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 ...

In a scene toward the end of the 2006 film, "X-Men: The Last Stand," a character claps and sends a shock wave that knocks out an opposing army. Sunny Jung, professor of biological and environmental ...

If wordlessly clapping your hands to make as much noise as possible feels like a rather primitive thing to do, you’d be quite right. It’s thought that the origins of applause lie far, far back in the ...