You may have heard the famous zen riddle (properly known as a Kōan) that goes as follows:

What is the Sound of the Single Hand? When you clap together both hands a sharp sound is heard; when you raise the one hand there is neither sound nor smell. [...I]s it the essentials of what Yamamba describes in these words: “The echo of the completely empty valley bears tidings heard from the soundless sound?” This is something that can by no means be heard with the ear.

…or more commonly, the sound of one hand clapping.

Surely there is an answer, though. How can we find the amount of sound that one hand clapping produces?

Well, maybe we could ask Yahoo Answers.

…Or maybe not.

 

Unfortunately for the zen riddlers out there, the actual answer to the secret of the sound that is one hand clapping is not very mysterious. While you first have to find the sound of two hands clapping, which would require a very large sample size and a lot of averaging, there are several solutions, ranging from obvious to unobvious (which, according to the Firefox Dictionary Add-on, is not a word).

Here are three solutions you can try to become a true grasshopper:

Resort to the Obvious

Even when you clap your hand against nothing — clapping with just one hand — you are producing some sound.

Your hand is compressing the air which will create soundwaves. Although it will sound a boring air woosh sound that is barely audible, this is — literally — the sound of one hand clapping. Take it or leave it.

Use Division

While not very sophisticated, you can simply record the sound of clapping your hands and then find the average volume of your clapping. Then, divide that volume by two. While not quite an answer as it is a work around, that’s the sound of one hand clapping, right? Buddah wouldn’t be proud, but it gets the job done.

Think about it as a Deaf Person

If you were deaf, you wouldn’t hear the sound of two hands clapping. You wouldn’t hear the sound of one hand clapping either. However, you would perceive the motion of one hand moving side-to-side idiotically as similar to that of half an applause.

So one would perceive it to be half as loud.

Clap Against a Non-Hand Object

While the Straight Dope refers to the sound of one hand clapping as the sound of “slapping someone in the face”. Presumably, you could simulate a “one handed clap” by clapping against any object other than your other hand.

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