Here’s why sneakers squeak on the basketball court

Here’s why sneakers squeak on the basketball court Skip to content Subscribe today Every print subscription comes with full digital access Subscribe Now Menu All Topics Health Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology View All Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes View All Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment View All Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics View All Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology View All Magazine Menu All Stories Multimedia Reviews Puzzles Collections Educator Portal Century of Science Unsung characters Coronavirus Outbreak Newsletters Investors Lab About SN Explores Our Store SIGN IN Donate Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 SIGN IN Search Open search Close search Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 All Topics Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology Tech Computing Artificial Intelligence Chemistry Math Science & Society All Topics Health Humans Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Recent posts in Humans Life An African monkey ate a rope squirrel and came down with mpox By Erin Garcia de JesúsFebruary 24, 2026 Health & Medicine A lab on wheels is tracking HIV spread in war-torn Ukraine By Kamal NahasFebruary 24, 2026 Archaeology Iron Age mass grave may hold unusual victims: mostly women and children By Tom MetcalfeFebruary 23, 2026 Life Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Recent posts in Life Animals Climate change could threaten monarch mass migration By Erin Garcia de Jesús1 hour ago Animals Keeping a beat wins caterpillars friends in low places By Jake Buehler12 hours ago Life An African monkey ate a rope squirrel and came down with mpox By Erin Garcia de JesúsFebruary 24, 2026 Earth Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Recent posts in Earth Animals Climate change could threaten monarch mass migration By Erin Garcia de Jesús1 hour ago Climate Halting irreversible changes to Antarctica depends on choices made today By Carolyn GramlingFebruary 20, 2026 Climate Snowball Earth might have had a dynamic climate and open seas By Michael MarshallFebruary 19, 2026 Physics Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics Recent posts in Physics Physics Here’s why sneakers squeak on the basketball court By Emily Conover2 hours ago Animals Intricate silk helps net-casting spiders ensnare prey in webs By Emily ConoverFebruary 24, 2026 Physics Physicists dream up ‘spacetime quasicrystals’ that could underpin the universe By Emily ConoverFebruary 17, 2026 Space Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology Recent posts in Space Planetary Science Venus has a massive lava tube By Tom MetcalfeFebruary 23, 2026 Science & Society Project Hail Mary made us wonder how to survive a trip to interstellar space By Tina Hesman SaeyFebruary 20, 2026 Astronomy This inside-out planetary system has astronomers scratching their heads By Adam MannFebruary 12, 2026 News Physics Here’s why sneakers squeak on the basketball court The shoes’ soles wrinkle in pulses that repeat thousands of times a second The loud squeaks of shoes on a basketball court result from parts of the sole slipping in pulses that repeat thousands of times a second. FreshSplash/Getty Images By Emily Conover 2 hours ago Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print The soundtrack of a basketball game is punctuated by squeaking sneakers. Now, physicists understand why. High-speed video of a skidding shoe reveals stick-slip motion, a stop-and-go situation in which parts of the sole stick in place as other parts slip forward. The shoe slips in pulses, as small regions of the sole buckle slightly and detach from the surface, Harvard applied physicist Adel Djellouli and colleagues report in the Feb. 26 Nature. The regular repetition of those pulses produces the squeak, the researchers found. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday. The pulses travel along the sole, a bit like how a tablecloth can be snapped into place by sending a wrinkle of motion across it. But in the shoe, the pulses repeat about 4,800 times a second, producing a kick that alters the surrounding air pressure to create sound. The pulsation rate matches the frequency of the sound the shoe makes, which determines its pitch. In the experiments, a glass surface served as a stand-in for the hard, smooth floor of a basketball court, allowing researchers to image the shoe from below. Based on a concept called total internal reflection, images of the shoe’s sole were bright where it contacted the glass, and dark where the shoe had buckled away from the surface. Further investigation using blocks of silicone rubber revealed that the ridges on a sneaker’s tread are essential to the sound. A flat piece of rubber, moved along the glass plate, resulted in chaotic pulses at uneven intervals, producing a muddled noise rather than a clear pitch. Ridges help to organize the pulses by guiding them, so rubber blocks with tread squeaked vigorously. The thickness and stiffness of the block sets the pitch of the sound, the researchers found. And that suggests a way to make silent shoes: Tune the squeak to the ultrasound range, inaudible to humans. That could be accomplished by making the sole thin — although that might not be ideal for athletic activities — or changing its composition, Djellouli says. “As long as you don’t mind annoying your dog.” The researchers also designed rubber blocks that squeaked at specific pitches and then used them to play “The Imperial March” from Star Wars, revealing another scientific truth: Darth Vader would have seemed much less intimidating if squeaky shoes marked his entrance. Physicists perform “The Imperial March” from Star Wars using rubber blocks that squeak as they slide on glass.A. Djellouli et al/Nature 2026 Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org | Reprints FAQ Citations A. Djellouli et al. Squeaking at soft–rigid frictional interfaces. Nature. Vol. 650, February 26, 2026, p. 891. doi: 10.1038/s41586-026-10132-3. About Emily Conover E-mail X Senior physics writer Emily Conover has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago. She is a two-time winner of the D.C. Science Writers’ Association Newsbrief award and a winner of the Acoustical Society of America’s Science Communication Award. We are at a critical time and supporting science journalism is more important than