Physics: Depth perception in basketball and football

This week the kids designed and executed an experiment to investigate whether two eyes are better than one when it comes to football or basketball. This lesson was a follow-up to the lesson we carried out two weeks ago, in which we carried out some mini-experiments on depth perception. Reflecting on the difficulties and challenges that came up during these experiments allowed the kids to write a more well-thought-out and developed experimental design for this week's experiment.

All groups found that on average a subject's game was improved with the used of two eyes over one.

Physics: Stopping on a dime

This week the kids used their physics skills to solve an engineering problem: Say you want to build a new basketball court, how much room do you need, besides the court itself? To figure this out the kids collected data on their reaction time, running speed, and the distance you run past the finish line, as you try to slow down.

We decided to consider the slowest reaction time, the fastest speed, and the longest overshoot in order to come up with a safe and conservative estimate for the distance between the out-of-bounds line and other obstructions. The kids observed that most people can't stop on a dime, particularly not during a competitive sport like basketball, and based on our data suggested a minimum distance of 2.5 meters between the court and any walls or obstructions.