I was root­ing around the NDSU web­site, look­ing for the time for tonight’s game against SDSU (which is 7:00pm, coin­ci­den­tally), and I found some­thing unique.

They have a web form called “Ask the Coach”.

I asked the Coach:

A bas­ket­ball is dropped from a height of 2.00 meters above the ground. On the first bounce the ball reaches a max­i­mum height of 1.10 meters where it is caught.

Find the veloc­ity of the ball:
a) just before it makes con­tact with the ground
b) just after it leaves the ground after the bounce

Also, find the total time from drop to catch (neglect­ing the time the ball is in con­tact with the ground)

And, just for fun, how much energy is lost dur­ing the bounce? Assume the ball weighs 0.2 kg.

Then, after sub­mit­ting, I get a page that reads:

Each week dur­ing the bas­ket­ball sea­son, one ques­tion will be answered on The Bison Bas­ket­ball Show with host Ross Manson.

The show airs late Sun­day nights on ABC tele­vi­sion in Fargo and Grand Forks, and late Wednes­day nights on ABC tele­vi­sion in Bis­marck and Minot.

Archives are avail­able to All Access pre­mium ser­vice sub­scribers on GoBison.com.

Now I just have to wait eagerly for the cor­rect answer on live television.