MagLab UK Home

Category

Everyday Physics

1 article

Street-Level Magnetism: The Buried Circuits That Decide When Britain Goes Green

Street-Level Magnetism: The Buried Circuits That Decide When Britain Goes Green

Under most UK junctions and motorway lanes sits a loop of wire doing something quietly electromagnetic: sensing your car by the way metal disturbs a magnetic field. Here's how the invisible detectors work, why bicycles so often get left at a red light, and what all that counting does — and doesn't — record about you.