Cosmo the Cougar’s 3-point dunk: How he did it
“Four Guys Threw BYU’s Mascot Into Orbit for an Insane Dunk” – Sports Illustrated
“BYU mascot converts crazy slam dunk from the three-point line” – CBS Sports
“Cosmo the Cougar dunks from 3-point line” – ESPN
“BYU mascot stunt: Can Cosmo the Cougar fly?” – Deseret News
Yeet! The internet is literally teeming with dozens of articles about Cosmo the Cougar’s latest stunt. Even our French-Canadian friends up in Montreal wrote an article “La mascotte de BYU réalise un dunk fou depuis la ligne des 3 points.” Almost every news outlet has a different story: the number of people who threw him, when the stunt occurred, and what game it was at. Here on the BYU Design Review, we will give a firsthand account of what really went down.
But the real question is how? How did Cosmo the Cougar soar nearly 25 feet from behind the 3-point arc, reach 14 feet high in the air, and have a hang time of about 1.5 seconds?
Well, first you should know that cougars have the second highest vertical jump of all animals, being able to jump up to 18 feet high [1]. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that our school mascot, Cosmo the Cougar, can really let it fly.
K, Let’s break down the physics and get our facts straight. Cosmo the Cougar took the floor during the second timeout of the second half during Saturday’s home game against San Francisco. While both teams were huddled on the sideline, Cosmo eagerly did a back full (backflip 360) while waiting for his big moment. Once the mats were laid down, five strong and spirited BYU students hurled Cosmo at the basket for an alley-oop. After almost landing in the hoop feet first and missing the dunk, Cosmo had one more chance. The five students picked him up again and…3…..2…..1! Cosmo took off at a nearly perfect 55-degree angle just over 20 mph!
Cosmo reached the apex of his flight after 8/10 of a second and found himself looking down from 14 feet high in the air (where his eyes were, the rest of his body was in a squat formation ranging between 10-14 feet) and caught the ball passed to him from a dunk team member. After about another 6-7/10 of a second, Cosmo had dunked the ball and a loud roar erupted among the 15,000 fans in attendance that night.
So while Cosmo had a mere 1.5 seconds or less to fly across the court, catch a ball, and slam it in; we must also appreciate the work of the 5 BYU students to propel Cosmo to this incredible height and distance. According to my calculations, the students accelerated Cosmo the Cougar somewhere around 58.66 ft/s^2. Taking into account Cosmo’s estimated weight, these students outputted 326 lbf combined or 65 lbf per student. Jimmer Fredette, leading alumni 3-point shooter, commented on twitter praising these five fellas.
Well, we can tell you that physics wasn’t denied last Saturday night. It was legit. Through recording how much time Cosmo spent in the air, seeing how high vertically he went, and using the kinematic equations, we determined:
1) How fast Cosmo was launched
2) How much force was needed to throw Cosmo
3) The clutch angle that was executed perfectly by 5 strong students and Cosmo’s insanely awesome acrobatic skills.
Check out all the different videos below:
[1] Turner, Josie F. “The 10 Highest-Jumping Animals in the World.” https://www.animalwised.com/the-10-highest-jumping-animals-in-the-world-943.html
