Selected student pages
eBook
Theme A: Space, time, and motion
How do objects move and interact in space and time? Kinematics is the study of displacement, velocity, acceleration and time. How do objects interact? A study of Newton's laws, momentum, collisions and...
DP essentials
Extended Essay
A guide to writing the Extended Essay in physics, for students. Choices For the student the early days of the EE are full of choices, firstly which subject to choose, secondly which topic and thirdly...
Activities
C4 practical: Speed of sound (drinking straw)
In this practical the speed of sound will be measured by analysing the standing wave in a drinking straw using a computer program called Audacity. This can be downloaded free from sourceforge. If you...
Activities
E3 practical: Measuring half life of beer foam support
The problem with experiments on radioactive decay is that you need a source that has a reasonably small half life, I used to have a Protactinium generator which stopped producing any radiation several...
Activities
D2 practical: Uniform electric field
In this practical the the electric field between two parallel plates will be investigated using conducting paper. Set up the electrodes as in the photo below. It is best to use the side of paper without...
eBook
C5 PBL: Doppler effect support
I've never played angry birds but know it's something to do with throwing birds, I guess that's what makes them angry. We are not going to throw the birds but we'll release them one at a time from a moving...
eBook
C3 notes: Diffraction and interference
So far we have dealt with diffraction and interference on a qualitative level; by now you should understand the basics and make some predictions of increases or decreases but not calculate values. You'll...
eBook
E3 MCQs: Nuclear mass and exponential decay
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eBook
B5 MCQs: Potential difference
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Activities
A1 practical: Ball on a slope support
The apparatus in this practical is rather simple comprising of a ramp, ball and a stop clock. I have often used this example in workshops since the equipment is so portable, then I use some 40cm long...
eBook
E2 solutions: Wave particle duality
1. Given that the resolving power of a microscope is proportional to the 1/wavelength of radiation used, show that if 600nm light is replaced with electrons accelerated through a Pd of 40,000V the resolving...
Activities
A1 practical: Measuring g (card drop) simulation
This practical can be simulated using interactive physics to drop a rectangle past a marker. Displaying the grid helps to set the card size which can be adjusted as in the actual experiment. Using the...