Projectile Motion Primer for FIRST Robotics

It is that FIRST Robotics competition time of the year. Basically, in FIRST, high school students work in teams to build robots that compete in specific tasks. Apparently, this year a task involves throwing a basketball into a goal. And this leads to the popular question: how do I tell my robot to throw the ball? Oh? Projectile motion you say? Well, not so fast. Let us check some things first (or FIRST).

Good luck to all the teams this season!