Coloured rings on dusty surfaces- On natural phenomena in the everyday life world

Schlichting, H. Joachim. In: Journal of the Physics Education Society of Japan Supplement 2008 (Proc. of the International Conference on Physics Education 2006), p. 253 – 258

An everyday life phenomenon is described, which – from the physical point of view – turns out to be a nontrivial optical effect produced by the interaction of light and matter. The coloured rings – so called Quételet’s rings – are presented as an example to develop a physical view for the everyday life world. The aesthetical aspects of the phenomenon are expected to contribute to a kind of reenchantment of the world by means of physics. Besides to this general goal the phenomenon itself is shown in different contexts, demonstrated by a simple experiment and physically explained by a simple model.

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