[HN Gopher] Wilson's 3D-printed basketball is full of holes but ...
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Wilson's 3D-printed basketball is full of holes but never goes flat
Author : sohkamyung
Score : 18 points
Date : 2023-02-21 22:09 UTC (51 minutes ago)
(HTM) web link (gizmodo.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (gizmodo.com)
| bentt wrote:
| It would have meant a lot for them to bounce that ball
| skeeter2020 wrote:
| oh god no, you can't actually bounce _this_ version. This is
| the display model. Plus none of them look like they could
| successfully dribble a basketball without shanking it off a
| foot.
| grenoire wrote:
| Any videos of a game with this ball?
| smoldesu wrote:
| Not a game, but this was linked in the comments:
| https://youtu.be/JC02e5dcvZw
|
| It bounces fairly high and clearly has a bit of heft to the
| design. IANABBP, but looks good to me!
| skeeter2020 wrote:
| IANABBP
|
| I am not a basketball... player? person?
|
| IANA NBPA M(ember)
| sen wrote:
| For those people hitting a geo-block on the above link, this
| one worked for me in AU:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRoHKpmcRS0
|
| It's hard to tell from the limited actual bouncing/etc in the
| clip, but it looks like it's lighter and has less bounce than
| a regulation ball. Still seems to bounce crazily well for
| something 3D printed and without air pressure inside it.
|
| I'd be very excited to see this become a thing for balls in
| general if they can make them even close to existing
| basketball/soccer/etc balls. I doubt we'd ever see them in
| professional sports for tradition-reasons but for
| amateur/home fun I think it makes a lot of sense and for that
| market they don't need to be "perfect".
| NKosmatos wrote:
| Great tech and interesting design but the really nice thing would
| be if it was something we could buy today.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| _How many times has a game of basketball been thwarted by a ball
| that was too flat to bounce? An air pump with a properly sized
| needle isn't something most people carry around with them all the
| time_
|
| I'm racking my brain trying to think of one. Organized games
| always have the pump and extra balls laying around. Every pick up
| game I've played involved a few people who happened to bring a
| ball, and a pump wasn't far away (car trunk, or house in the
| neighborhood), even if no one had one on them.
|
| I'm all for new tech for its own sake, but if you're going to try
| to convince me this is going to be useful, give me some real
| reasons why this is better than a regular ball. Is it cheaper?
| Will it last longer either outdoors or indoors? Is it better for
| the environment?
| vosper wrote:
| > Organized games always have the pump and extra balls laying
| around. Every pick up game I've played involved a few people
| who happened to bring a ball, and a pump wasn't far away (car
| trunk, or house in the neighborhood), even if no one had one on
| them.
|
| > I'm all for new tech for its own sake, but if you're going to
| try to convince me this is going to be useful, give me some
| real reasons why this is better than a regular ball.
|
| Well the answer is convenience, right? Which shouldn't be
| underrated. Now you don't need spare balls, don't need to find
| a pump, and there's no more interruptions because of that.
|
| It's also reducing the organization / forethought that's
| required, even if right now it's so commonplace that it's faded
| into the background.
| Jarmsy wrote:
| I wonder how much the openings affect the drag.
| cjbgkagh wrote:
| Plus less (no?) Magnus effect.
| gkfasdfasdf wrote:
| I was wondering the same...does it shoot the same or will it
| curve like a wiffle ball?
|
| Regardless it'd be great to not have to pump... especially on
| cold days.
| PaulKeeble wrote:
| I wonder if this could be made on at least one of the larger
| domestic filament printers out of TPU. I imagine a design around
| TPU 95 might work well. Certainly gives me the idea to try and
| make a ball that is hollow and pliant enough to bounce well.
|
| Certainly looks like some people have tried it and got reasonable
| results for solid balls
| (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4358673)
| syntheweave wrote:
| The last time there was an attempt to make a major change to the
| NBA regulation basketball, in 2006, it went poorly because the
| ball they came up with was too hard, and left players with
| chafed, scratched-up fingers by the end of the game. (Some
| reported it softened up with use, but the reputation was set by
| that first impression.)
|
| I don't think basketball needs to be very high tech, but I guess
| manufacturers aren't going to sit still either.
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(page generated 2023-02-21 23:01 UTC)