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Energy: Increasing global energy needs require drastic policy changes Germany: Science teachers talk tactics in Bavaria Physics Day: NPL hosts A-level physics day Engineering: ICE members consider the past and the future of engineering IOP Awards: Superb teachers receive awards for their contribution to physics New Zealand: Unlikely location serves up stimulating conference Astronomy: Teaching ideas abound at EAAE event in Spain Mexico: Sharing knowledge about better physics teaching

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Teaching is hard work, but spare a little sympathy for your pupilsGary Williams

A model lift containing a figure of Albert Einstein is released from the side of a tall building and its free fall is arrested by elastic ropes. This arrangement allows four simple experiments to be conducted in the lift to demonstrate the effects of free fall and show how they can lead to the concept of the equivalence of inertial and gravitational masses.

The microworld inspires and fascinates many people. The behaviour of small animals in that miniature world differs from that of 'large' ones in the macroworld. For some people, the capacities of small animals are nearly miraculous. If we could imitate these small beings, our capabilities would increase many times over. Unfortunately, this is not reality. The behaviour of small animals is not miraculous. It is the aim of this paper to show why this is the case by taking into account so-called scaling laws, which allow us to deal with some science-fiction stories. These same scaling laws are used to study the morphology of the giant fictional animal King Kong.

The notion of weight can be associated with three distinct physical quantities: the force of gravity due to the Earth; the resultant of this gravitational force and the centrifugal force arising from the Earth's rotation; and the 'apparent weight in air', i.e., what is measured by a scale located in the Earth's atmosphere. Starting from a real life student–teacher exchange, this article sets out the variety of meanings that students and teachers may attribute to the term 'weight'. It then explores how the weight and apparent weight of an object vary with mountain altitude. The effects of the mass of the mountain and the buoyant force of the air are considered and calculated. The question of whether apparent weight increases or decreases with increasing elevation is addressed in detail.

Given that enhancing the motivation of young people for science is a widely shared goal, the question posed is how to raise intellectual satisfaction among students by showing the consistency and conciseness of physical theories. I argue that certain rituals in our teaching practices can make physical theories seem inconsistent, even absurd. Using examples of such rituals from the secondary school and college levels, I discuss how we might better highlight the consistency of ideas, and give evidence of students' and teachers' reactions to the proposed changes. I conclude by considering possible actions relating to teacher training and to assessment.

Low-efficiency solar cells for educational purposes can be simply made in school or home environments using wet-chemistry techniques and readily available chemicals of generally low toxicity. Instructions are given for making solar cells based on the heterojunctions Cu/Cu₂O, Cu₂O/ZnO and Cu₂S/ZnO, together with a modified Grätzel cell.

Once an antibiotic has been produced on a large scale, as described in our preceding articles, it has to be extracted and purified. Filtration and centrifugation are the two main ways of doing this, and the design of industrial processing systems is governed by simple physics involving factors such as pressure, viscosity and rotational motion.

Electromagnetic phenomena and devices such as motors are typically unfamiliar to both teachers and students. To better visualize and illustrate the abstract concepts (such as magnetic fields) underlying electricity and magnetism, we suggest that students construct and analyse the operation of a simply constructed Johnson electric motor. In this article, we describe a classroom activity that elicits student analysis to aid the comprehension and retention of electromagnetic interactions.

The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN has a substantial collaborative Education and Outreach project. This article describes its activities and how it promotes physics to students around the world.

Positron emission tomography (PET) cameras are now in widespread use in hospitals. A model of a PET camera has been installed in Stockholm House of Science and is used to explain the principles of PET to school pupils as described here.

The role of surface tension in the formation of drops is described. Surface tension can be measured by using a suitable needle and dripping a liquid from it. Measurements made with simple apparatus are found to agree well with literature data.

A simple technique is described for measuring absolute and relative liquid density based on Archimedes' principle. The technique involves placing a container of the liquid under test on an electronic balance and suspending a probe (e.g. a glass marble) attached to a length of line beneath the surface of the liquid. If the volume of the probe is known, the density of liquid is given by the difference between the balance reading before and after immersion of the probe divided by the volume of the probe. A test showed that the density of water at room temperature could be measured to an accuracy and precision of 0.01 ± 0.1%. The probe technique was also used to measure the relative density of milk, Coca-Cola, fruit juice, olive oil and vinegar.

One of the simplest but most effective tools for studying additive colour mixing and complementary colours is the colour top, which is a rapidly spinning disc whose visible surface has been coloured. The spinning of the disc visually mixes the light reflected by the different colours on the disc to produce the illusion of a single pure hue.

In this work we have used a commercial PC program (Corel Photo-Paint 9) to design a collection of coloured discs. The characteristics of this program have permitted us to select the most suitable primary colours and the development of an analytical method to calculate the relative proportions of each primary colour necessary to produce a wide variety of colours. We recommend these spectacular visual exhibits for educational purposes in order to show both additive colour mixing and the colour vision mechanism.

The superposition principle is used to explain many phenomena in physics. Incomplete knowledge about this topic at a basic level leads to physics students having problems in the future. As long as prospective physics teachers have difficulties in the subject, it is inevitable that high school students will have the same difficulties.

The aim of this study is to determine the misunderstandings and ideas of prospective physics teachers about applying the superposition principle to waves moving on a continuous rope. Firstly, the related literature was reviewed and then an eight-question test including drawings was prepared. The test was reviewed by three experts and necessary corrections were made. In order to make the content of the test clearer, the test was given to two students as a pilot study. The test was then applied to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade prospective physics teachers of Buca Education Faculty, Dokuz Eylül University. The total number of students was 147, of whom 21 were also interviewed.

Analysis of the drawings and ideas of the students reveals that the prospective physics teachers have problems in applying and understanding the principle.

INTERVIEW From Bordeaux to Liverpool: the story of a nuclear physicistDavid Smith talks to Marielle Chartier

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