Friction Shoe Lab

I saw this awesome idea years ago and unfortunately cannot remember where. (If you know, please comment with the links below!) During lessons about forces and friction, have students design the sole of a shoe!

Photo by Ox Street on Unsplash

First, have students create sketches of ideas for the sole textures they want to try. Then, on a cardboard shoe cutout, have students cut pieces of foam and glue them to the bottom of the cutout. They can measure the friction created by dragging their shoe by a spring scale across the floor or table. Just a plain cardboard shoe could serve as a control.

Ask students to consider what applications for shoes would high friction work best and where would less friction be better.

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