Teaching Notes

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View the slow-motion sequences of the jumping
figure skater and the jumping basketball player to
examine “hang time” and to see if either athlete
remains suspended at the peak of flight. These are
clear cases of free fall; since the basketball player
has high horizontal running speed at take-off, the
top of the trajectory is quite flat, giving illusion,
when viewed in “real time” that the player “hangs”
in the air.
Students may be expected to need help when applying their own data to replicate the calculations presented as an example in Physics Talk.
If a sonic ranger is available, monitor a jump from
above and analyze the graphs of distance, speed,
and acceleration versus time with the entire class.
Directions for using a sonic ranger are provided at
the end of this activity.
Suggest to students who have access to VCRs with
slow-motion playback capability that they could
record jumps during athletic contests and perform
analysis similar to those conducted using the Active
Physics Sports video.