Many of us have made noise, waved things, or tried other tactics to distract an opponent during a game. For example, waving things when an opposing team is at the line in a basketball. I saw the following article on Slate.com (via Techdirt) about The Science Of Free Throw Distractions. In a nutshell, a scientist thought that the random waving of things behind the basket during a foul shot was like “white noise” and actually canceled each other out, therefore not distracting the player. The scientist proposed that the crowd should instead wave things in unison, which would have a greater effect on the shooter by making him think he was moving. Surprisingly, the scientist wrote to Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban about trying out this theory, and Cuban agreed. Read the article for more details and the results.