JORDAN'S HANGTIME :

HOW LONG DOES MICHAEL JORDAN HANG IN THE AIR !

Hanging with Mr. Jordan
What is hangtime? It's how long a bro' stays up in the air before his feet touches the ground. You ask why is Jordan so good at hanging ? Well, it's all an illusion. When Michael went for his freethrow dunk at the slam dunk contest in 84-85, 86-87 and 87-88, it seems that Michael flew all the way to the rim. His flight follows a parabolic motion (like a rainbow).

There are two forces at work, the vertical and horizontal component of the parabolic motion. What determines hang time is your vertical component of the leap. The higher you jump, the longer you stay up. The horizontal component of you leap does zippo to your hang time. All the horizontal component does is determine how far away you land after taking off.

Applying motion equations to the vertical component, we can calculate the time Michael is in the air. At the peak of the parabola, vertical speed is zero. Assume gravitational acceleration is constant 9.8 ms-2. Assume Michael's vertical is 48 inches (approx 1.20m).

Vertical speed at the apex of jump = v = 0ms-1
gravitational acceleration = a = 9.8ms-2
vertical leap height = s = 1.20ms-1 Tim Montgomery's 9.78 sec record sprint

v2 = u2 + 2as
0=u2 + 2 (9.8)1.2
u2 = 23.52 ms-1
u = 4.85 ms-1

Fast-twitch muscle power
Michael's powerful hips, quadriceps and hamstrings and calf muscles pushes his lean, skinny body into the air with ease. He's black too and that helps because black people genetically have higher ratios of fast-twitch muscle fibres to slow-twitch. Fast-twitch muscles provide that explosive power but it runs out of energy (creatinine) very quickly. Lactic acid builds up and the fibers need time to get rid of it. But Michael doesn't tire easily because his leaness and high aerobic fitness assists in getting rid of unwanted lactic acid. In other words to be a good jumper, you need to be lean and aerobically fit. For basketballers, being able to run the mile in under 5 minutes is important. Guys like Jordan and Iverson can do it because they are lean and have big lungs and heart.

His high center of gravity also means that he doesn't need to jump high to get most of his weight off the ground.

Michael initial vertical takeoff speed should be at least 4.85ms-1. World record 100m sprinter, Tim Montgomery ran an average 100m / 9.78s = 10.22ms-1. Michael has to generate half that speed in the vertical direction in order to go up 48 inches (or 1.20 metres).

HANGTIME calculations :

v = u + 1/2at2
0 = 4.85 + 1/2(9.8)t2
t2 = 4.85
t = 0.49 seconds
Total time going up, then down = t X 2 = 0.49 X 2 = 0.98 seconds

Michael's estimated hang time is 0.98 seconds. But by moving his arms and bending his legs, he probably could stretch that to 1.50 seconds, sometimes 2.00 seconds. The additional upward momentum from pumping his arms and ball could provide that extra 0.50 seconds. Hand touching the rim could slow down his descent for about 0.15 seconds.

Jordan's hangtime is 0.98 second
Superman has entered the building.
Michael's jumping and leaping ability amazes many. When the tongue sticks out and then the femto-second explosion to the basket, ending with a dunk on some poor white-ass 7 foot center is a fearsome sight to behold. Skill, speed, and physics seems to allow Jordan to do the impossible. His powerful hip, thigh and calf muscles launch him 48 inches up into the stratosphere. See him pull off acrobatic reverse layups and jams, each one with that unique Jordan flair that no b-baller could ever hope to copy.

Poetry in Motion
Range of motion (ROM) of the joints = elasticity. Stretching to increase the ROM provides extra inches in vertical leap.

Look at the hangtime, look at the motion!!!

Have body will fly
At 6-6, Jordan's center of gravity is higher than that of the average person and his aerial acrobatics cause it to rise even higher during a jump. The terrific force he exerts on the floor gives him a quick takeoff and longer time in the air. Biomechanical researchers have concluded that a good jumper produces an average force of about two to three times his weight pushing off the ground.

Prof Douglas Kirkpatrick in Spike Lee's AJ adverts...

Michael in orbit
Based on Jordan's 32,000 career total points, and about 16,000 jumps, we can estimate that Jordan has been airborne for approximately for 4 1/2 hours. That's like a flight from New York to LA or three low-altitude orbit around the earth in the space shuttle.

Jumping to the max...
On any given leap, Jordan, who weighs about 200 pounds is exerting 400 to 600 pounds of force on the floor. Compare that to Atlanta's Spud Webb, who at 5-7 and 135, jumps 42 inches vertically and exerts 270 to 400 pounds of force.

Moon Jumping
Since an object on the moon weighs one-sixth of what they do on earth, a jumper can rise six times higher and remain in flight six times longer than on earth. So weighing a hefty 33 pounds, Jordan would perform vertical leaps of 24 feet and hang in the air for 6 seconds. That's like jumping over a small two-story building in a single leap.

Control tower to Air 23. You are cleared for takeoff...
There's more than one way to look at the magic Michael does. Lt. Col. Douglas Kirkpatrick, a professor of astronautics with the Air Force, has used algebraic equations to study Michael's jumps and acknowledges that Michael's abilities are phenomenal but he has a more down-to-earth explanation. "There's nothing specific about his flight that makes his hang time any different that anyone else's. If you look at what he does in slow motion, you'll see he does glide and make it look like he's floating. But there's nothing anyone can do to hang longer. Hang time is a misnomer."