A forklift is a small truck with two poles that stick out to lift heavy objects. In this video, two friends strap a basketball hoop onto the sticks, which the forklift jacks up a good 20 feet into the air. Then one guy does a whole set of amazing shots. We don’t know the numbers behind these amazing shots, but we can use math to guess!
Wee ones: What shape is a basketball, or any ball you like to play with?
Little kids: If the ball bounces 23 feet high above the ground, does it go as high as the 20-foot basketball hoop? Bonus: If you’re 4 feet tall and bounce a ball twice as high, how high does the ball bounce?
Big kids: If the basketball guy hurls the ball 25 feet at the wall and it bounces off to fly 11 feet to reach the hoop, how many feet does it travel in total? Bonus: If the guy tries 26 crazy shots like this and 1/2 of them go in, how many does he make?
The sky’s the limit: If the guy throws the ball at the forklift at 10 feet per second, and at the same time the forklift drives straight at him at 20 feet per second, how many feet from the guy will the ball and the forklift meet if they start 90 feet apart?
Answers:
Wee ones: A circle — or in 3 dimensions, a “sphere.”
Little kids: Yes. In fact, it bounces 3 feet higher than the hoop. Bonus: 8 feet.
Big kids: 36 feet. Bonus: 13 shots.
The sky’s the limit: 30 feet. For every chunk of distance the ball travels, the forklift travels twice as much. So the ball will go 1/3 of the total distance and the forklift will travel 2/3 of it.1/3 of 90 feet is 30 feet.
