Activity teaching order
The whole course can be delivered through the activities on this website, Chris has been doing it this way for some years. Here is his teaching order.
Mechanics
Activity: Measurement and uncertainty
In this practical the mass and diameter of different balls of Plasticine will be measured in order to verify that the mass of a sphere is proportional to the cube of its diameter. This is a simple experiment...
Activity: Displacement and velocity
If a body travels from A to B along the path shown it's distance travelled is 15 m but its displacement is 10 m East. Distance is a scalar, displacement is a vector.The actual value is 1.8 ms-1
Activity: Acceleration and suvat
Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity, so if velocity changes there must be acceleration.suvat doesn't mean anything, the letters just represent the different quantities in the motion...
Activity: Graphs of motion
There are many different simulations that can be used to plot graphs for different examples of motion, these are great for aiding understanding but at the end of the day you must be able to do it without...
Activity: Displacement and velocity
If a body travels from A to B along the path shown it's distance travelled is 15 m but its displacement is 10 m East. Distance is a scalar, displacement is a vector.The actual value is 1.8 ms-1
Activity: Acceleration and suvat
Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity, so if velocity changes there must be acceleration.suvat doesn't mean anything, the letters just represent the different quantities in the motion...
Activity: Graphs of motion
There are many different simulations that can be used to plot graphs for different examples of motion, these are great for aiding understanding but at the end of the day you must be able to do it without...
Activity: Projectile motion
First some entertainment, here is Håvard Rugland kicking some balls in impressive Norwegian scenery.Now try the exercises on page 52Projectile motion problemsProjectiles multiple choice
Activity: Forces as vectors
A push or a pullThe unit of force is the newton, 1 N is approximately the force required to hold a mass of 100 g.Imagine two strings attached to some object. Two forces can be applied to the object by...
Activity: Types of force
When a string is attached to body and pulled the force is called tension.connected bodiesGravitational force (or weight) is the force that attracts bodies with mass to the Earth. The force is proportional...
Activity: Newton's 2nd law
First we will start with a simple statement that applies to bodies with constant mass:The acceleration of a body is proportional to the unbalanced force applied and inversely proportional to its mass.
Activity: Momentum
mass x velocityChange of momentumTwo balls collide as shown-3.6 kgms-1 for the red and 3.6 kgms-1 for the grey.Let's have another look at the constant acceleration example.
Activity: Work and energy
In the last activity you used the conservation of momentum to solve problems involving collisions between two balls. Can you solve this problem?Hopefully you didn't try for too long because you can't....
Activity: Collisions
If you can't remember how to use video analysis here is a video.A collision in which both momentum and KE are conserved.Remember momentum is only conserved if the balls are isolated, this is a problem...
Activity: Power and efficiency
Work done per unit timeUnit Js-1 or watt (W)ScalarConsider the simple machine shown below.The point of the machine is to increase the speed of the block. The mass of the block is 1 kg and the tension...
Mini IA
Activity: Mini investigation
In this activity you will perform an experiment related to a small bow and arrow made from a piece of plastic from an ice cream carton and a drinking straw. The bow is used for firing arrows so most experiments...
Thermal
Activity: Particle nature of matter
You probably already know and accept that everything is made of atoms but it might be worth looking at why we think this. Is there any other possibility? Could matter be continuous? Ancient Greek philosophers...
Activity: Temperature and heat
In the last section you considered a car being slowed down by air resistance:Build this yourself in Algodoo, all balls, the cart and the container are perfectly elastic and friction free. Don't forget...
Activity: Heat capacity and change of state
When heat is added to a body it's temperature increases proportionally (provided there is no change of state) the constant of proportionality is the thermal capacity of the body.The amount of heat required...
Activity: Modelling a gas
This is a simple model of a gas that assumes it is made up of particles that are:Make a box and fill it with small spheres.Here's how to make the box, you can make a bigger one if you like
Activity: Gas laws
The pressure of a fixed mass of gas at constant temperature is inversely proportional to its volume.One way to remember which one this is that Boyle sounds like Boil and its the one where T doesn't change.
Circular motion and gravity
Activity: Circular motion
In this example we will consider the well known example of the motion of a ball moving in a circle on the end of a string, however to make the forces simpler we will consider this in space.
Activity: Gravitational field
Gravity is what causes the force that attracts all objects with mass to the ground. The simulation below shows two objects close to the earth, move them around and observe the force.You can use the simulation...
Activity: Gravitational fields and potential (HL)
The Earths gravitational field is the region of space where a particle of mass will experience a force towards the centre of the Earth. Does this mean that the international space station is not in the...
Activity: Satellites and escape speed
Have a look at this website spacebook.Fascinating isn't it. Don't spend too long looking at the satellites passing over your house we have work to do.Orbits don't have to be circular but since you haven't...
Oscillations and waves
Activity: Oscillations
Investigate oscillations.Analyse the motion of an oscillating body.Define quantities used to describe oscillations.Understand the sinusoidal nature of oscillations.Define SHM.There are many oscillating...
Activity: SHM, energy and phase
Investigate other oscillations.Explore the changing energy in an oscillation.Sketch graphs of KE and PE vs time and position.Introduce phase difference.Simple harmonic motion is defined as motion where...
Activity: Introduction to waves
Introduce the concept of waves and there characteristics.Define quantities related to waves.Investigate the behaviour of a wave pulse in a string.Understand that a continuous wave is composed of a series...
Activity: 1D waves
Define the difference between longitudinal and transverse waves.Introduce polarisation.Sketch displacement time and displacement position graphs for a wave.Understand how standing waves are formed.Investigate...
Activity: Waves in a ripple tank
Investigate the characteristics of waves in a ripple tank (real and simulated)Introduce Huygens construction.Use Huygens construction to explain reflection. refraction and diffraction.State Snell's law.Solve...
Activity: Sound waves
Introduce sound as a longitudinal wave.Investigate the wave nature of sound.Derive the equations for the harmonic frequencies of standing waves in pipes.Measure the speed of sound.When air is disturbed...
Activity: Light waves
Introduce the EM spectrum.Observe reflection and refraction of light and measure the refractive index of glass.Introduce the optics capabilities of AlgodooIntroduce the concept of critical angle and total...
Activity: Polarisation 3D films and holograms
Polarisation has already been introduced in relation to waves in string a wave is said to be polarised if there is only one direction of disturbance. This can be achieved by using a narrow slit on a string.
Activity: Doppler (HL)
The Doppler effect is the change in frequency due to relative motion between source and observer (HL p181). This is often observed when a car drives past sounding it's horn (not such a regular occurrence...
Activity: Single slit diffraction (HL)
When light passes through a narrow slit it spreads out, this is called diffraction. The light does not spread out uniformly but forms bright and dark areas as shown below.The width of the central maximum..
Activity: Resolution (HL)
Light from a point source passes into the eye through the pupil, is focused by the lens onto the retina where light sensitive cells detect the light and send information to the brain via the optic nerve
Activity: Two slit interference (HL)
When laser light is shone on two parallel slits it spreads out due to diffraction at each slit. If the slits are close to each other the light will overlap on a distant screen, light from each slit has...
Activity: Multiple slit interference (HL)
A diffraction grating is a piece of glass with many (thousands) very fine lines printed on it to form a series of parallel slits. Each slit diffracts the light causing it to spread out. The light from...
Activity: Thin film interference (HL)
Bubbles are fun, so play with the bubbles and get it out of your system.Now it's time to be more serious.This is what you should have seen:Untick all the boxes so you see just the incident wave.
Electricity and magnetism
Activity: Electric fields
We now use electricity to power many devices but the idea of charge was originally developed to explain static electricity. Take a balloon and rub it on your head and put it on the table then hold your...
Activity: Electric potential
If a constant force moves a distance d in the direction of the force the work done is F x d. If we plot a graph of F vs x we can see that the work done is the area under the graph.This is also true if...
Activity: Current and resistance
If you place a ball on a hill it will roll down the hill moving from a position of high potential to low potential. + charges do the same.If a solid is placed between two positions of different potential,...
Activity: Simple circuits
An electric cell is a device that converts chemical energy into electrical PE and a battery is made several of them joined together. What is basically happening is the atomic charges are being rearranged.
Activity: Component combinations
The following arrangement of resistors is a series combinationUsing the values given write expressions forIf energy is conserved then, when unit charge flows, the energy converted from electrical to heat...
Activity: Kirchoff's laws
Let's first consider a water pipe splitting in two.Now currents in wiresThe sum of the currents into a junction = the sum of currents out of the junctionImagine you are walking around a multistorey shopping...
Activity: Electrical power
You should now understand why the power delivered by the battery is given by:P = εISo power dissipated is give by:P = IVFrom Ohm's law V = IR.Electric kettle
Activity: Magnetic fields
If you look at a list of the fundamental forces of nature magnetic force isn't on the list, this is because the magnetic field is due to changes in electric field so the two forces are bundled together...
Activity: Force on currents in B fields
Before considering currents we will take another look at the field pattern when magnets attract and repelWhen magnets attract the field lines add together.When magnets repel the field lines oppose each...
Activity: Electromagnetic induction (HL)
Take a magnet, move it in and out of a coil and observe the EMF induced across the coil.This can also be done with a simulationexercises on page 252Faraday's law multiple choice
Activity: Generators and transformers (HL)
In this section we will be considering a rectangular coil rotating in a uniform magnetic field, this is best viewed in 3D.Consider a power station producing 100 MW of power at 30 kV, calculate:
Activity: Capacitance (HL)
First let us consider a metal sphere.You can see that the potential is proportional to Q, the ratio Q/V is called the capacitance of the sphere.Capacitance = Q/VUnits CV-1 or Farad (F)
Activity: Charging capacitors (HL)
Consider a parallel plate capacitor charged by moving positive charges from one plate to the other as shown.As each charge is moved the PD between the plates increasesThe charging process can be represented...
Activity: Rectification (HL)
A semi conductor is a material that is not such a good conductor as a metal but better than an insulator, this is because it does not contain many free electrons. Silicon and Germanium are examples of...
Atomic and nuclear
Activity: Atomic models
The concept of matter being made up of particles was introduced in the unit on thermal physics ( Particle nature of matter activity ) to explain the following, in small groups discuss the explanations...
Activity: EM radiation and the atom
When electric current is passed through the filament of a light bulb the light bulb gets hot and emits light.You may not have noticed this but when you heat a piece of metal it first glows red then as...
Activity: Photoelectric effect (HL)
Light is shone on a negatively charged zinc plate. The zinc plate absorbs energy from the EM waves, if enough energy is absorbed then the electrons will be ejected and the zinc plate will lose its charge....
Activity: Wave nature of matter (HL)
Physics is all about constructing models to represent physical phenomena to enable us to make predictions. We have found that some things act like particles and some like waves but let's just think about...
Activity: Further atomic models (HL)
We have a lot of evidence that electrons exist in discrete energy levels but its not good just to say "that's the way it is" we need a physical model. In 1913 Niels Bohr predicted the energy levels of...
Activity: Nucleons and BE
Define atomic mass and the unified mass unit.Define nuclear charge.State that a nucleus is made of neutrons and protons.Describe the nature of the nuclear force.Define the BE in terms of mass defect.Calculate...
Activity: Radioactivity
In the last activity you did plotted this curve:AS you can see some nuclei have higher BE than others, let's zoom in on the left hand sideHere we can see 222Rn and 226Ra. Rn has a slightly higher BE per...
Activity: Radioactive decay
The decay of a radioactive nucleus is said to be random, this means that you can't predict when it's going to happen, truly random events are fairly uncommon can you think of any? The bursting of a bubble...
Activity: Fusion and fission
Let's consider the BE/nucleon curve again.We can see that theoreticallyUse the graph to calculate:If this reaction took place what the BE would increase, this energy would have to be released in the form...
Activity: Particle interactions
We have seen that when we move a charge it sends out ripples in electric field.You now also know that the moving charge will cause a perpendicular magnetic field which will also change. This changing...
Activity: Particle physics
So far the picture isn't that complicatedNeutrons and protonsaffected by the strong forcemass about 900 MeVc-2charge +e or 0spin 1/2Electronaffected by electric forcemass about 0.5 MeVc-2charge -espin...
Energy production
Activity: Fuels
Fuels are chemicals that are burnt to produce heat energy which can be converted into mechanical energy by an engine or turbine which is used to turn a generator to produce electricity. The energy in...
Activity: Nuclear power
You should be familiar with the BE curve belowNuclei don't tend to split on their own, the reaction needs to be initiated. Let's look at an example:235U is an isotope of Uranium that will not split spontaneously....
Activity: Renewable sources of energy
The problem with fossil fuels is that it takes millions of years to turn the dead animals and plants into oil and coal so it is being used up faster than it is being produced. Wood and vegetable oil on...
Activity: Global energy transfer
Explore the nature of EM radiation from a black body.Show that Power/Area is proportional to T4.State and apply Stefan - Boltzmann and Wein's laws.Describe the interaction between EM radiation and different...