How Does a ‘Martian’-Style Gravity Assist Actually Work?
It's basically a perfectly elastic collision, like two bouncy balls colliding.
Trigonometry Is Essential to Physics. Here Are the Basics
Good ol' trig: that bastion of angles and triangles is essential to calculating velocity, momentum, and much more.
Use a Slo-Mo Video to Calculate How Fast Glass Shatters
Using footage shot by The Slow Mo Guys, you can get a pretty good estimate of the speed at which cracks travel through a sheet of glass.
How Dense Does a Body Have to Be to Break a Concrete Floor?
Solve this *Captain America* physics puzzle.
No GPS? A DIY Radio Transmitter Can Help You Navigate
The old-school way to navigate is with a clock and a sextant, but you can also hack together this alternative.
An Energy Evolution: From Delicious to Dirty to Almost Free
A warp-speed history of our quest for cheap energy, from prehistoric hunters to climate change.
How Kyrie Irving Could’ve Leaned Over So Far Without Falling
In a video, the Boston Celtics player stands on a basketball court and leans... and leans. Here’s how to parse the mystery of why he doesn’t fall.
What Would It Take to Shoot a Cannonball Into Orbit?
We did the math on a famous thought experiment by Isaac Newton involving a very tall mountain, a wicked fast cannonball, and good old gravity.
Aquaman Trailer: The Physics of His Leap from the Water
In the new 'Aquaman' trailer, the superhero bounds from the water and lands on a submarine. It's a fantastical leap grounded in serious physics.
Try Landing InSight on Mars (Without Exploding)
NASA just plopped a lander on the surface of Mars. This simple game lets you see if you can do the same.