top of page

​

      Units - Including base units, derived units and prefixes

​

      Estimating Physics Quantities - Some common quantities you should be aware of

​

      The Greek Alphabet - Alpha, beta and more

​

      Wave Properties - Progressive waves that can be transverse of longitudinal

​

      Intensity - The power transferred per unit area

​

      Electromagnetic Waves - Oscillating electric and magnetic fields

​

      Polarisation - Evidence for the nature of transverse waves

​

      Refraction - The changing direction of a wave as it crosses a boundary

​

      Total Internal Reflection - TIR as a wave travels towards a different medium

​

      Optical Fibres - These allow the modern digital world to communicate at light speed   

​

      Interference - The interaction of two or more waves

​

      The Double Slit - Young's famous experiment that produces an interference pattern

​

      Diffraction Gratings - Plane transmission gratings and the pattern these produce

​

      Standing Waves - Formed by waves of the same frequency travelling in opposite directions

​

      The Doppler Effect - Due to relative motion between the observer and the wave emitter

​

​

​

      Newton's Laws - The three big laws of motion

​

      Mass and Weight - Often confused with each other, these are two very different quantities

​

      Free Body Diagrams - Essential for understanding the forces acting on an object

​

      Drag and Resistance - Forces that resist motion

​

      Terminal Velocity - When a moving object has no resultant force acting

​

      Moments - The turning effect of a force

​

      Density - The amount of 'stuff' in a given volume

​

      Pressure - The force per unit area

​

      Archimedes' Principle - For objects submerged in a fluid

​

      Linear Momentum - The quantity of motion

​

      Collisions - Elastic and inelastic interactions between two objects

​

      Kinetic Energy and Momentum - Deriving the equation for these

​

      Springs - These come up all the time in A Level Physics

​

      Stress and Strain - These allow us to investigate material properties

​

      Stokes' Law - For a moving object in a viscous fluid

​

​

      Current and Charge - The movement of charged particles in a conductor

​

      Drift Velocity - How quickly electrons move in a complete circuit

​

      Conductors - These allow the movement of charges when a PD is applied

​

      Circuit Symbols - Essential for drawing and understanding circuits

​

      Voltage - The potential difference or EMF across a component

​

      Resistance - The ratio of voltage across to the current in a component

​

      IV Characteristics - How common components behave

​

      LDRs and Thermistors - These are semi-conductors that change their resistance

​

      Resistivity - A bulk material property

​

      Electrical Power - The rate of energy transfer

​

      Kilowatt Hours - A large unit of energy 

​

      Circuits - Investigating how components behave together

​

      Internal Resistance - Due to the source of EMF

​

      Potential Dividers - These divide the potential difference between components

​

      Strain Gauges - Small components that 

​

      The Wheatstone Bridge - An example of a simple bridging circuit

​

      Digital Communications - Used everyday by all of us

​

​

      Quantum Basics - Photons and the electronvolt

​

      Photoelectric Effect - Electrons in the surface of a metal can interact with photons

​

      de Broglie - Introducing wave-particle duality

​

      Energy Levels - Emission and absorption spectra

​

      Atoms - What is inside these building blocks that make up everything

​

      Standard Model - The fundamental particles that make up everything else

​

      Baryons and Mesons - Particles that are made from 2 or 3 quarks

​

      Nuclear Equations - For radioisotopes

​

      Feynman Diagrams - This may look familiar

​

      Specific Charge - The charge to mass ratio

​

      Lenses - The different types, their power and magnification

​

      Images - For both converging and diverging lenses

​

      Lasers - Amplified light from the stimulated emission of radiation

​

​

      Angular Terminology - The motion of objects travelling in a circular path

​

      Centripetal Force - The force that causes objects to travel in a circular path

​

      Deriving Centripetal Acceleration - How to derive this important equation 

​

      Temperature - How we measure temperature and the absolute thermodynamic scale

​

      Particle Model - Particles and states of matter

​

      Brownian Motion - The continuous movement of particles, even in stationary objects

​

      Heat - Temperature, heat and internal energy

​

      Changes of State​ - The energy supplied to a material and its state and temperature 

​

      Chemistry - A fundamental concept in Chemistry: the mole

​

      Ideal Gases - Their corresponding equations, laws, constants and assumptions

​

      Kinetic Theory Equation - How to derive the kinetic theory equation for an ideal gas

​

      Maxwell - The Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution

​

      Gas Temperature - The relationship between temperature and the kinetic energies of particles

​

      Capacitors - Charging, discharging and their exponential behaviour

​

​

      Fields - A field is simply a region in space where something feels a force

​

      Electric Fields - A region where a charged object experiences a force​

​

      Parallel Plate Capacitors - Parallel plate capacitors and the permittivity of free space

​

      The Isolated Sphere - How charge is stored on an isolated sphere

​

      Electric Potential - The difference between electrical potential and electric potential energy

​

      Particles in Electric Fields - The behaviour of charged particles in an electric field

​

      Millikan's Experiment - Carried out to find the elementary unit of charge

​

      Magnetic Fields - Magnetic fields around various objects

​

      Fleming's Left Hand Rule - Very handy when it comes to electromagnetism

​

      Particles in Magnetic Fields - The behaviour of charged particles in a magnetic field

​

      Motors - How electric motors work

​

      Electromagnetic Induction - EM induction, magnetic flux and magnetic flux density

​

      Generators - Generating electricity using an alternating current

​

      Transformers - How they are used to either step-up or step-down the voltage

​

      Even More Magnetic Fields - Magnetic fields in solenoids and around wires

​

      Mass Spectrometer - How mass spectrometers use electric and magnetic fields to work

​

      Deriving the Radius of a Charged Particle - The path of a charged particle in a B field 

​

​

      Alpha Scattering - Rutherford's alpha scattering experiment exploring the atom

​

      Radiation - The different types, their ranges and penetration, and their sources

​

      Radioactive Decay - The nature of radioactive decay and how its measured

​

      The NZ Chart - The relationship between proton and neutron number

​

      Einstein's Equation - Probably the most famous equation of all time

​

      Carbon Dating - How we use the radioactive decay of carbon-14 to measure an object's age

​

      Fission - The splitting of a large, heavy nucleus

​

      Fusion - The joining together of two small, light nuclei

​

      The GM Tube​​​ - How a Geiger-Müller tube works

​

      Exponential Decay​​​ - Deriving the exponential decay function

​

​

      Everything - All of the types of objects in the universe

​

      Stars - The life of stars, including how they are formed and how they die

​

      Spectra - We use these to determine the elements and compounds in faraway objects

​

      Wien's Displacement Law - The wavelength of maximum intensity radiation that is emitted

​

      Stefan's Law - The relationship between the light emitted and the temperature of a star

​

      Supernovas and Black Holes - These are massive

​

      Distances in Space - Some of these are really really big!

​

      Redshift - The change in wavelength of light from distant objects

​

      Cosmology - The cosmological principle

​

      Olbers' Paradox - Why it is dark at night

​

      Hubble's Constant - Measuring this constant is one of the biggest challenges in astronomy

​

      The Universe - The origin and evolution of the universe

​

      Dark Matter and Energy - These are really important but not understood just yet

​

      Telescopes - Refracting and reflecting telescopes

 

      Quasars - Quasi-stellar radio sources from distant galaxies

​

      Exoplanets - Planets orbiting stars other than our Sun

​

​​​​​​

bottom of page