Toast
I have been teaching physics for so long that I have developed "physics teacher syndrome". I can't help spotting physics in every day situations, these seem interesting to me but when I talk about to other people they don't seem to find them so interesting. The only way out is to spend time with other physics teachers at workshops, visiting physics chat rooms and writing blog entries. So for someone who can find something interesting in a cup of tea, the science museum in London was information overload. I was planning to take some photos but firstly my battery ran out of charge and when my daughter arrived with her camera I couldn't think what to photograph. In the end we got some random shots including this one of my favourite exhibit "the toaster project". This installation tells the story of how Thomas Thwaites set about building a toaster from the raw ingredients, mining iron and copper to make the metal parts, climbing a cliff (quite easy) to find mica and finding oil to make plastic. The final toaster cost a lot more than one from a shop and looks awful.