This paper illustrates an experimental device in which light propagates in an unhomogeneous medium, that improves the understanding of looming and mirage phenomena. The experiment is easy to put into practice; the required materials are low-cost and readily available. […]
At the Cottolengo School in Torino (Italy) many pupils are foreigners and-or suffer a disability. We implemented a set of “play booths” with the purpose of motivating and encouraging the pupils’ interest in science and promoting aggregation and cultural integration […]
The article illustrates the optical principles of retinoscopy and, using a model of the eye, shows how this diagnostic technique allows sight failures to be measured. The inadequate explanation of retinoscopy and the consequent delay of its practice in XIXth century ophthalmology are discussed. […]
The paper describes a didactic unit born of a collaboration between a University Materials Science Laboratory and a secondary school in the frame of a project for vocational guidance and dissemination of scientific culture. The aims, the schedule, the organization into phases, […]
Superfluidity and superconductivity have strong analogies to each other. Why then did over a quarter of a century passed between the discoveries of these two phenomena? […]