Physics

Laws and definitions

Density - it is the mass of a substance per unit volume. It is calculated in

kg/cm³

 An object that floats is less dense

 An object that sinks is denser

Experiment:

1. Find the mass with an electronic balance

2. Calculate the volume with a measuring cylinder

Volume of solid = volume of solid in water – volume of water only

Earth and universe

The solar system is made up from:

 Stars (the sun)

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  Planets/dwarf planets orbiting around the sun
 Satellite moons in orbit close to planets

Orbits of the planet are elliptical (slightly oval), the sun keeps them in
orbit (gravitational pull).

A planet is a celestial body that:

 Orbits around the sun

 Nearly round shape
 Cleared its neighborhood

Rocky vs Gaseous planets

Rocky:

 There is 4 Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars

 Closest to the sun
 Made up from rocks and metal

Gaseous:

 The is 4 Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune

 Furthest from the sun

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  Have many moons

The earth spins on its own axis once a day and has a magnetic field
around it. It orbits at the speed of 30,000 m/s and it takes 365.25 days to
make a complete orbit (if it’s a leap year  356 days). A leap year
occurs every 4 years.

Seasons

Tilted at an angle of 23.5* and seasons occur due to the Earth’s tilt.
Toward the sun  summer and away from the sun  winter.

Gravitational force

It depends on:

1. The mass of the object, high mass, higher force (N)

2. Separation between objects, high separation, less force

Satellites – moon planets or machines that are in orbit of a planet or star.

There are two types of satellites:

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  Natural  earth and the moon are natural satellites
 Artificial  take pictures, communication, TV signal…

Artificial satellites also in different orbits such as polar orbits and

geostationary orbits. The difference is:

 Polar  close to Earth, orbit in high speeds and used to monitor

weather, spying and taking images.
 Geostationary  takes 24 hours to orbit the Earth, orbit faster the
polar orbits so they travel slower. These are used for
communication and TV.

Galaxies

Galaxy  collection of gas, dust and stars among with their solar
systems. It is held together by gravity.

Electricity

Consists of moving electrical charges in a copper wire that contains

electrons. The movement of electrons is produced by an electrical
current so we can conclude:

Current is the rate of flow of electrical charge in a closed circuit

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How does a lamp work?

Electrons are pushed out of the negative terminal of the battery and
slowly move towards the positive. These lamps that have battery work in
direct current (d.c)

Conventional current  the marking of positive and negative

terminals as flowing in the opposite direction.

If the circuit is not a closed circuit, we can conclude that:

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 For an electric current to flow, there must be a complete circuit
without any gaps.

Potential difference (voltage)

The energy transfers involved are:

Chemical energy (battery)  electrical charge (wires)  heat

energy (bulb)

Voltage  the energy of 1 coulomb of charge us used between two

points in a circuit.

What is electromotive force?

the energy that comes from chemical reactions inside the battery.

Series circuit  components that are connected in a single loop.

Ammeters can be connected to these circuits as they have low resistance.

Parallel circuit  components that are parallel to each other and

voltmeters can be connected as they have high voltage.

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Factors affecting resistance

1. Length  directly proportional to the length

2. Thickness  inversely proportional to the thickness
3. Temperature  directly proportional to the temperature
4. Conductivity  inversely proportional to the conductivity

What increases resistance?

 Longer wire
 Thinner wire
 High temperature
 Poor conductivity

Variable resistors/Rheostat  adjust the resistance in a circuit and

controls the flowing current.

From Ohm’s law, we can conclude that steeper the line, greater the
resistance. The material in a V-I graph is an Ohmic conductor, obeys
Ohm’s law.

The filament lamp is a non-ohmic conductor as the filament gets hotter,

and the resistance increases. (curve).

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Short circuit  electrons travel down the wrong path due to a fault in
the circuit or wiring.

Fuse  if there is a fault in the circuit it melts and interrupts the flowing
current for safety (3A, 5A and 13A)

Household wiring

Current supplied from the main supply is alternating current.

There are three types of wires:

 Neutral – blue and it carries electricity back to the power source

(left).
 Live – brown and it carries high voltage (right)
 Earth – green & yellow, it cuts the flow of electricity for safety
(top).

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Electrostatics

Atomic structure (building of the atom)

Three sub-atomic particles:

 Protons
 Electrons (orbit around nucleus)
 Neutrons (0 charge, neutral)

Ion  a charged atom due to a difference in number of electrons and

protons.

Number of electrons remain the same as the number of protons, it is

neutral. Atoms can only LOSE or GAIN electrons.

 Loss of one or more electron, positively charged ion

 Gain of one or more electron, negatively charged ion.

How do objects become charged?

By rubbing them together and charging them with friction

Perspex (acetate) rod  electrons move from rod to duster, duster

(negative, gains electrons) and rod (positive, loses electrons)

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Polythene rod  electrons move from duster to rod, rod (negative,
gains electrons) and rod (positive, loses electrons)

Perspex always positively charged (loss) and polythene always

negatively charged (gain).

Forces in static electricity  like charges repel, unlike charges attract

Electrostatic induction

Charged object is placed near a no charge object it tends to induce

charge. This occurs as electrons move towards/away a charged object.

Conductors  contain free electrons

Insulators  do not allow electric charge flow through them

Earthing: removal of charge  removal of excess charge as it

transfers electrons to another object.

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Uses of static electricity

1. Spray painting

Nozzle has a positive terminal so it allows the spray to drop positively

charged. All have same charge  repel and spread out. Paint is given
negative charge; less paint is wasted.

2. Photocopiers/laser printers

To attract black ink/colored toner  attraction of opposite charges.

3. Smoke precipitators

To remove dust from chimneys and causes the gas around it to become
negatively charged.

Forces

Type of forces:

 Weight  downwards force

 Contact/reaction force  two objects in contact of each other
 Tension  pulling of a string/spring
 Resistance  opposes/resist motion

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  Friction  objects slides on another one
 Magnetic force  attract/repel
 Electric force  make your hair cling
 Engine force  generated by an engine.

Resultant force  two forces acting on each other are not equal in size
so they become unbalanced.

Upthrust and Archimedes’ principle

When lifting an object in a swimming pool it feels lighter then lifting it

outside the water although they are the same weight. This is because
water exerts a force known as upthrust.

Hooke’s Law

The extension of the spring is directly proportional to the stretching

force, provided that the elastic limit is not exceeded.

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Thermal energy

The three states of matter are:

 Solid  fixed position, cannot flow from one place to another,

cannot be compressed/squished.
 Liquid  take the shape of the container, cannot be
squished/compressed.
 Gas  are not closely packed to each other, the can be
compressed/squished.

Internal energy

The particles in a solid vibrate as they gain kinetic energy when they are
heated up but they cannot change their position. Particles also have
potential energy due to their positions. Therefore, internal energy is:

The total potential and kinetic energy the particles have stored.
Removal of heat decreases internal energy.

Changing states of matter

When heat is applied…

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Solid  liquid  gas, sometimes they immediately go from solid to
gas.

When a material is cooled…

Gas  liquid  solid, sometimes it goes directly from a gas to a solid.

Evaporation

When a liquid reaches its boiling point there will be a process of

vaporisation but when it occurs at a lower temperature it is known as
evaporation.

When these high energy particles reach the top of the liquid they are able
to escape. as the high particles escaped, low kinetic energy particles are
left so the temperature of the liquid lowers.

---------------------------------------------------------

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It also occurs on…

A washing line  on a low temperature day, the water in the clothes it

below boiling point. Same particles manage to escape in the atmosphere,
cools the clothes and the piece of clothing begins to dry.

Sweat  it absorbs energy from your skin so it can evaporate.

Heat and expansion

Causes things to expand when it becomes in contact with heat.

 Bridges  as they get warmer, they expand so they have rollers so

they can expand and contract.
 Glass bottles  thick bottles crack when they reach boiling point.
Perspex bottles are made to avoid this problem.
 Water pipes  they are bent so it expands without breaking.

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Heat transfer

 Conduction  flow of heat through matter that passes from places

of high to low temperature without the movement of the whole
matter. Good conductors are metal such as copper and have many
free electrons.
 Convection  occurs in liquids and gases only as it passes from
high to low temperatures. This is seen during the sea breeze when
the sea is cooler than the air and vice versa.
 Radiation  travelling of heat via electromagnetism as high
temperature takes place lower temperature. It can only travel
through a vacuum.

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 Dull black surfaces  good absorbers/emitters

Shiny white surfaces  poor absorbers/emitters

Greenhouse effect

Solar radiation enters through the glass and these rays radiate and
makes the greenhouse warmer. Longer wavelength, cannot be
radiated.

Vacuum flask

Used to stop the energy transfer by conduction and convection.

Silvering wall reduces radiation of energy, reflects back infrared rays
that have not been radiated. The tap reduced heat losses by
conduction and convection.

Solar panel

Black surface as it a good absorber of heat darker more heat

absorbed. They are covered in glass to make the greenhouse effect.
The water pipes are made from copper to reduce conduction and the
storage tank is place at a high level so no heat energy is wasted. The
insulation is added to storage tanks and copper pipes.

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 Magnetism

Like poles repel while unlike poles attract

Making a magnet

Can be done by using magnetic materials such as iron, steel and

nickel. Non-magnetic materials are brass, copper and aluminum.

Soft iron  Iron, easy to megnatise BUT loses magnetism quicker.

Hard steel  difficult to magnetise BUT stays magnetised longer.

Magnetic materials have dipoles/domains. Dipoles act like small

magnets (magnetic – point in same direction) and (unmagnetised –
point in different directions).

Ways of making a magnet:

1. Stroking method – steel/iron stroked repeatedly with a permanent

magnet so the dipoles are aligned in the same direction.
2. Apply direct current to a magnetic material

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Ways to demagnetise a magnet:

1. Heating – when they are exposed to high temperatures, the

particles vibrate faster and misaligns the particles causing the
particles to lose magnetism.
2. Hammering – shakes the order of the material that is caused by
vibration.
3. Applying alternating current – changes the orientation of the
magnetic field.

Magnetic induction

The adding of magnetic field in an unmagnetised material such as nails

as it induces a temporarily south and north pole.

Right hand grip rule  to find the direction of magnetic field.

Solenoid

Connected to a d.c. supply and to find its north and south pole one has to
use the right hand grip rule. Magnetic field in a solenoid can be
increased by:

 Larger current
 More number of turns

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  Soft-iron core

Electromagnetism

Temporary magnet made up from an iron core and an insulated wire. It

uses d.c. so it can magnatise the iron core.

Uses of electromagnetism

1. Electrical bell – when it’s switched on, current passes and a

magnetic field is generated as it attracts the soft iron. As the bell is
struck, the circuit is broke and current starts flowing thorough.
2. Relay switch – 2 switches, when a current passes through the
electromagnet, the iron armature is attracted towards the
electromagnet. Circuit 2 is switched on so a greater current is
passing through it. It used to operate cars.
3. Electromagnet door lock - when someone presses the switch,
current starts passing through the solenoid. When the operator is
switched off, the solenoid becomes unmagnetised.

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Motor effect (Flemming’s Left-Hand Rule)

A wire that is placed across a magnetic/permanent field that has a

current passing through it. The wire is experiencing a force known as a
catapult force.

D.C. electrical motor

Coil of wire placed between two poles carrying a direct current. It either
rotates clockwise or anti-clockwise.

Faraday’s Law

The electromotive force induced in a conductor is directly

proportional to the rate at which the magnetic field lines are cut.

Producing induced current/voltage

As the magnet is moving in and out of the coil, induced current is

produced. The galvo will be deflected to both sides and produces
alternating current.

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Lenz’s Law

Direction of the induced current/emf always opposes the change

causing it.

Transformers

Two coils, primary and secondary that are laminated with a soft-iron
core. It is always an alternating current.

Primary coil produces a magnetic field and it’s constantly changing the
magnetic field so a.c. is also produced in the secondary coil. They
increase and decrease voltage.

Step-up transformer  primary coil has less voltage than secondary

coil

Step-down transformer  primary coil has more voltage than

secondary coil.

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Moments

Moment of a force depends on the:

 Size of the force

 Perpendicular distance from force to pivot

Practical applications of moments: Levers

They reduce the effort needed to perform the task. They exert force
around the pivot to move the object.

Principle of moments

For an object to be equilibrium, the total clockwise moments is

equal to the total anticlockwise moment.

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The center of gravity/center of mass

It is the point where its whole weight seems to act on.

How to find the center of gravity of an irregularly shaped lamina?

1. Drill a small hole in the object and hang it up so it can freely swing
without obstruction.
2. Hang a plumb line (string with weight) from the point and mark
vertically the line directly below the suspension point.
3. Drill a hole within the location of the object.
4. Hang a plumb line to determine the mark on it.
5. two lines are marked and the center of mass is now determined.

Types of equilibrium

 Stable  if pushed, it returns to its original position as the center

of gravity rises and pulls back to its original place.
 Unstable  if pushed, if moved its center of gravity lowers and
falls.
 Neutral  if pushed, its center of gravity does not rise or fall.

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What makes an object stable?

 Width of the base

 Height of its center of gravity

Objects with a wide base and low center of gravity are more stable
than those with narrow base and high center of gravity.

Momentum

Momentum depends on:

 Mass of the object

 Velocity of the object

Greater the mass/velocity, greater the momentum

Momentum  product of the mass and velocity of an object (p = mv).

Resultant force of an object is equal to the rate of change of momentum.

Newton’s second law of motion

The resultant force is directly proportional to the rate of change of

momentum and acts in the same direction (ft = mv-mu)

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Example:

If someone kicks a stone of mass 1kg and accelerating it from rest to

10m/s, if it’s rigid the time of collision will be short thus the force
exerted will be larger.

If someone kicks a football of the same mass and give it the same speed,
the momentum will be the same but since the football is soft, the force
applied will be longer and a smaller force will be exerted on the foot.

Longer time of collision, a smaller force will be exerted

Practical applications:

1. Bumpers/crumple zones – front and back of a car are designed in

order to spread out during the time of collision thus reduces the
force on the passengers.
2. Seatbelts – designed to spread out during the time of collision
which reduces the force on the passengers.
3. Crash helmet – padded to extend the time of collision

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Collisions

When two billiard balls collide, the will exert a force on each other for a
short time and the momentum of both balls will change. From Newton’s
third law, the exerted forces are equal and opposite  momentum ‘lost’
by one ball is equal to the momentum ‘gained’ by the other ball.
Principle of conservation of momentum:

When two or more bodies collide with each other, their total
momentum remains constant, provided that no external forces are
acting on them.

Total momentum before = total momentum after

Two types of collisions:

 Elastic collision  two objects collide and move apart (e.g. balls)
 Inelastic collision  two objects collide and stick/move together

It is important to know that the momentum conserved with any type of

collision, kinetic energy is only conserved in elastic collisions but it is
not conserved in inelastic collisions.

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Explosions

Opposite of collision, objects separate instead of coming together. The

rocket has controlled collision, as it moves upwards the hot gases move
the opposite direction. The gained momentum is equal and opposite to
the momentum ejected hot gases.

When a bullet is fired, it gains momentum in one direction while the gun
recoils with the momentum of the opposite direction.

Motion

Distance  scalar quantity, ‘’how much?’’ during its motion

Displacement  vector quantity, ‘’how far away?’’, position

(represented with direction)

Speed and velocity

Velocity  describes how fast an object is moving in a particular

direction. As a car turns round the corner with the same constant speed,
its velocity changes its direction of motion (different from speed)

Acceleration

Describes how quickly the velocity is changing

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Free fall

The force of gravity pulls down on objects which also they are allowed
to fall freely and accelerate downwards. When there is no air resistance,
all falling object accelerate at the same rate 10m/s²  acceleration due
to gravity. If air resistance is not present, objects with different masses
hit the ground at the same time.

When air resistance is present, it builds up terminal velocity. When

terminal velocity is reached, the forces on the object are balanced/equal.

Terminal velocity  max speed reached by a falling object

Stopping distance/time

In order to stop the car, one needs to first think about the braking
distance and then actually applying the brakes.

Stopping distance = thinking/reaction distance + breaking distance

Stopping time = thinking/reaction time + breaking time

Factors that affect the thinking distance:

 Car’s velocity
 Driver’s alertness
 Visibility

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Factors that affect the breaking distance:

 Car’s velocity
 Vehicle load
 Breaks’ condition
 Road conditions

Newton’s Law of Motion

Newton’s first law of motion

An object will remain at rest/uniform motion in a straight line

unless an external force acts on it.

This means that things cannot stop, start or change direction by

themselves. This law brings out the idea of inertia.

Inertia  the opposition of any object to change its movement (it is a

property of mass)

Objects that have a larger mass, trucks, will be difficult to move,

accelerate and decelerate or event change their direction. Therefore,
heavier the mass, larger the inertia.

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How can we observe inertia?

Passengers in a car gain a lot of inertia that’s why they wear seatbelts. If
a car stops suddenly, the passengers tend to keep moving on forwards
unless the seatbelt exerts a large force on them.

Newton’s second law of motion

The acceleration is directly proportional to the resultant force and

inversely proportional to the mass.

This law deals with objects whose forces that are acting on it are
balanced. When these forces become unbalanced, there is a resultant
force. It applies a velocity to the object and causes it to accelerate or
decelerate. Acceleration depends on…

 Grater the force, greater the acceleration

 Heavier the mass, less it accelerates

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Terminal velocity

When an object is dropped there are three stages before it hits the
ground:

1. It starts accelerating downwards (10m/s²) if there is no air

resistance, an upwards force starts acting on it.
2. The object gains speed and the weight stays the same but the air
resistance increases as it increases with the speed. As the air
resistance is smaller than the weight, there will be a resultant force.
It stars accelerating at a lower rate

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 3. The air resistance is equal to the weight so there is no resultant
force on the object (Newton’s first law).

Air resistance depends on:

 Speed of the object  faster the speed, bigger the air resistance
(constant – the air resistance will be 0)
 The area of intercept  larger the intercept, the higher the air
resistance will be. A skydiver that has arm and legs spread out will
meet with more air resistance than the one whose falling down.
Therefore, they can control their air resistance
 Opening a parachute  increases the area, the diver will
decelerate rapidly as a force on the air resistance is applied.

Newton’s third law of motion

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction

When an object exerts a force on the other object, the second object
exerts an equal force in size and opposite direction of the first one.

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Optics

Reflection of light

Law of reflection

Angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection

The incident ray, reflected ray and the normal all lie on the same
plane

The image produced by a plane mirror is:

 Inverted
 Virtual (only appears behind the mirror)
 Same size as the object
 Same distance from the mirror and object in front

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Refraction of light

Light is refracted (bent) when it travels from one medium to another.

This occurs when light travels from different densities.

when light travels from less dense

to denser medium, it bends
towards the normal

when light travels from dense to

less dense medium it bends away
from the normal.

When the light hits the boundary along the normal, there will be no
change i = r = 0°

Total internal reflection

Place a semi-circular glass block on a sheet of paper and trace it. Mark
the mid-point and light it up with a ray box.

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As the angle of incidence is increased from 0°, it is increased until a
refracted ray comes out. This is known as the critical angle

When the angle of incidence is larger than the critical angle, total
internal reflection will occur.

Total internal reflection takes place in:

1. Light rays travelling from denser to less dense medium

2. Angle of incidence is greater than critical angle

Uses of total internal reflection

1. Optic fibers – thin glass rod which allows light to pass from one
end and undergoes repeated total internal reflections, even when
the fiber is bent, eventually it emerges from the other end.
2. Binocular/periscope – glass prism 45° can be used as a totally
reflecting prism. The angle of incidence at second surface (45°)
greater than the critical angle glass (42°). Total internal reflection
takes place.
3. Road/bicycle reflectors – same prism is used to turn on light rays
through 180°.

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Dispersion of white light

There are 7 colors:

 Red  bent the least, travels fastest and longest wavelength

 Orange
 Yellow
 Green
 Blue indigo
 Violet  bent the most, travels slowest and shortest wavelength

Diffraction of light  the spreading of light through a narrow slit.

Lenses

Convex lenses

Wider center that the edges. Makes parallel rays of light converge to one
point known as the focal point. The convex lens is also known as a
converging lens.

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Concave lens

Thinner edges at the center. It makes parallel rays diverge. Concave

lenses are also known as diverging lenses

Discussing lenses:

 Principal axis – line that joins the centers of lens surface

 Optical center – center of the lens
 Principal focus – where all the parallel rays converge/diverge
from
 Focal length – distance between optical center and principal focus

Forming an image:

 Upright/inverted
 Magnified (larger than the object) /diminished (smaller)
 Real (rays from the object meet) /virtual (appear to come from a
point)

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image position – behind object

nature of image – magnified, upright, virtual

uses – magnifying lens, microscope

image position – beyond 2F

nature of image – magnified, inverted, real

uses – projector

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object position – at 2F

nature of image – same size, inverted, real

uses – scanner

image position – between F and 2F

nature of image – diminished, real, inverted

uses – eyes, camera

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Pressure

Pressure in solids

One can push a drawing pin into a piece of wood easily but cannot push
your finger into the wood, even if a large force is exerted. The difference
between the pin and your finger is the contact area.

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 Pressure is the perpendicular force acting on a unit area of force

Pressure is directly proportional to the force  larger force, larger

pressure exerted. Small force, smaller pressure exerted.

Pressure is inversely proportional to the area  larger area, smaller

force.

Pressure in liquids

If you have a can of water that has similar holes around it at the same
height, you can see the water coming out fast and far away from each
hole  pressure exerted by the water will come out the same in all
directions. We can conclude that:

 Pressure is transmitted throughout the liquid

 Pressure is equal in all directions same height/depth

Pressure and depth

Water comes out the fastest and furthest from a deeper hole  liquid
pressure increases with depth.

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Pressure and liquid density

Pressure is directly proportional to the density of the liquid

Water comes out the fastest and furthest rather than the cooking oil
(water is denser)  pressure increases with density

Liquid levels

Pressure at the top of the containers are all the same. The liquid on the
surface is always equal to the atmospheric pressure  liquid pressures
does not depend on the shape/width of a container.

Pressure in liquids depends on:

 Height/depth
 Density of the liquid

Hydraulic machines

Two cylinder of different areas are connected by a pipe full of liquid.

The liquid has to be incompressible so that the exerted pressure would
be equal in all directions. A load is put on the large piston and the effort
is passed to the smaller piston.

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Car breaks use hydraulic break system. When your foot exerts a small
force on the breaking pedal, a force is created and fluid is transmitted to
the breaking pads having a larger area and larger force. Same pressure is
exerted to the wheel disc.

Atmospheric pressure  the pressure that is exerted by the

atmosphere. This is exerted only at sea level (100,000 Pa/100 kPa). It is
defined as the force per unit area that is exerted against a surface by the
weight of above air.

Applications of atmospheric pressure:

1. Having a drink using a straw

While sucking up the straw to drink it is an atmospheric pressure effect.

If one tries to suck up from a straw with an open bottle you will be
successful but if you’re trying with a closed tap, you will fail.

Opened bottle creates a vacuum in the straw sucking up the air while the
atmospheric pressure pushes the drink up through the straw.

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 2. Rubbers suckers

They are pressed against a surface to squeeze out air. The atmospheric
pressure on the outside holds it firmly and forms an air tight seal and
vacuum.

3. Syringe

When the piston slides smoothly inside the cylinder making an air-tight
seal, it fills the syringe from the bottom to top. It produces a low
pressure in the cylinder below the piston. Greater atmospheric pressure
on the surface, liquid is pushed up the nozzle.

Pressure in gases

Gases move about quickly and are not tightly packed. As there is an
enormous number of tiny collisions in the container, this constant
bombardment exerts a pressure on the walls of the container.

If a gas is compressed, particles occupy less volume as they have less

space to move about. The mass remains constant and the molecules
collide more often so the pressure increases.

Pressure and volume are inversely proportional

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Radiation

Atoms consist of nucleus which contain positively charged protons and

neutral neutrons. The negatively charged electrons orbit around the
nucleus

Electron  -1 charge, mass close to 0 and it orbits around the nucleus

Neutron  0 charge, mass of 1 and it is found inside the nucleus

Proton  +1 charge, mass of 1 and it is found inside the nucleus

Total number of protons and neutrons  mass/nucleon number

Symbol A  proton/atomic number

Symbol Z  neutron number

Isotopes

Atoms that have the same number of protons but different number of
neutrons

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Radioactive decay

Elements that have fewer protons are stable if they have the same
number of protons and neutrons  carbon 6 neutrons and 6 protons. As
protons increase, more neutrons are needed to keep the atom stable

Nuclei that have different number of protons and neutrons are known as
unstable atoms. These atoms will start to decay to become stable
emitting radiation. This is known as radioactive decay.

Types of radiation

 Alpha  2 protons and 2 neutrons, it has a +2 charge and it is a

Helium -4 nucleus
 Beta  proton and electron, proton remains in the nucleus while
the electron is shot out as a beta particle, 1 electron and -1 charge
 Gamma  electromagnetic radiation and carries no charge.

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Ionising power  the process where an electron is added or removed
from an atom to create ion (group of atoms that have an electric charge).
Radiation emitted from an unstable atom is known as an ionising
radiation.

Geiger-Muller (GM) tube

Connected to a rate meter that counts how much radiation a source emits
in a minute.

Background radiation

When the GM tube is switched on without being close to a radioactive

source, it will still give a reading. Background radiation comes out from
cosmic rays and natural radioactive materials.

Half-life

The process when a radioactive atom starts to decay by half. Radioactive

atoms with a long half-life are dangerous as they keep emitting radiation
for a long period of time.

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Uses of radiation:

1. Detecting leakages

Leaks in underground pipes can be detected by injecting a radioactive

source of isotope, beta radiation. The area above the ground that has a
high intensity of beta radiation will detect and indicate the leak source.
Beta radiations have the correct penetrating power to pass through soil.

Alpha would be absorbed in the soil and gamma rays would be too
powerful to pass through the walls of the pipe.

2. Carbon dating

Used by scientist to date bones, wood, paper and cloth. The amount of
carbon-14 in the atmosphere has not changed. All living things had
carbon-14 and when an organism dies, it stops taking carbon dioxide and
it starts to decay into nitrogen with a half-life of 5700 years.

3. Treatment and sterilisation

Gamma rays are used to kill bacteria, mould and insects in food. They
are also used to sterilize medical equipment and treat cancer patients.

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Safety precautions:

 Avoid direct contact

 Minimize exposure
 Use proper disposal

Waves

Types of waves:

 Transverse waves  vibrate perpendicular to the distance of

travel (water waves, electromagnetic waves…) and they have
crests and troughs.
 Longitudinal waves  vibrate parallel to the direction of travel
(sound waves, earthquakes…) and they have compressions and
rarefactions.

If the frequency of the wave is increased, the velocity remains the same
but the wavelength decreases (inversely proportional)

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Reflection of waves

The angle of incidence hits the reflector and the reflected angle that
leaves the reflector are equal.

Refraction of waves

A sheet is placed in a water to make a section of the ripple tank

shallower. As the water passes from deep to shallow the speed of the
wavelength and waves decreases but the frequency remains the same.

Electromagnetic spectrum

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Bell-jar experiment

 Hang up a bell connected with a vacuum pump

 Switch on the bell
 Start the pump

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 By this experiment one can conclude that sound cannot travel
through a vacuum.

Hearing

Human ears can detect sound and sound waves enter the ear canal and
cause the eardrum to vibrate. The three small bones transmit these into
the cochlea.

Human ears can hear sounds in the frequency between 20 – 20,000 Hz

but this range reduces as we get older.

Sonar/echo sounder

Used in ships and submarines to detect fish. A pulse of ultrasound is sent

from the ship, bounces off the seabed/fish and echo is detected. The time
that is taken for the wave to travel indicates the depth of the seabed/fish.

Work, energy and power

Work done  the force that acts on an object and causes it to move
through a distance and energy that is transferred to work done (W = Fs)

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Different forms of energy

 Kinetic energy  energy of moving objects

 Nuclear energy  released from nuclear reactions
 Thermal/heat energy  hot to colder objects
 Sound energy  noise
 Light energy  sun and light bulbs
 Electrical energy  flowing current
 Gravitational energy  falling objects
 Chemical energy  stored in chemical compounds

Energy conservation

Energy that can be transformed/converted from one to another

e.g. chemical energy  light energy  heat energy

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only changed from one
form to another

Gravitational potential energy

When an object is lifted, work is done against gravitational force.

Kinetic energy  depends on mass and velocity

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