Nothing but Net experiment

[Snyderman123]

Hello, we are going to do the Nothing but Net experiment but we are going to determine if a spin at release will improve accuracy. We will video tape subjects making shots with and without a spin. My teacher says I need a control group to be an experiment... which is my control group? The shots with no spin? I am planning to have each student make 10 baskets of each (spin snd no spin) Is this ok? How msny subjects do I need?

[deleted-71603]

Hello, and welcome to Science Buddies.

Yes, the control group would be the group that does not spin. A control group is also known as your base group or your comparison group. Without this group to compare to, you can't determine whether adding spin improves accuracy.

As far as # subjects you need, 10 baskets of each (spin and no spin) should be fine. There are statistical calculations available to help you determine sample size but that is high school level or higher math. If you're interested in learning about it, research 2-sample t-test.

Another important aspect of your experiment is controlling your variables. Controlling variables is important so there aren't changes going on in the background that can inadvertently affect your results. What could these be? Proficiency of your players, psi of the basketball, ?. When choosing your subjects, you can take one of two approaches. Either choose all from the same proficiency level (they're all really good at taking shots or really bad at taking shots), or be sure to have a good mixture of good, medium, bad.

I hope this helps. Be sure to write back if you have more questions.
Good luck!