US EditionThe Surprising Complexity Behind the Squeak of Basketball Shoes on Hardwood Floors
- This week, a team in Nature described how sole geometry governs sneaker squeaks through waveguide-like slip pulses, according to researchers at Harvard and Nottingham.
- The project started with the simple question after Adel Djellouli heard basketball shoe squeaks at TD Garden, challenging the belief that the noise was a straightforward stick-slip friction phenomenon.
- Using high-speed imaging and audio analysis, researchers combined internal reflection imaging with cameras capable of recording at one million frames per second and a microphone while sliding sneakers on a smooth glass plate.
- Beyond reducing nuisance noise, the study points to engineers and materials designers using tunable frictional metamaterials for squeak-free shoe design and to study earthquake physics.
- Contrary to earlier models, the study shows shoe squeaks involve geometry-guided slip pulses traveling as fast as some geological faults, challenging simplified stick-slip models.
42 Articles
42 Articles
A materials specialist at Harvard University wondered how shoes produce the characteristic gnashing of a basketball game.
Someone Finally Got To The Bottom Of Why Basketball Sneakers Squeak
I think we have all lain awake at night trying to make sense of one of the greatest mysteries of our time: why do basketball sneakers squeak?…No? Just me? What do you lie awake thinking about? I mean, I think we know the process through which the squeaking sound you hear over the course of any basketball game is produced. You simply have a rubber sole rubbing against the hardwood floor over and over again.Enter To Win The Ultimate "Money-Can't-B…
Rutland Herald
A Boston Celtics game-inspired friction test finally pinned down the sneaker squeak
A new study uses physics to uncover why sneakers squeak on the basketball court. Scientists slid a shoe against a smooth glass plate over and over, filming it and recording the squeaking sounds with a microphone. As the shoe works…
Associated Press News
The surprising complexity behind the squeak of basketball shoes on hardwood floors
A new study uses physics to uncover why sneakers squeak on the basketball court. Scientists slid a shoe against a smooth glass plate over and over, filming it and recording the squeaking sounds with a microphone.
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