Physical Science
Physical science is the study of the physical world around you. Learn about everything from electricity to magnetism in this section.
Brown Noise vs. White Noise: Which Is Best for Quality Sleep?
Can a sound wave kill you?
Can two cans and a string really be used to talk over a distance?
Why Do Bubbles Pop?
It's Elementary: The Periodic Table Quiz
10 Things You Should Never Mix With Alcohol
How Electricity Works
How Faraday Cages Work
How Gasoline Works
What do bugs have to do with forensic science?
5 Things You Didn't Know About Autopsies
Could Someone Really Find a Mummy in Their Backyard?
How Alchemy Paved the Way for Chemistry
How did Nikola Tesla change the way we use energy?
Time May Not Exist, Say Some Physicists and Philosophers
Why Does Ice Stick to Your Fingers?
What if I forgot to remove a piercing before an MRI?
A Kid-friendly Introduction to Magnets and Magnetism
We've Got Your Numbers Quiz
HowStuffWorks: Illustrated: Scutoids! Just Like Spheres and Cubes, But Not
11 Basic Math Symbols and How to Use Them
5 Hugely Fun Facts About Mass (Not Weight)
Antarctica's Spooky Cosmic Rays Might Shatter Physics As We Know It
Could Newly Measured W Boson Break the Standard Model?
Could an 'X17 Particle' Hint at a Fifth Force in the Universe?
Where do they get the particles for accelerators?
5 Baffling Subatomic Particles
Why Are School Buses Yellow?
Why Spinning Blades Look Weird on TV
HowStuffWorks: How To Draw An Impossible Shape
Learn More / Page 2
Most of the world uses meters, apart from the U.S. and a few other countries. So what's an easy way to convert from meters to feet and vice versa?
By Mark Mancini
A perfect storm of circumstances combined to create what one pool industry expert is calling "poolmageddon." Why? Because there's a major lack of chlorine in the U.S. right now. How will it affect the pool season?
This human-made element can power everything from nuclear weapons to deep space missions. So what's so scary about plutonium?
By Mark Mancini
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There was a time (4,000 years ago) when simply being able to add might get your name on a clay tablet or help you accumulate vast wealth.
By Dave Roos
Thorium is in many ways safer than uranium for nuclear power production. But is it safe enough to bet on for our energy future?
Scientists have come up with a new formula to describe the shape of every egg in the world, which will have applications in fields from art and technology to architecture and agriculture.
Dividing fractions is easy once you learn a couple of rules and remember three words — keep, change and flip.
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Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. Those mountains way off in the distance really do look blue, and it's because of how light wavelengths scatter in the atmosphere.
By Mark Mancini
Cadmium is a natural metal and the leading component in rechargeable batteries and solar cells. It is also highly toxic and heavily regulated.
We all have favorite colors. But have you ever considered why you like one color more than another?
Real numbers are the opposite of imaginary numbers and include every number you can think of.
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Discovered in the early 1800s from a chunk of smuggled platinum ore, rhodium is the most valuable precious metal on the planet today, used mainly for keeping car emissions in check.
The main function of the Krebs cycle is to produce energy, stored and transported as ATP or GTP, to keep the human body up and running.
Many people get speed and velocity confused. It's no surprise because the terms are often used interchangeably. But they're not quite the same thing. So how do you find the velocity of an object?
By Mark Mancini
Superacids are those with an acidity greater than sulfuric acid. So which is the most super of superacids and what exactly is it used for?
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We'll show you both a quick and dirty way, and a precise, more complicated formula for converting Celsius to Fahrenheit (and vice versa).
Numerators and denominators, oh my! It sounds complicated, but learning how to multiply fractions is easy. It just takes three simple steps.
A unit circle is an important part of trigonometry and can define right angle relationships known as sine, cosine and tangent.
Both degrees and radians represent the measure of an angle in geometry. So, how do you convert one to the other?
By Mark Mancini
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Sir Isaac Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation helps put the laws of gravity into a mathematical formula. And the gravitational constant is the "G" in that formula.
By Mark Mancini
Although the term might be unfamiliar, you know all about alkali metals. Ever used salt or eaten a banana? So, what special properties do these elements have?
Vantablack is one of the darkest substances known, able to absorb up to 99.965 percent of visible light. But is it the blackest of blacks on the planet?
Static electricity happens when there's an imbalance between negative and positive charges in an object. It's when those charges get released that we feel that infamous spark.
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More than fodder for melt-in-your-hand YouTube videos, gallium is a key component in LED lights and the powerful microchips in your smartphone.
By Dave Roos
It's an important question, so come with us and we'll show you how to figure it out.