Physics in everyday life

A rainbow, dew on the grass, the aurora, St Elmo's fire, slippery snow underfoot — all of this is physics that can be seen from a window and not only in a laboratory.

The section gathers accounts of familiar phenomena: what happens to light inside a raindrop, why snow is slippery, where the lenticular clouds above mountains come from, what forces a cyclist has to overcome. There is also a separate collection of portraits of physicists on the banknotes of various countries.

The articles are independent of one another; any of them can be read first.