NCSU’s February Newsletter brags about the accomplishments on two of its engineers: discovering the best way to shoot a free throw.
I’m sure that many basketball fans are all agog to hear the results, and maybe brush up on their game. I would be equally interested in the physics of how to “Bend It” like Beckham.
But it makes me wonder: is this an appropriate use of state funds? (In case you didn’t know, most professors’ salaries are paid directly out of state funding.)
What should professors at public universities be researching? Cures for cancer? Innovations in construction safety? Should state universities concentrate on public goods? Or it is open season on anything that brings the university more fame and prestige?
I don’t know the answer. But somehow “Free Throw Science” doesn’t seem to be it.
