Listen to more stories on the Noa app. Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. What is the sound of one hand clapping? You may have ...

Researchers deserve a round of applause for uncovering the science behind the acoustics produced from hand clapping that had not been clearly understood until recently. The daily gesture that people ...

A round of applause, please: Scientists have finally figured out what’s behind the sound of clapping. The research pinpoints a mechanism called a Helmholtz resonator — the same acoustic concept that ...

What’s a political debate without a clapping, cheering audience? A debate with a silent audience “is like a movie without a soundtrack. …So many people are empowered by Twitter, Facebook. You have ...

In a pivotal scene from the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand, a mutant claps his hands and blasts a shockwave across a battlefield. In a theater somewhere, Sunny Jung watched—and wondered. “It made me ...

Scientists have finally unravelled the complex process that generates sound during handclaps, a discovery that shows how even simple acts can be rich with physics. The research, published in the ...