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How does the coefficient of friction in climbing shoes compare to that of normal shoes?
How does the coefficient of friction in climbing shoes compare to that of normal shoes?
To test this I derived a formula to calculate the coefficient of friction (top left). The only variable I needed to complete the calculations was the angle at which the shoe started slipping so I set up a way to gather this info (shown on left). When each shoe started slipping I would record the angle of the board shown on my phone. I then created a data table with the angle and the corresponding coefficient of friction
These are the results of my experiment (right). Overall, while climbing shoes seemed to have a slightly larger coefficient of friction relative to regular shoes, the difference is not as great as I would have expected. There were some flaws in my experiment design. The climbing shoes I tested were a few sizes smaller than the regular shoes I tested and climbing shoes are also extremely arched and intended to have weight on them which could have altered the results.
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