It doesn't "know the formulas". However, it has accumulated a life time worth of statistics, which it uses to predict what's about to happen, all the time. So I

It doesn't "know the formulas". However, it has accumulated a life time worth of statistics, which it uses to predict what's about to happen, all the time. So I can be immediately surprised when something unexpected happens. In that sense, there's a running physics simulator. As for throwing the basketball, most people know (#) what the arc should be, and can immediately after the throw tell if a throw will hit or miss with reasonable accuracy, assuming a viewpoint that allows them to extract the movement accurately. The difficulty there is learning to execute that throw. (#) edit, know as in "have learned", not as an innate ability.