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Project Summary
| Difficulty | 5 – 8 |
| Time required | Short (several days) |
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| * Note: This is an abbreviated project idea, without notes to start your background research or a procedure for how to do the experiment. You can identify abbreviated project ideas by the asterisk at the end of the title. If you want a project idea with full instructions, please pick one without an asterisk. |
Abstract
You can measure the approximate maximum height a thrown ball reaches by measuring the time it spends in the air. To do this project, you'll need at least one ball and a helper with a stopwatch. Your helper should start timing just as you release the ball, and stop right when the ball touches the ground. The height, h (in meters), can be calculated from the time aloft, t as follows:For height in feet, change "4.9" in the above equation to "16". (Wiese, 2002, 20–22.) Advanced project idea: If you've taken high school physics, you should be able to derive the equation above for yourself. Can you develop an explanation for how high you can throw different balls based on the forces acting on the balls?
Bibliography
Wiese, J., 2002. Sports Science: 40 Goal-Scoring, High-Flying, Medal-Winning Experiments for Kids. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.Variations
- For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Sports Science Project Ideas.
Last edit date: 2006-12-26 14:17:29
Career Focus
If you like this project, you might enjoy exploring careers in Sports Science.
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Physicist Physicists have a big goal in mind—to understand the nature of the entire universe and everything in it! To reach that goal, they observe and measure natural events seen on Earth and in the universe, and then develop theories, using mathematics, to explain why those phenomena occur. Physicists take on the challenge of explaining events that happen on the grandest scale imaginable to those that happen at the level of the smallest atomic particles. Their theories are then applied to human-scale projects to bring people new technologies, like computers, lasers, and fusion energy. |
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Aerospace Engineer Humans have always longed to fly and to make other things fly, both through the air and into outer space—aerospace engineers are the people that make those dreams come true. They design, build, and test vehicles like airplanes, helicopters, balloons, rockets, missiles, satellites, and spacecraft. | |
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