Football is an all American sport. While you may not think that it is a game of science it really is. In fact, the laws of physics play a large role in football play strategies and player selection. If you love football then this is your chance to develop a science fair project that focuses on the science of the football game.
Big Hands vs. Small Hands
The first football themed science fair project is going to examine the characteristics of a good football player. The first skill that will be examined is the ability to catch a football. To complete this project you will need a quarterback and five catchers with different sized hands. You will want to select a person with very small hands and a person with very large hands, and then various people with medium sized hands.
HYPOTHESIS: Football players with larger hands are better at catching the football.
EXPERIMENT: To test this hypothesis you will need to set up catching drills. The first drill will be at ten feet, the second at 20 feet, the third at 30 feet, the fourth at 40 feet, and so on. You will score each test subject based on whether they are able to catch the ball at the different distances. They will score 1 point if they catch the ball and 0 points if they miss.
DATA: The data that you will collect will include hand measurements and catching scores. The analysis of the data will be done by first calculating each test subject’s catching score. Then you will create a ratio of catching score/hand length. You will then look for a pattern that links the size of a person’s hand to their ability to catch a football.
Height to Weight Ratio and Blocking Ability
The next experiment is going to look for a relationship between a player’s height to weight ration and their ability to block a opponents with weight of 150, 160, 170, 180, 190 and 200 pounds.They should have experience with football blocking drills. (If you are a middle schooler you can scale back the size of the test opponents.) You will also need several football players of various sizes and shapes.
HYPOTHESIS: The lower the height to weight ratio is the more effective the player will be at blocking their opponent.
EXPERIMENT: To test this hypothesis you will first need to take each test subject’s height and weight. Then you will have them run a blocking drill to see if they can stop the selected opponents. You will repeat the experiment with each test subject.
DATA: The data that you collect will include the heights and weights of each test subject and a score based on the number of graduated opponents that they are able to block successfully. The analysis of your data will involve looking for a relationship between the height to weight ration of the test subject and the maximum size of opponent that they are able to successfully block.
