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The science of the perfect free throw. (Patreon)

Published:
2014-03-23 20:05:23
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineers (a soft spot for me) at North Carolina State University conducted a massive computer simulation which modeled the physics of the free throw to determine the perfect shot. After reading their paper, we created this infographic to illustrate the results of their computational modeling. I really like this graphic. I can see it hanging up in every high school basketball team's locker rooms. I think we might make a poster out of this. Emily does great work! Thanks for supporting us on Patreon!

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Comments

smartereveryday

Down here in the south there's a charitable organization called "The Elks". When I was in junior high I won their "hoop shoot" free throw competition. I was 9 out of 10 at that point. The trick was I hadn't fully hit puberty so it took every bit of my strength to make it up to the rim. I didn't have to regulate the force... I just pushed as hard as I could and it would go in almost every time! The following year I hit puberty and the magic ended. Puberty has a way of doing that.

Karen Mitchell

Awesome! How soon can we buy the poster? This will get more street cred with my basketball team than does my standard line "Trust me, I'm a physics teacher!" when I work with them on foul shooting. Now we know what was in the thought bubble over Larry Bird's head all those years.

John Cho

Love it! I do have some questions on the perfect release. How sensitive is the 52 degree angle to player height? Would the variance of actual height significantly change the angle? Does the optimum 1.5" distance between the top of the ball and the top of the backboard still hold or is the perfect release based on angle of entry? If so, I'd love to see a spray chart of the optimum angles for different heights.