A real-life example
Probably all of us use the Adapter pattern every day, but in hardware instead of software. If you have a smartphone or a tablet, you need to use something (for example, the lightning connector of an iPhone) with a USB adapter for connecting it to your computer. If you are traveling from most European countries to the UK, you need to use a plug adapter for charging your laptop. The same is true if you are traveling from Europe to USA, or the other way around. Adapters are everywhere!
The following image, courtesy of sourcemaking.com, shows several examples of hardware adapters [j.mp/adapterpat]:
