Short Wave Folgen

Another Olympics, another set of stellar performances by the U.S. women's artistic gymnastics team. Thursday, the team won two medals in the women's all-around final: a gold for Simone Biles and a bronze for Sunisa Lee. The medals add to the team's overall count, which also includes a gold for the women's team final. Simone and Suni are expected to lead the team to more medals in the coming days. Each day the gymnasts compete, we are left to pick our jaws off the floor and wonder: How do they do that? So we called up one of our favorite science communicators, Frederic Bertley, to explain just that. He's the CEO of the Center of Science and Industry and our gymnastics physics guide for the day.Follow NPR's 2024 Paris Olympics coverage.Want us to cover the science powering other Olympians? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!A previous version of this episode suggested that at the top of a gymnast's jump, they are moving with zero acceleration. In fact, there they have zero velocity, but still have the same acceleration. Also, gravity is constant as a person performs gymnastics tricks on Earth. A previous version of this episode also did not make clear that conservation of angular momentum happens as gymnasts move through the air in uneven bars — as opposed to when the gymnasts are on the bars themselves and the gymnasts are subject to additional forces.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Rubik's Cube was created 50 years ago by Hungarian inventor Ernő Rubik. Since then, over 500 million of them have been sold. We dive into this global phenomenon that's captured the imagination of countless people around the world and inspired all kinds of competitions — even solving with your feet! But no matter the cube, the process of solving one involves math — specifically, algorithms. Roman Chavez loved Rubik's Cubes so much, he founded the Jr. Oakland Cubers in high school. Now a mathematics student at Cornell University, Roman talks to host Emily Kwong about how to solve the cube and what life lessons he's learned from the cube. Interested in more math episodes? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Black holes are one of the most mysterious cosmological phenomena out there. Astrophysicist Priya Natarajan calls them "the point where all known laws of physics break down."On the list of perplexing qualities: The origins of supermassive black holes. That story was only confirmed within the last year. Check out more of our series Space Camp on the weird and mysterious in space at npr.org/spacecamp.Interested in more space science? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.Listen to Short Wave on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy