Diplomat73's Journal: sci project

Hossam Tewfik
SCI 12B
Justification

        The question I have chosen to test and research is "What type (as in size) of a basketball will go further when thrown." I have chosen this question for many reasons. First, this question has many implications and can be applied to many different fields. Although I'm only concentrating on basketball, this same question may be applied to soccer, football, or any ball sport. Another reason why I chose this question is that I'm able to test this question effectively with little room. Finally, I chose this question because it applies to not only one physical principle but also two, fluid friction and mass.
        This question applies to the sport of basketball in many different ways. First, the size of a ball is important during a game of basketball. When watching a first grade basketball you will of course not give them a full regulation size ball. In addition, in the NBA you will not give them a junior size basketball to play with. This is because the ball is not proportional to the players' bodies. Similarly, this question applies to how far someone can shoot a ball. With a smaller size ball, the person can probably shoot farther then with a full size regulation ball. It is important too not that muscle density also plays a major part in how far the two different size balls can go.
My question applies to two different physical properties, fluid friction and mass. Mass is defined as a property of matter equal to the measure of an object's resistance to changes in either the speed or direction of its motion. The mass of an object is not dependent on gravity and therefore is different from but proportional to its weight. Mass is very important. It is so important that many things depend on it such as inertia, which is solely dependent upon mass. Other things include force and distortion in space-time. In my experiment mass is used when comparing the two ball sizes. The smaller the mass the longer the ball will go. The other physical property that my experiment incorporates is fluid friction. Fluid friction is when molecules part around something similar to something like a rock in the middle of a river. Another way to say this is that Fluid friction is the force exerted by a fluid on an object moving through the fluid. It is important to note that fluid friction is a vast field of modern research that is not only confined to my experiment. Its ramifications extend from molecular interactions, which give fluids their viscosity, to frictional effects that arise from the random motions, collisions, and interactions of macroscopic chunks of fluids in complex swirls of turbulent flow. In my experiment fluid friction is important. When throwing the ball into the air the air molecules will be pushed away from the ball similar to the rock in the river example. The stronger the resistance from the air, the less far the ball will go and vice versa.
        In conclusion my experiment is "What type (as in size) of a basketball will go further when thrown." It is an interesting question with many ramifications and incorporates two different physical properties, fluid friction and mass.s

Sources: http://www.arts.richmond.edu/~rubin/pedagogy/131/131notes/131notes_64.html, andhttp://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/Class/newtlaws/u2l1b.html