Imagine an astronaut is practicing with a standard official basketball on an orbiting space station. Assume everything is in free fall so I wonder would it consume less or more effort to dribble compared to at 1g?
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$\begingroup$ Slam dunks will be much easier but dribbling, field goals and free throws will be impossible. $\endgroup$– my2ctsCommented Jan 11 at 11:30
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$\begingroup$ Dribbling is not impossible. You just have to find a way to immobilize the astronaut with respect to the "floor" so that they don't spin away after the first dribble. Of course, you'll also have to find a "floor." That is to say, a flat, rigid surface that is not covered with scientific instruments, experiments, sleeping bags, life support equipment, etc., etc., etc. Expensive real estate on board any spacecraft of the present era. $\endgroup$– Solomon SlowCommented Jan 11 at 12:42
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1 Answer
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Since the environment would be considered a rather force free except for the air drag due to the air in the space station. the momentum of the astronaut and the ball would be conserved at the moment the ball leaves the hand of the astronaut.
Assuming the astronaut's feet to initially be in contact with the floor of the space station(the contact force would be 0).
So the ball is thrown towards the floor. during this, not only the ball but half of the upper body is lowered which lowers the COM of the astronaut w.r.t the floor.
Due to all this, the astronaut will be thrown backwards by some small velocity. when the ball bounces and returns back to him, its kinetic energy will be transferred to that of the astronaut and some lost as heat. This sends him back more.
This would repeat until the astronaut comes in contact with the ceiling.
I could not find any resource on astronauts throwing anything with a considerable force to base my answer on.
would it consume less or more effort to dribble compared to at 1g?
The effort required to throw the ball would be almost the same as that on earth because apart from the energy spent in throwing the ball, in space you also throw yourself backwards but on earth, you spend a whole lot of energy passively in maintaining your balance, standing .etc
