Which sneaker has the best friction?

Question: Which running sneaker has the best friction?

Hypothesis: I predicted that the Nike brand would have the best friction rather than Under Armour and Asics.

My procedure:

1. Take one pair of sneaker and place it on a wooden plank

2. Put a 2.5 pound wight on the sneaker

3. Hook the friction tester to the sneaker

4. Pull the spring scale back slowly

5. Repeat for each brand

Conclusion-

After experimenting I found out that the Asics brand won with 9.49 newtons. Asics beat Nike by .04 newtons and beat Under Armour by 1.33 newtons. My hypothesis was incorrect because I thought the Nike brand would win. If I could do this project over again, I would have chosen different types of sneakers to test.

Abstract-

Which Running Sneaker Brand Has the Best Friction?

For my science fair project tested three different brands of running sneakers to see which one has the best friction. My three different brands were Nike, Asics, and Under Armour. I hypothesized that the Nike running sneaker would have the best friction. I thought the Nike brand would have the best friction because I mostly use that brand. I decided to do this project because I have been involved with many sports my entire life. In every sport I did, I ran. One day I was running to warm up before practice started. As I turned to go back, I slipped. It had to be because of the friction of my shoes. I finally got to know the answer to this question

I started my experiment by gathering my materials. I needed my three brands of running sneakers, Nike, Asics, and Under Armour. I got a piece of rectangular wood to test the sneakers on. Then I got three different friction spring scales from my science teacher. Afterwards I got a 2.5 pound weight to put on the top of the sneaker. After gathering my materials, I started collecting my data. I took one brand of sneaker, first Nike, and then hooked the friction tester on the back of the sneaker. I slowly and steadily pulled the tester back until the sneaker started to move. Then I recorded my data to however many newtons. I repeated my test for each sneaker ten times. After recording my data, I went back and found the average newton per kilogram for each sneaker.

After I experimented ten times for each brand of running sneaker, I found the averages. The overall average friction for the Nike sneaker was 9.45 newtons. Then after recording all of my data for the Asics brand, I found an average of 9.49 newtons. I was surprised this brand had better friction than Nike. Lastly, I found the average to be 8.16 newtons for the Under Armour sneaker.

I learned that the Asics running brand had the best friction. My hypothesis was incorrect for this experiment. I had thought that the Nike brand would have the best friction but it turned out to be the Asics brand. Since the friction spring scales I was using could have been old, the metal part of the spring could have been rusty. That means when I pulled the spring scale, it could have gotten stuck from rust. Instead of doing running sneakers, I could have done basketball shoes because I enjoy playing basketball more than I do running. Overall my project was accurate. I made sure it was the right foot sneaker for each brand and that I pulled in the same direction for each shoe. Everything was the same for each time I tested the brands. With an average of 9.29 newtons, the Asics sneaker brand had the best friction.