Contrary to what we might think, the noise of clapping isn’t just the slap of skin on skin. “It’s the air column pushed by this jet flow of air coming out of the hand cavity that causes the ...

The results: The hand configuration that produced the loudest clap—85.2 dB—consisted of holding the hands 45 degrees to each other with the palms partially overlapping.

The study, published in the journal Physical Review Research, shows that the sound of a clap is not just due to two hands smashing into each other.