Latest news with #clapping
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Baffled parents forced to follow bizarre rule at kindergarten graduation: ‘Straight out of 'Black Mirror''
Cut the clap! The confused and proud mom of a kindergartner went viral on social media after posting a video from her child's graduation ceremony where parents were forced to withhold their applause — or most of it, anyway. In the confusing clip dubbed 'dystopian' by viewers, attendees were compelled to conform to a strange standard, indeed — just one clap, singular, per graduate. Armchair critics couldn't wait to comment on the awkward affair, made public by Angelica Pueblas — the video, which racked up over 5 million views, drew in remarks ranging from flabbergasted to flippant. 'Rationing claps is insane work,' one commenter said, while another joked: 'They even got inflation on clapping [now].' 'There are only like 17 kids up there. Why are they strict about this?' wondered another commenter. 'This feels like a cult,' one person decided. While many fellow parents and concerned commenters found this peculiar procedure alarming, others thought it was both efficient and empathetic — with some in-the-know types arguing that there are numerous good reasons for the perplexing policy. In the event a child doesn't have a parent, guardian, or caretaker in the audience, the 'one-clap rule' helps prevent feelings of jealousy, emotional rejection, or neglect among kids, according to some. After all, if one kindergartener has two parents, grandparents, and siblings cheering and clapping extensively, and the next child doesn't have family at the ceremony, it can be 'heartbreaking,' at least one commenter explained. 'Why not just say clap hard for everyone?' one commenter suggested as a way to avoid the awkward atmosphere of this particular graduation ceremony. Another hypothesized that this rule could have been instituted to better accommodate students with sensory issues: 'There could be kids that have auditory issues in the school, and this is their way to help them feel more comfortable.' Experienced parents chimed in, saying that cheering and clapping can also delay the reading of names, elongating the ceremony, and forcing young children — who may already be antsy to move beyond the seated formalities — to sit still longer than necessary. 'It seems silly, but it's really a lifesaver. You'd be there all night otherwise,' assured one school graduation veteran. Others declared that the younger children get a reality check, the better: 'That's life. Some people get more claps. The kids gotta get over it,' wrote one blunt viewer. After the initial post took off, Pueblas posted a follow-up video in which she explained that there was a point in the event, after all the children had walked the stage, where the crowd was permitted to clap for the entire group to their heart's content. Meanwhile, strange or non-traditional commencement occurrences seem to be on the rise. Just a few years ago, a Texas mom shared a wild TikTok, which amassed more than 13.4 million views, in which parents of graduating kindergarteners were told that they were not allowed to enter the ceremony with babies, forcing families with multiple young children to separate and forfeit the opportunity for both parents to watch their graduate walk across the stage. Meanwhile, back in May, New York City's Pace University made national headlines after an AI-generated voice called out graduate names at commencement, rather than a professor or guest announcer. 'What a beautiful personal touch!' remarked one sarcastic commenter.
The Independent
30-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Scientists finally work out how clapping hands generates sound
A study has unravelled the physics behind the sound of hand claps, revealing it's more complex than just hands hitting each other. The sound is generated by a pocket of air compressed between the hands and rapidly expelled, causing air molecules to vibrate, similar to the Helmholtz resonance principle. Researchers used live experiments, theoretical modelling, and silicone replicas of hands, modifying speed, shape, and skin softness to understand clapping. The elasticity of hands causes energy absorption, resulting in a short "pop" sound rather than a longer noise. Researchers suggest clapping could potentially be used for human identification due to the unique sound and frequency of each person's clap.
The Independent
30-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Scientists finally crack mystery of how clapping generates sound
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 journal Physical Review Research, shows that the characteristic ' pop ' sound of a clap is not just from two hands smashing into each other but a much more complex phenomenon. The key to generating sound from clapping is a cavity of air that is compressed and pushed out of a small space. Scientists followed an interdisciplinary approach to understand clapping, using live experiments, theoretical modelling and silicone replicas of human hands. They modified the volume and duration of claps by changing the speed, the shape of the hands and even the skin softness. 'We clap all the time but we haven't thought deeply about it. That's the point of the study,' said study co-author Yicong Fu from Cornell University, 'to explain the world with deeper knowledge and understanding.' 'The point was not to look just at the acoustics, or the flow excitation or the collision dynamics, but to look at them all simultaneously,' Likun Zhang, another study author from the University of Mississippi, said. 'That's an interdisciplinary effort that allows us to really understand how sound relates to hand clapping.' The study shows that when hands come together during a clap, they create a pocket of air between the palms. This pocket is rapidly expelled from the narrow opening between the forefinger and thumb, causing the air molecules to vibrate. Scientists liken this vibration to the Helmholtz resonance principle, which is behind the tone heard when blowing across the mouth of an empty bottle. 'Traditional Helmholtz resonators have rigid walls like the glass walls of a bottle. This produces a long-lasting sound that attenuates very slowly because most of the energy contributes to the acoustic signal,' Dr Zhang explained. 'But when we have elastic walls – let's say our hands – there is going to be more vibration of the solid material, and all of that motion absorbs energy away from the sound.' This is why clapping generates a single short 'pop' as opposed to a longer noise, researchers say. Scientists hope their research can help inform music education, where handclaps are often used for rhythm timing. The study also shows that every person's clap has a different sound and a different frequency, indicating that clapping can be used in the future as an identification method, like how we use fingerprints. 'One of the most promising applications of this research is human identification. Just through the sound, we could tell who made it,' Guoqin Liu, another author of the study, said.
