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Bloomfield Schools

The coding language we chose was StarLogo TNG, primarily because we do not have anyone on our team who has any experience in programming, and it is a simple program to use. Our model is based off of a pre-set model in the system called “Bouncing Balls”. The StarLogo TNG program can model problems with physics. StarLogo TNG was a good choice for our project because we are modeling the perfect free-throw, which requires the use of physics equations.

When we first started the programs, we looked at the flat plane as being the x-axis and the air as being the y-axis. But once we got our project moving, we couldn’t figure out why our agent kept curving to the side instead of making an arch motion. We realized that there was a z-axis coordinate that must be involved. We also could not figure out how to put a stop on our agent once it got moving toward the hoop. At first it was bouncing back and forth from one end of the spectrum to the other, and then the agent kept rolling past the hoop and stopping after and returning back to the beginning position. Once we mastered the stopping of the agent, we then noticed that our ball was traveling in a parabolic motion horizontally rather than vertically as initially intended.

Janet Penevolpe helped us out tremendously; she came one day to work with our team. Since none of us had any programming experience, we did not even know that there was a model library. We had started completely from scratch; we were trying to build a model by putting equations and variables in and deciding if they worked or not. If they didn’t work, we would just throw them out and try a different equation. Janet showed us how to use a model and helped us begin altering it to make it do what we wanted it to do.

Once we began doing this, we decided it would also be a good idea to look up some statistics on NBA players’ free throw shooting percentages. We took three big guys, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Yao Ming and Shaquille O’Neal, and compared their free throw shooting percentages. Yao Ming was number one on Interbaskets list of players over 7’2” with the best free throw shooting percentage, shooting at .786%. Surprisingly the NBA’s all-time leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar came in ninth with a percentage of .721% from the line. And Shaquille O’Neal came in dead last on their list of twenty seven shooting .525% from the free-throw line. What we had to figure out what made Ming so much better than O’Neal and even better than the leagues all-time highest scorer. We figured out that it was the angle of trajectory: the taller the higher the angle of trajectory would need to be to make a free throw. We looked up a formula online that showed how to calculate the perfect angle of trajectory for a particular player’s height, in our case any player over 7’2”. We found an equation that would help players calculate what their angle of trajectory should be in order to shoot a perfect free-throw. The equation said to take your height,

 

What we had to figure out what made Ming so much better than O’Neal and even better than the leagues all-time highest scorer. We figured out that it was the angle of trajectory: the taller the higher the angle of trajectory would need to be to make a free throw. We looked up a formula online that showed how to calculate the perfect angle of trajectory for a particular player’s height, in our case any player over 7’2”. We found an equation that would help players calculate what their angle of trajectory should be in order to shoot a perfect free-throw. The equation said to take your height, figure the angle from the top of your head, divide the angle in half, and add forty-five degrees. This would create the perfect angle you should shoot at. Unfortunately we could not get the equation to work in our simulation.

 

We also could not figure out how to put a stop on our agent once it got moving toward the hoop. At first it was bouncing back and forth from one end of the spectrum to the other, and then the agent kept rolling past the hoop and stopping after and returning back to the beginning position. Once we mastered the stopping of the agent, we then noticed that our ball was traveling in a parabolic motion horizontally rather than vertically as initially intended.

Janet Penevolpe helped us out tremendously; she came one day to work with our team. Since none of us had any programming experience, we did not even know that there was a model library. We had started completely from scratch; we were trying to build a model by putting equations and variables in and deciding if they worked or not. If they didn’t work, we would just throw them out and try a different equation. Janet showed us how to use a model and helped us begin altering it to make it do what we wanted it to do.

Once we began doing this, we decided it would also be a good idea to look up some statistics on NBA players’ free throw shooting percentages. We took three big guys, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Yao Ming and Shaquille O’Neal, and compared their free throw shooting percentages. Yao Ming was number one on Interbaskets list of players over 7’2” with the best free throw shooting percentage, shooting at .786%. Surprisingly the NBA’s all-time leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar came in ninth with a percentage of .721% from the line. And Shaquille O’Neal came in dead last on their list of twenty seven shooting .525% from the free-throw line.

What we had to figure out what made Ming so much better than O’Neal and even better than the leagues all-time highest scorer. We figured out that it was the angle of trajectory: the taller the higher the angle of trajectory would need to be to make a free throw. We looked up a formula online that showed how to calculate the perfect angle of trajectory for a particular player’s height, in our case any player over 7’2”. We found an equation that would help players calculate what their angle of trajectory should be in order to shoot a perfect free-throw. The equation said to take your height, figure the angle from the top of your head, divide the angle in half, and add forty-five degrees. This would create the perfect angle you should shoot at. Unfortunately we could not get the equation to work in our simulation.

Coding