Dust and Grip : How Court Contaminants Affect Basketball Shoe Friction
Applied Technology- Grade:
- 8
- Teacher:
- Naomi Oesterle
Our class started with brainstorming ideas. We asked: How will different contaminants change the shoes friction on a basketball court? Our class came up with many possible variables that could affect our test. Before we started testing the basketball shoes friction we had to wash the bottom of the shoes with dish soap and dry them with a washcloth. This would be the control. After we washed the shoes we took them to the basketball court to test the shoes. We wiped the basketball court with a rag in between each test so there was no dust or dirt on the court. We dipped the shoe in a contaminant and then dragged it along the gym floor using the spring scale. We observed the amount of force required to drag the shoe and recorded the data. We tested each contaminant three times and took the average of the trials. We did this with the following variables: recently washed, soda not dried, water, dirt, fine sand, coarse sand, soda that had dried for 24 hours,and a sports sticky pad. The sticky pad had the most friction and the dirt had the least. After testing our contaminants we added them to a graph. We had to make some adjustments in the moment like washing the floor in between tests and allowing the soda to dry. Knowing the friction force is important to the real world because basketball players rely on the traction from their shoes.