Basketball, a Marvel of Mathematics

By Nikhil Buduma
Grade 8, Miller Middle School, San Jose, CA
The world suddenly seemed still. The player was oblivious to outside distractions: the luminous

incandescent lights, aroma of steaming fast-food, and flashing cameras. The frenetically cheering

audience was silenced. In the player’s mind, it was only him, the basketball in his hands, and the hoop.

His team was stuck in a tie and his teammates were too weary to play overtime. Placed at the free throw

line with two seconds left on the clock, the player was his team’s last hope of winning the finals game.

The player had already missed the first free throw and now it was his last chance. He took a deep breath

to calm down his racing heart which was vigorously pumping adrenaline through his veins. He closed his

eyes and let himself take a few seconds to get comfortable with the shape of the ball. Then he

concentrated on the hoop and with swift flick of his wrist, he guided the ball into a perfect arc. Swish! The

crowd went wild, fans hopping out of their seats and screaming for joy. Finally, the loudspeaker boomed,

“Congratulations to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the 2009 NBA champions!” Today, basketball is a sport that

provides exhilarating entertainment to people of all ages. It is easy to learn and extremely fun to play.

However, most people are unaware of the mathematical principles that make up the game of basketball.

These mathematical principles are what make this sport so appreciable.

In any sport, one of the most important skills is being able to score. In the game of basketball, a

point is scored every time a team successfully makes a shot through their opponent’s hoop. But what

really makes a basketball shot successful? We can find the answer using mathematics, or more

specifically, analytical geometry. Let’s start by defining the curve of a basketball using parametric

equations.

Parametric equations are basically a way to define a curve C in such a way that the x- and y-

coordinates on the curve are expressed as functions of time t. Parametric equations are usually in the

x  f (t )
form, . The curve C defined by the two functions of time is called the trajectory. The variable t
y  g (t )

is called the parameter. A simple example of a parametric interpretation of a graph is a straight line. For

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 Basketball, a Marvel of Mathematics
By Nikhil Buduma
Grade 8, Miller Middle School, San Jose, CA
xt
example, the functions are actually representing the line y = 2x. An easy way to convert a
y  2t

parametric function into the standard (x, y) form is to solve for t in both of the parametric equations and

them setting them equal to each other. Following is an example:

x  t 2  4t
y  tan 1 t

Solution:
y  tan 1 t
tan y  t x  tan 2 y  4 tan y

The path of a basketball during a shot can be represented parametrically as:

x  x0  (v0 cos  )t
( g )t 2
y  y0  (v0 sin  )t 
2
where
( x0 , y0 ) are the initial coordinates of the basketball on a coordinate plane perpendicular to the ground
v0 is the initial velocity
 is the angle at which the ball is thrown with respect to the x  axis
g is the acceleration due to gravity = -32 ft/sec 2

Although it may not be clear, this pair of parametric equations for a basketball shot resembles the

shape of a parabola. Now let’s find a model for basketball shot of an average person to analyze why a

shot is successful. First, we take the plane that contains both the shooter and the hoop. Let’s place a

coordinate system on this plane such that the coordinates of the feet of the shooter are ate the point (0, 0).

The average adult male is approximately 5½ feet tall and will jump about ½ a foot before releasing the

ball. Therefore, the initial coordinates of the ball will be approximately (0, 6). Therefore, the parametric

x  (v0 cos  )t
equations for the shot is now . Let’s call the distance from the person to the
y  6  (v0 sin  )t  16t 2

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 Basketball, a Marvel of Mathematics
By Nikhil Buduma
Grade 8, Miller Middle School, San Jose, CA
hoop d. The height of an official basketball hoop is 10 feet. Therefore, this pair of equations should

contain the point (d, 10).

(d, 10)

(0, 6)

(0, 0) (d, 0)

One extremely useful piece of information for the game of basketball is the speed of the ball at

any given time t. If an object travels along a trajectory described by a parametric equation, its speed,

2 2
 dx   dy 
v(t ) , at any time t is     .
 dt   dt 

Let’s take the parametric equations that model an average person’s basketball shot that we found earlier,

x  (v0 cos  )t
, and try to find a general formula for the speed at time t:
y  6  (v0 sin  )t  16t 2

dx
 v0 cos 
dt
dy
 v0 sin   32t
dt
2 2
 dx   dy 
v(t )         v0 cos     v0 sin   32t 
2 2

 dt   dt 
 v0 2 cos 2   v0 2 sin 2   64tv0 sin   1024t 2  v0 2  64tv0 sin   1024t 2

Another very useful piece of information for the game of basketball is how far the ball has moved

from time t = a to time t = b. To find this, one can use the arc length formula:

2 2
 dx   dy 
b b


a
     dt   v(t ) dt
 dt   dt  a

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 Basketball, a Marvel of Mathematics
By Nikhil Buduma
Grade 8, Miller Middle School, San Jose, CA
b
Therefore, the distance traveled in our case is 
a
v0 2  64tv0 sin   1024t 2 dt .

Now let’s convert our parametric equations that model an average person’s basketball shot into

the standard form to make some more analysis on how math affects a basketball shot.

x  (v0 cos  )t y  6  (v0 sin  )t  16t 2

x
t y  6  (v0 sin  )t  16t 2
v0 cos 
y  6 2 v0 sin 
- t  t
16 16
 v0 sin  
2
y  6  v0 sin  
2

  t  
1024 16  32 

 v0 sin  
2
v0 sin  y6
  t
32 1024 16

 v0 sin  
2
y6 x v sin 
    0
1024 16 v0 cos  32
 v0 sin  
2 2
y6  x v sin  
   0 
1024 16  v0 cos  32 

v sin    v0 sin  
2 2
y6  x
   0  
16  v0 cos  32  1024

v sin    v0 sin  
2 2
 x
y  16   0   6
 v0 cos  32  64

v0 2 sin  cos     v0 sin   

2 2
16 
y  x      6 
v0 cos   32   64 

v0 2 sin  2     v0 sin   
2
16 
2

y x     6
v0 cos   64   64 


Now we have modeled the same basketball shot using a standard function. It is now pretty easy to

point out that it is a parabola that is opening downwards. We can now note the equation,

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 Basketball, a Marvel of Mathematics
By Nikhil Buduma
Grade 8, Miller Middle School, San Jose, CA

v0 sin  2     v0 sin     v0 2 sin  2   v0 sin  2 

2
16 
2 2

y x     6  , has its vertex at  ,  6 .

v0 cos   64   64   64 64 
  

 v0 2 sin  2   v0 sin  2 
This means the ball reaches its highest point at  ,  6  . By using a combination
 64 64 
 

of physics and probability, we can realize that the higher the arc of a shot, the more probable it is to make

it through the hoop. In addition, a shot with a higher arc is much more difficult block. Therefore, the goal

 v0 sin  
2

of the shooter is to try the maximize the y-coordinate of the vertex,  6 . However, he must be
64

careful to make sure that the point (d, 10), where d is the distance between the shooter and the basket and

10 is the height of the basketball hoop, is still on the graph, or the ball will either fall short and go way to

far. We can place restrictions on v0 and a, the initial velocity and the angle of release, to make sure the

ball stays on target by plugging in 0 for x and d for y in our standard equation to map out the possible

values for v0 and a. After simplification, we can get:

 v sin   v0 sin   4 
2
 0   v0 cos   d
 32 1024 16 
 

These numerous mathematical principles play a huge role into a successful shot. Without this

math, the game of basketball could have never been perfected into what it is today.

Although many people don’t realize it, the game of basketball is built on top of a foundation of

advanced mathematical principles. This sport incorporates many different areas of math, from analytical

geometry to vector calculus. Math isn’t just another subject taught at school. It’s not random jumble of

numbers of symbols. Math’s something that opens new windows of perspective. It’s a whole different

language that can capture the true beauty of the world around us. Math’s what puts action into my

passion: the sport of basketball.

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