From youth basketball to the professional level STEM principles are always in play
1 CHAPTER NOTHING BUT NET The team is down by two points Only three seconds are left in the game Isabelle snatches the rebound She has a split second decision to make dribble or pass She knows it would take her at least four seconds to run down the court at full speed She sees Kelsey on the move Isabelle hurls the ball Two seconds later it meets Kelsey at the perfect spot for a three pointer Kelsey plants her feet bends her knees and leaps eight inches 20 cm in the air She releases the ball at a 55 degree angle with two
revolutions per second of backspin The ball soars in an arc toward the basket The angle drops the ball into the net Swish The buzzer sounds and the team rushes out onto the court to celebrate Of course Isabelle and Kelsey weren't thinking about all the angles vectors numbers and forces in those three seconds But these concepts in science technology engineering and math STEM are visible in every game of basketball HISTORY OF BASKETBALL Basketball's inventor wasn't thinking about the science either He was thinking about giving his students a sport to play in the winter In December 1891 Dr James Naismith took over a physical education class at a school in Springfield Massachusetts Many of the students already played football and rugby They weren't satisfied with playing traditional indoor games The new sport needed to be simple to learn yet challenging to play Naismith borrowed ideas from a few other sports
Basketball has changed a great deal since Naismith's day
