The physics behind iconic NBA slam dunks
Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers pulls his 7-foot frame into a well-balanced dunk form. (Liu Jialiang/Deposit Photos/)Had it not been for the cameras tracking his every move, Michael Jordan’s jam from the free throw line during the 1987 NBA Slam Dunk Contest would be the stuff of myth. Instead, it has turned His Airness into a model for students of physics as well as students of the game.Jordan, being of this planet, is bound by the same gravity as the rest of us, meaning the math behind his giant leap should be simple to deduce. He burst from the court with a vertical velocity of roughly 14.8 feet per second and stayed airborne for .92 seconds, reportedly as long as Mike Powell did during his record-holding long jump four years later. That was just enough time to reach the basket nearly 15 feet from where he took off.To understand...