The simplest questions are often the best. Robert P Crease tries to answer one from a physics student in Kenya Seeking perfection Tennis balls are a low-cost way to explore simple physics concepts, ...

We tend not to dwell on the fact that we exist in three dimensions. Forwards-back, left-right, up-down; these are the axes on which we navigate the world. When we try to imagine something else, it ...

Physics, especially the part about forces and motion, often feels like a maze of confusing concepts and formulas. If you’ve ever stared at a problem about an object moving or a force acting and ...

Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www ...

Between the summer of 1665 and the spring of 1667, Isaac Newton developed his theories on calculus, optics, and the laws of motion and gravity. He was quarantining during the Bubonic Plague and found ...

The vast, sparsely populated Argentinian Pampas would seem ideal for social distancing. In the Mendoza region, the Pierre Auger Observatory near Malargue consists of more than 1,600 car-sized plastic ...