A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Pickleball's popularity has exploded in recent years

Pickleball has seen rapid growth in the US, with around 50 million Americans playing in 2022. It doesn't appear to be slowing any time soon.

Carmel, California, is looking into banning pickleball

Pickleball is the fastest-rising sport in the US, but it's not without its controversies. Chief among them is noise, which Carmel, California, a wealthy enclave on the state's central coast, seeks to remedy with a ban on the sport. It would be the first in the state.

Pickleball combines elements of tennis, badminton, and table tennis

In this video, That Pickleball Guy walks you through the serve and two-bounce rules, what is “the kitchen,” and teaches five ways to win a rally.

Limited courts is a source of tension between pickleball and tennis players

Municipalities have rushed to accommodate the explosion of pickleball games, but sometimes they can't keep up. That's frustrated tennis players, whose courts are now often filled with people playing the sport.

The origin of the sport's name is disputed

How pickleball got its name has been a point of contention for decades. The McCallums claim the family dog, Pickles, used to snatch the balls as they played and named it for him. Joan Pritchard, though, says Pickles didn’t join the family until after the game was invented.

A Boeing engineer created a next-generation pickleball paddle in the '80s

When Steve Paranto kept losing in the finals of his Pickleball tournaments, he told his dad Arlen the wooden paddles were holding him back. Then-Boeing engineer Arlen used spare composite floor panels to make the first fiberglass Pickleball paddle.

See this graphic describing what different decibel levels mean for hearing loss

From the sound of a ticking watch, which is roughly 20 decibels, to the sound of a gunshot at 140 decibels, the Hearing Health Foundation breaks down the decibels of daily sounds in this chart, noting that sounds louder than 70 decibels are considered harmful.

'Silent' fireworks are not entirely noise-free

By using a reduced amount of flash powder—the ingredient responsible for the loud explosions that fireworks make—"silent" fireworks produce displays between 70 and 90 decibels, rather than the approximately 175 decibels heard in professional displays.

Fireworks make a loud booming sound after exploding due to air expanding faster than the speed of sound.

Why professional tennis players are so picky about balls before serving

Just as swimmers shave their bodies before competitions to swim faster, experiments show that tighter, less fluffy balls experience less drag forces when moving through the air and thus produce faster serves at the cost of less control. Players may select a fuzzier ball in scenarios that call for safer, more cautious play.

Sound can shatter glass if its frequency matches the material's natural vibrations

The sound made by an object when struck is its resonant frequency, which is the sound made when energy is dissipated. Providing energy at that frequency amplifies the vibrations, rather than allowing them to dissipate, which can deteriorate the object's structural integrity.

Tennis match interrupted by 'Cotton Eye Joe'

Tennis players require extreme focus as they volley on the court, and officials typically enforce significant noise standards during play. So it was quite a shock when the 1995 hit "Cotton Eye Joe"—as recorded by Swedish Eurodance band...

Every day, lightning releases several Hiroshima bombs' worth of energy into the atmosphere

If all this lightning struck one location at once, the bolt would be the diameter of the center circle of a basketball court, turning the entire court into a crater. Its heat would ignite surfaces for miles around, and its shockwave would demolish buildings.

The story behind the greatest outburst in sports history

It's a line that's still perplexing all these years later: "Who do you think you are? I am!" Those words were uttered by Pete Weber, an iconic bowler who was somewhere between John McEnroe and Happy Gilmore. This oral history from the Ringer provides some context for the bizarre insult and a backstory that turns what appears to be a non sequitur into a triumphant celebration.

The agricultural origins of paintball guns

The paintball field industry—where players compete in pseudo-battle using the (minimally) harmless guns—is worth over $1 billion annually, and it continues to grow. This fun piece breaks down the relatively recent history of the industry by...

Listen to the sounds of pulsars, which emit radio pulses up to hundreds of times a second

Just as figure skaters spin faster by tucking in their arms, these celestial objects acquire high rates of spin from the collapse of the cores of massive stars. The star's rotation spins its magnetic field, generating beams of radio waves from its magnetic poles. If either of these poles faces a detector, the signals can be picked up and converted to audio signals.

The collapse of gas bubbles in the joint synovial fluid causes 'cracking' knuckles

The human population can be divided into two categories: those who crack their knuckles and those who don't. Do you know the technical term for this phenomenon is "tribonucleation?" What actually happens inside a knuckle when it pops? This visual explainer breaks down finger joint popping in real time.

Squeaky toys mimic prey sounds, appealing to dogs' hunting instincts

Squeaky toys provide instant feedback and gratification, and they can also prevent boredom and improve canine dental health. Some toys contain seemingly silent squeakers that use ultrasonic technology to emit sounds only audible to dogs.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Swimming boosts the risk of contracting swimmer's ear by fivefold

The term swimmer's ear is a bit of a misnomer since other factors including scratches to your ear from Q tips, trapped perspiration inside the ear when you sweat, and living in tropical climates can elevate the risk of contracting this outer ear infection. But swimming poses the greatest risk: widely cited research has found that swimming elevates the risk of contracting this infection fivefold.

The most popular drum sound of the 1980s was discovered by accident

You know it when you hear it: the distinct snare drum of songs like Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" or Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA." It's called "gated reverb," and it's something most people associate, for better or worse, with the sound of the '80s. This Vox explainer breaks down how it was discovered by accident, thanks to a microphone typically used for communication that picked up additional sounds.

20 years of NCAA buzzers

The last few beats of the March Madness title game are among the most thrilling in sports. This video compilation collects the final five seconds of every women's championship from the first year of the tournament through 2022. The result is a fascinating document of celebrations, disappointments, and last-ditch efforts. It's also objective proof that basketball's style has evolved considerably over the decades.

Every baseball used by the MLB lasts about seven pitches

Handmade in Costa Rica, the balls meet strict MLB specs: cork or rubber cores, wool yarn, Tennessee cowhide, and 108 stitches. Before play, they’re coated in Lena Blackburne mud from a secret New Jersey spot, ensuring grip and consistency for the big game.

How to save money with 'loud budgeting'

"Loud budgeting" is when you announce to your friends that something—a restaurant, an activity, and so on—is too expensive and you can't afford it. The term, which opposes the social pressure of keeping up wealthy appearances, was coined by comedian Lukas Battle in 2024 as a joke, but it caught on with TikTokers amid inflation.

Golfer hits ball into golf cart ball holder

Professional golfer Cameron Young’s ball settled in the built-in ball holder in an NBC reporter’s cart while playing at the US Open. He did not have to play it where it landed, and he managed to reach par on the shot despite the location of his...

38 thought-provoking facts about the ocean

Coral produces its own sunscreen, tsunamis move at 500 miles per hour, one of the loudest sounds ever recorded came from an ice quake, and other interesting facts collected from sources such as National Geographic and NASA.

Big Ocean is breaking barriers as the world's first deaf K-pop boy band

The three-person boy band—whose members have different levels of hearing loss—use light systems, vibrations, and a mix of Korean and American Sign Languages, as well as International Sign (which isn't a whole language), to communicate and keep their dance routines in sync. In this interview, a band member with partial hearing describes their challenges.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Before the current East Wing ballroom project, only two White House renovations in the past 100 years cost more than $10M.

Fear or disgust related to clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may stem from evolutionary processes to help us avoid pathogens.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Use this calculator to find the dollar value of your mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care for your children.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

Between 10 million and 50 million people in the US develop rashes from poison ivy, poison sumac, and poison oak each year.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.