Effect of Inflation on Oblique Basketball Bounce
Determining the effects of ball pressure on a ball's trajectory
Building the experiment
Using a band saw, nail gun and some hand tools I built this experimental setup.
Collecting and Analyzing Data
Data was collected using a 60 fps camera and analyzed using video software (Kinovea). This along with the accelerometer allowed me to determine 4 key parameters for further analysis shown next.
Results
Regression
● Started with visual inspection of graphs to look for trends
● Looked for function to fit data with uniform residuals and high R2 value
F-Tests
● For Z-vibration (F = 11.9) > (Fα = 2.6): there is significant difference in Z-axis vibration for different ball pressures
● For velocity (F = 0.001) < (Fα = 2.6): there is no significant difference in velocity at peak of bounce for different ball pressures
Future Improvements
After an experiment it is useful to reflect and see what you would do differently. For this experiment there are a few changes that would be made before presenting our conclusions:
● Higher fps camera
●Separate cameras for bounce height and angle measurements
●Horizontal markers
●Angle camera close to the floor
●Bounce height camera at mid-height
