Imagine yourself standing 13 feet away from the hoop, the eyes of all your teammates and the hushed crowd upon you as you concentrate. A free throw (also known as a foul shot), can be one of the most nerve-racking events in basketball. But, it may not have to be quite as stressful.
With all the March Madness about to ensue, we thought it would be the right time to bring you some exciting news: engineers at North Carolina State University have aced the secret of the free throw.
The latest project of Larry Silverberg and Chau Tran, two Mechanical and Aerospace engineering researchers, involved over 100,000 animated simulations of free throw shots to help them determine the optimum technique. Turns out there are four basic elements to hitting nothing but net on your foul shots:
Every two years we get to marvel at the speed, skill and artistry of the world’s top athletes and watch increasingly lavish opening and closing ceremonies, yet few of us ponder the work that goes on behind the scenes at the Olympic Games. In a recent post on her engineering education blog, Celeste Baine estimates that there were about 4,000 engineers involved in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, doing things like planning the pyrotechnics of the torch lighting and creating the fastest and most efficient running shoe.
NBC and the National Science Foundation (NSF) teamed up to make 16 fun videos about the science and engineering of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. We picked a few favorites, after the jump.
