Need help measuring angles of basketballs

[brooksale27-28]

My son chose a project off of this site titled the geometry of measuring baskets in which he has to determine which angle is the best for getting a basketball into the basket. The only problem is I have no idea how he can measure the angles of shooting baskets. Does anyone have any idea how this can work?

[kgudger]

Hello and welcome to the forums:

I looked at the project, and I think this is how you measure the angle of "Shooting the Basket". Assume you are looking down on the basketball court from above. I would say that directly in front of the basket (perpendicular to the backboard) would be zero degrees, and that completely to the left would be -90 degrees, and completely to the right would be +90 degrees. (As an alternative, all the way to the left would be zero, perpendicular would be 90, and all the way to the right 180.)

I would place a protractor on the ground directly under the basket (parallel to the backboard) and draw lines (chalk on a concrete court?) out from the protractor at the angles it shows. Use a tape measure to make sure that you shoot from the same distance for each shot. You will want to shoot quite a few times at each location. Another problem you may have is fatigue. Normally the more samples you have, the better your results are. In this case, the more samples = more fatigue and probably less accuracy. You may have to take your data over many days and starting at different angles every time.

Let us know how it works out!
Keith