Can You Play Basketball on Mars?

The other day at dinner my 7 year old suddenly blurts out that you can't play basketball on Mars.  The comment came out of nowhere so I asked her why that was.  She's 7, so she didn't have a perfectly well thought out answer, but it was interesting seeing her wheels churn as she offered an explanation and provided us with some interesting dinner time conversation!  She had the right idea that gravity is different on Mars which is certainly going to make the game of basketball different.  So what are those differences? 

I did a quick google search and the average 'hang time' of a person is 0.53 seconds.  This means that a person who jumps upward is in the air for 0.53 seconds before landing back on the ground.  Earth's gravitational force pulls a person back to the ground.  Mars is a smaller planet and therefore has a smaller gravitational force.  The acceleration of gravity on Mars is 2.64 times smaller than Earth's.  This means that when you jump off the ground, gravity doesn't pull you back down as hard, meaning you'll be in the air for a longer period of time.  How long?  I won't run through the math, but it works out that the time you are in the air is inversely proportional to the gravity.  If the gravity is three times lower, your 'hang time' is three times greater.  This means that a hang time of 0.53 seconds on Earth becomes 1.59 seconds on Mars.

Initially that seems great for basketball!  But maybe not.  Less gravity means more 'hang time' and a greater jump height.  It means shooting the ball is very different as the ball will go higher and stay in the air longer than on Earth.  Does this make basketball on Mars impossible?  No.  Does it make it more difficult?  Depends on how you look at it.  If you are used to playing basketball on Earth, playing basketball on Mars will be very difficult...at first.  Once you make the adjustment and get more practice, you'll adapt and playing on Mars will become the new normal. 

Anyways, interesting dinner conversation at our house.  It beats the typical conversation of why the cat always poops right after we clean his litter.  :-)