When you hold your smartphone in your hand, the incredible wonders of physics are on display for you, right there in front of you. It’s almost like an impromptu lesson in the way the universe works.
Your screen shows off the photoelectric effect, employing tiny organic compounds that emit light when electricity passes through them. When you run your finger over your screen, there’s a tiny grid of wires under the glass with a constant current, creating an electric field. You create a new circuit with your finger, and specialized circuits can detect even the subtlest disturbance.
Polarized light passes through liquid crystals which can be manipulated by tiny electric currents to rotate. This rotation, combined with additional polarizing filters, controls the amount of light allowed through each pixel, creating the colors you see.
Even the way your phone sends messages is a little science experiment: wireless communication means sending and receiving radio waves, leveraging a deep understa…
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