As a basketball player starts to jump for a rebound, he begins to move upward faster and faster until he leaves the floor. During this time that he is in contact with the floor, the force of the floor on his shoes is:

A) bigger than his weight

B) equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to his weight.

C) less than his weight.

D) zero.

The answer is A. I don't really understand because while the player is in contact with the floor, wouldn't the force on his shoes be equal to his weight?

Option A is correct.

Explanation:

When the basketball player jumps, his muscles contract or extend appropriately which in turn creates an additional force on the ground.

From Newton's third law of motion which states that to every action there is an equal an opposite reaction, we can say that the ground exerts additional force on the basketball player, thereby overcoming his weight and pushing him off the ground.

Thus, we can conclude that the force of the floor on his shoes is bigger than his weight.

So option A is correct.