What are basketballs made of?
Basketballs take synthetic rubber, nylon, leather, adhesive, air and ink directly. Trace them back and you pass 44 made things on the way to 20 raw materials.
How basketballs are made See it on the map
What goes straight in
From the ground: 20 raw materials
- Air goes straight in
- Water through ink
- Cattle hide through leather
- Rock salt through leather
- Crude oil through synthetic rubber, naphtha
- Natural gas through synthetic rubber, ethylene
- Limestone through leather, chromium
- Chromite through leather, chromium
- Soybeans through ink, vegetable oil
- Rapeseed through ink, vegetable oil
- Clay through ink, vegetable oil
- Titanium ore through ink, titanium dioxide
- Iron ore through ink, pigment
- Sulfur through ink, pigment
- Corn through ink, ethanol
- Sugarcane through ink, ethanol
- Coal through leather, chromium, coke
- Trona through leather, chromium, soda ash
- Bauxite through leather, chromium, aluminum, alumina
- Sugar beet through ink, ethanol, baker's yeast, molasses
Made along the way: 39 things
Metals 4
Chemicals and fuels 27
NaphthaBenzeneEthyleneStyreneNitric acidAmmoniaQuicklimeParaffin waxCarbon blackTitanium dioxidePigmentEthanolHydrogenTolueneSoda ashPropyleneSulfuric acidMethanolPhenolAcetoneChlorineCaustic sodaHexaneFormaldehydeOxygen gasCarbon dioxidePetroleum coke