Friday, February 27, 2026

The physics of squeaking sneakers

Geometry of tread patterns determines frequency, so blocks were designed to play Star Wars music.

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More from the article ...

... We're all familiar with the high-pitched squeak of basketball shoes on the court during games, or tires squealing on pavement.

Scientists conducted several experiments and discovered that the geometry of the sneakers' tread patterns determines the squeak's frequency, enabling the team to make rubber blocks set to specific frequencies and slide them across glass surfaces to play Star Wars' "Imperial March."

"Tuning frictional behavior on the fly has been a long-standing engineering dream," said co-author Katia Bertoldi of Harvard University. "This new insight into how surface geometry governs slip pulses paves the way for tunable frictional metamaterials that can transition from low-friction to high-grip states on demand."

In addition, the dynamics revealed by these results are similar to those of tectonic faults and thus give scientists a new model for the mechanics of earthquakes, according to their new paper published in the journal Nature. ...



#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-02-27 02:31 PM

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