AS Course Content

AS course content

Physics in Action

Communication

1. Imaging
Image capture, image processing, lenses and optics, bits and bytes, ideas about information
2. Sensing
Instrumentation, use of sensors, current, potential difference, power, d.c. circuit theory up to the potential divider
3. Signalling
Digital signals, telephone, email, radio and television, spectra and polarisation, bandwidth and information

Designer Materials

4. Testing Materials
Mechanical and electrical properties of materials, types and uses of materials.
5. Looking Inside Materials
Explaining properties of materials in terms of structure at various scales; designing new materials.

Understanding Processes

Waves and Quantum Behaviour

6. Wave Behaviour
Superposition of waves, standing waves, colour and thin films, double slit, grating, diffraction, simple phasor picture
7. Quantum Behaviour
Quantum behaviour of photons and electrons, energy E = hf, 'many paths' picture of quantum behaviour

Space and Time

8. Mapping Space and Time
Vector quantities, vector addition, displacement and velocity, slopes of and areas under graphs
9. Computing the Next Move
Relative velocity, uniform acceleration, kinematic equations, F = ma, 'step-by-step' calculations, projectiles, uniform gravitational field, force, work and power

A2 Course Content

Rise and Fall of the Clockwork Universe

Models and rules

10. Creating Models
Simple computational models, radioactive decay, RC circuit, energy stored, harmonic oscillator, resonance
11. Out into Space
Orbits, circular motion, gravitational field and potential, inverse square law, conservation of momentum
12. Our Place in the Universe
Evidence of origin and evolution of Universe, distance and velocity measurement, relativistic time dilation, cosmic red shift, microwave background

Matter in Extremes

13. Matter: Very Simple
Ideal gases, kinetic theory of gases, random walk, thermal capacity, conservation of energy, energy kT
14. Matter: Very Hot and Cold
Behaviour of matter at high and low temperatures, Boltzmann factor, meaning of temperature

Field and Particle Pictures

Fields

15. Electromagnetic Machines
Transformer, dynamo, motor, power generation and transmission. Flux density and induced emf
16. Charge and Field
Accelerators: Relativistic rest energy and mass. Electric field and potential, force on a moving charge

Fundamental Particles of Matter

17. Probing Deep into Matter
Scattering, nuclear atom, discrete energy levels, quantum ideas about atoms, particle physics
18. Ionising Radiation and Risk
Radioactive decay processes, nuclear stability, fission and fusion, risks from ionising radiations, use of Erest = mc2