About this Experiment

Almost all gymnasiums use 1/2 inch thick tempered glass backboards while residential hoops use softer and thinner material. This experiment is intended to determine how a 1/2 inch thick tempered glass backboard performs compared to traditional residential backboards.

Experiment Parameters

The backboards are all 60 x 36 inches and have identical aluminum framing. The ball used is made of an indoor outdoor synthetic material. All balls were dropped from a consistent 55 inches and were measured with a high speed digital camera. Rebound response is defined here as the percentage of distance the ball bounced back from the original drop height.

Summary

Acrylic was the clear looser with only a 38% rebound response (some manufactures use thinner 3/8 acrylic which was not tested). 1/2 inch glass was the winner beating 3/8 inch glass by approximately 9% with a 69% rebound response.