I have recently encountered an endearing trend among high-school and college students, informally as well as in classrooms and in larger gatherings: collective finger-snapping. Once, in the middle of ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. If you’ve seen any of the Avengers movies, they might have ...

Researchers studied the physics of a finger snap and determined how friction plays a critical role. Using an intermediate amount of friction, not too high and not too low, a snap of the finger ...

It all happens in a snap. New high-speed video exposes the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it physics behind snapping your fingers. The footage reveals the extreme speed at which the gesture occurs, and shows ...

Karen Hopkin: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin. Doing science isn’t easy. It takes an enormous amount of time and energy to collect and analyze data. At least, that’s ...