The phenomenon of "learning loss" during the long summer holidays is well known so to keep your physics cogs turning, here's a brief challenge. I took my camera to the Five Mile Road on Saturday and photographed cars going past. The camera was set to 5fps so every sixth picture should have been recorded exactly … Continue reading Keep the cogs turning!
Speed of Sound in an Iron Bar
Sound travels at different speeds in different materials. We often think only of sound moving through the air (a gas) but in fact it also moves through both liquids and solids. Note that there is a difference between sound moving through a liquid and waves that can be seen on the surface of a liquid. … Continue reading Speed of Sound in an Iron Bar
Speed of Water Waves
For hundreds of years, water waves have been used to understand wave behaviour in general. This is understandable given that water waves are a natural phenomenon that can also be created artificially and studied in the lab. On the simplest level, a stone thrown into the middle of a pond will create waves that extend … Continue reading Speed of Water Waves
Representing Waves
Waves on water are very familiar, especially here in Jersey, but to analyse waves properly we need an instrument that offers suitable measurement features. The instrument that we use is called a Cathode Ray Oscilloscope (CRO). You have seen sound waves on a CRO screen in the lab and you can revisit this learning online … Continue reading Representing Waves
Speed – A Crash Course
In view of the current school closure, this post has been created to summarise the learning steps that you have already followed to gain a firm understanding of speed in terms of distance and time. You should work through this page to check and improve your knowledge. The key learning outcomes are; The units of … Continue reading Speed – A Crash Course
Delta and the Power of Change
In physics, one of the big differences between KS3 and KS4 is the idea of “change”. KS3 students are happy to talk about speed being distance divided by time but at GCSE level you need to be thinking instead about speed being a rate of change of distance. Why is this important? Because physics calculations … Continue reading Delta and the Power of Change
Scalars and Vectors
You must know the definitions of a scalar and a vector. A scalar is a quantity that has magnitude only (it has no direction). Common examples include; temperature, speed, mass and distance. A vector is a quantity that has both magnitude and direction. Common examples include; forces, velocity, acceleration and electric current. There are a … Continue reading Scalars and Vectors
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