The quintuple jump in figure skating is feasible, according to physics

Winter Olympic sports highlight various laws and principles of physics

Figure skaters leverage the conservation of angular momentum during spins by tightening their bodies, and the skintight suits used in ski jumping help reduce drag. Centripetal force allows speedskaters to make tight turns, while friction on skis helps ski mountaineers climb slopes. No action can violate the conservation of energy.

Tony Hawk landed the first-ever 900 at the 1999 X Games

Tony Hawk made history by landing the first 900-degree spin in competition in 1999 after 11 attempts—creating one of the most iconic moments in action sports.

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.

Corkscrew roller coasters feature tracks that twist 360 degrees around their axis

Thanks to the incorporation of steel, rides have gotten increasingly versatile, daring, and smooth, performing loops and turns that are much more difficult to safely achieve with wood.

The physics of baseball pitches

To a nonfan, pitching a baseball may seem straightforward. Dive into the ridiculous physics of throwing a baseball at high speeds, from curveballs to sliders and more, and learn just how crucial those classic red seams of the baseball are in determining what the ball does in the air.

NFL kickers are kicking the ball farther than ever before

A combination of training, technique, and new rules regarding equipment has led to a sharp improvement in kicking since 2020. Certain players are now allowed to keep footballs with them throughout the practice week and play with a ball of their choosing during games.

Triplet birth numbers are dropping—and that may be a good thing

Pregnancies involving three kids or more have dropped 62% from 1998 to 2023, a trend that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention links to fewer embryo transfers during assisted reproduction procedures—a transition prompted by more refined techniques and technical advances. Though multiple births can occur naturally, often pregnancies involving multiple births have been the result of efforts to ensure pregnancy success by transferring multiple embryos.

Interest in the X Games is growing fast among younger teens

The 2025 X Games Salt Lake City delivered double-digit viewership growth—up 12% across ESPN platforms from 2024—with a 328% surge among 12- to 17-year-olds.

Five potential ways to achieve time travel

While the author discounts the possibility of traveling to the past, it lays out five hypothetical modes of catapulting into the future: speed, gravity, suspended animation, wormholes, and light. Each has some scientific basis, but none are realistic for humans. Read the article to learn where they offer promise and where they fall short.

Watch a YouTuber solve a Rubik's Cube while in free fall

He broke a world record, completing the task in the sky in just 23.333 seconds.

Orbital spaceflight requires reaching 23 times the speed of sound

After the spacecraft accelerates up to at least 17,500 miles per hour, space tourists can travel in elliptical orbits hundreds of miles above Earth for days or weeks at a time. Suborbital flights instead max out at about 2,200 miles per hour and travel only 50 to 70 miles above Earth's surface for a few minutes.

High freezing speed restricts the development of gritty crystal chunks in ice cream

For this reason, ice cream does not maintain its smoothness when refrozen in a traditional freezer over several hours. The smooth texture is also made possible by balancing fat, sugar, and emulsifiers.

Why scientists are making robot insects

Insects have much to teach us about flying, jumping, moving quickly, and more. So, roboticists are studying how insects do the ridiculous things they do, like walk on water or jump fifty times their body height, to inform their design and engineering of a new slate of robots: tiny ones. Learn the future of this type of robot with this fascinating video with insights into both insects and robots.

'Harry Potter’ inspired a real-life version of Quidditch

Created by college students in 2005, the broomstick-based sport became an international phenomenon with organized leagues and World Cup tournaments. Now called Quadball, it’s played in more than 40 countries worldwide.

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

From 1990 to 2020, wind turbine height and blade length have more than tripled

Wind turbines' energy generation capacity—or maximum power rating—also increased by 375% from 1998 to 2023. As of that year, wind turbines can produce more energy per dollar than solar panels, though transportation and installation challenges remain.

Over 120 cameras are used to film a single F1 race

Watching a Formula 1 race today is an immersive experience: Every car has onboard cameras; there are helicopter, drone, and lift shots; nearly every corner has a camera to document drivers jockeying for position; and over 120 cameras are used to film a single race.

Wikiracing involves moving between two articles in the fewest clicks

The quirky pastime has evolved into a competitive event at yearly Wikimedia conferences, highlighting the interconnectedness of human knowledge. Neuroscientific research suggests lateral thinking is a crucial skill found in successful Wikiracers.

Imagining a fourth dimension

Famous astronomer Carl Sagan attempts to describe what it's like to think about the fourth dimension using the famous Flatland example from author Edwin Abbott in this classic video.

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

Why Serbia produces great basketball players

The NBA phenom Nikola Jokić isn't an anomaly. Serbia and other Balkan countries have produced generations of talented basketball players. This history of the region's approach to basketball explains why. It details a community-minded approach to the sport called "positionless basketball” that emphasizes dynamic multi-talented players rather than specialized superstars.

Breaking down the WNBA's expansion plans

The 2026 season features two new teams, the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo, with plans for franchises in San Francisco, Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia by 2030. This ESPN explainer unpacks what that means for fans.

There are more chess game variations than observable atoms in the universe

Mathematician Claude Shannon estimated there are 10 to the 120th power variations of chess games possible. Known as the "Shannon number," this is more than the estimated number of atoms in the cosmos.

In 2021, Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby came in third place in 'Dancing With The Stars'

Rigsby has the largest social media following of any Peloton instructor as of this writing and is reportedly one of the highest-paid instructors. When he competed on the show in 2021, some fans felt like his cult-like following from Peloton kept him on the show, despite not being the strongest dancer.

The Triple Crown, explained

Only 13 horses have ever won the Triple Crown—one of the most elusive titles in American sports. This explainer breaks down how the series works, why it's so difficult to win, and the legendary horses that defied the odds across the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes.

The hypercompetitive world of becoming a K-pop star

K-pop, a global $8B industry, rose from its 1990s regional roots to worldwide fame thanks to hits like “Gangnam Style.” Trainees endure years of intense training in performance and media skills, with only 4% to 5% debuting.

Firework or sparkler burns, even if they cover a relatively small area of skin, can significantly affect our range of motion.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

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

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

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.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

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

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

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

Watch how viruses like Ebola can spill over from animals to humans—and vice-versa.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

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

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

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