Hand clapping is ubiquitous behavior for humans across time and cultures, serving many different purposes: to signify approval with applause, for instance, or to keep time to music. Acousticians often ...

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 ...

It might be hard to imagine yourself in ancient Rome, but if you were dropped into the audience of a play 2000 years ago, you’d probably know what to do when it finished – start clapping. Making a ...

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 ...

OXFORD, United Kingdom. - Students at a university in the United Kingdom are being encouraged to use 'silent jazz hands' instead of clapping, as traditional applause could be an issue for students ...

Students at the University of Oxford will now use jazz hands instead of applause as a way to be more inclusive of students who have sensory or anxiety disorders that may become uneasy by the noise ...

The University of Oxford passed a motion banning clapping to prevent anxiety among students. (Photo: Getty) Students are urging the University of Oxford in England to ban clapping out of fears it ...