It's tempting to think that happiness comes from not being in school over the Christmas break but I want you to think further ahead than the next two weeks. I want you to think about next summer and how happy you will be with a good grade in your GCSE Physics examination! Thinking ahead is … Continue reading Happy Holidays!
DC and AC Electricity Pt1: Electron Movement
One of the most famous technological "wars" was the battle that raged almost 150 years ago between Thomas Edison's DC electricity and Nikola Tesla's AC electricity. For our purposes, we will put aside the stories of the two men (Edison was an inventor and businessman whereas Tesla was a scientist and idealist) and focus on … Continue reading DC and AC Electricity Pt1: Electron Movement
Quantum Game
If you want to play a fun game and (optionally) learn about the curious behaviour of light, then Quantum Game is for you! The nature of light has divided opinion in physics for literally thousands of years, from the time of Pythagoras and Aristotle in ancient Greece to the current day. In the seventeenth century, … Continue reading Quantum Game
Electron Shells
The idea of electron shells is essential in chemistry and also plays an important part in various areas of physics so needs to be discussed in its own right. But before we look at electron shells let's be clear that this is just a model - a way of imagining what is going on inside … Continue reading Electron Shells
Atoms – basic ideas
The original idea of an atom came from asking a very simple question: if you take a substance and cut it into smaller and smaller pieces, is there a limit to how many times you can keep cutting it into smaller pieces? When this question was originally asked, back in ancient Greece around 400 BC, … Continue reading Atoms – basic ideas
Electrical Circuits: mini-test
It is really important that you check your understanding as you work through a topic. With that in mind, I have created a short online test that you can use to check your recall and understanding of some of the basic knowledge required for the Electricity module. You can access the test, which is hosted … Continue reading Electrical Circuits: mini-test
Current and Voltage rules
There is a clear pattern to the measurements of current and potential difference (voltage) in electrical circuits - which, for us, means series and parallel circuits. These two patterns were identified by Gustav Kirchhoff and are therefore known as Kirchhoff's Laws. Kirchhoff's current law states that the sum of the currents flowing into a junction … Continue reading Current and Voltage rules
Series and Parallel Circuits
Electric circuits are all about energy transfers: they allow the energy in the original source to be transferred via electricity into some other form. In the classic torch-bulb circuit, for example, chemical energy (in the cells) is converted into electrical energy, which is then converted into light (and heat, for old-fashioned bulbs). The amount of … Continue reading Series and Parallel Circuits
What is Static Electricity?
When work is done on an object, by moving a force through a distance, the object gains energy. As a result, the object might get hotter (gain thermal energy) or accelerate (gain kinetic energy) or be lifted upwards (gain gravitational energy). There is also another possibility; the object could gain electrical energy in the form … Continue reading What is Static Electricity?
Electrical Energy Calculations
The equation for electrical energy is tricky because it contains four components whereas many of the common GCSE equations contain only three components - or can easily be reduced to three because one of the components can be treated as a constant. The best way to handle a four-component equation is to fill-in the values … Continue reading Electrical Energy Calculations
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