horizontal velocity and no verticle velocity, but once it was shot out of the gun, gravity began to act upon the little orange dart.  The horizontal velocity stayed constant while the vertocal velocity decreased due to gravity acting upon the object in free fall.  I never realized all the physics that went on behind the shooting of the Nerf gun, but I am glad its there to make it work or else shooting my brother wouldn't be as fun :)

Rules of the Game

I'm sitting on the the bleachers in the Moanalua gym with my friend, waiting for her little brother's basketball game to begin.  Both teams, Bulls in red, and Thunder in maroon, are on opposite sides of the court practicing their shots from different distances and angles.  As I watched the boys practice their shots, I noticed that, whether the shot when in the basket or not, the ball hang in the air for a split second before falling back down back to the court or through the net.

This made me think of the falling ball and hang time labs we did in class.  The faster the velocity of the ball, the longer it will hang in the air, so in reverse, if the velocity at which the ball is shot is slower, then the ball will spend less time in the air.
Also, the reason the ball hangs in the air is because of gravity constantly acting upon the ball once it leaves the player's hand.  Gravity's negative acceleration causes the ball's initital velocity to decrease and eventually become negative as the ball reverses directions and falls back towards the ground.

Although I never really understood the rules of basketball very well, understanding the rules of physics and how they apply to the game make this exciting game even more enjoyable to watch.