Revision topics for year 8 Physics January 2018
This is a combination of year 7 and 8 work in Physics. Much of year 8 work builds on the year 7 work. Most questions on the exam paper will relate to topics covered in year 8.
1. Energy
What is energy?
Energy conversions/ ‘types’ of energy
Fuels and how to compare energy content
The formation of fossil fuels
How energy can be stored
Energy conservation
Alternative sources of energy
Energy from food
Food chains and energy
The transfer of heat energy by conduction, convection and radiation
Cooling by evaporation
Thermometers and how they work
Expansion
2.Electricity
How to construct a series circuit
Circuit symbols
Measuring current in a series circuit
Short circuits
Parallel circuits
Measuring current in a parallel circuit
Voltage
Uses for the heating effect of a current in a wire
3. The solar system and beyond
Causes of day and night, year, month
Why the sun appears to move across the sky
How the tilt of the earth causes the seasons
Variation in day length with season
The moon, phases of moon
Solar and lunar eclipses
Gravity, why it is different on different planets
Satellites and their uses
The planets. Interpretation of planet data
4. Forces
What do forces do and where are they found?
The difference between mass and weight
Upthrust and floating
Calculation of density
Force diagrams
Balanced and unbalanced forces
Calculation of speed from distance and time data
Extension of spring experiment with graph
Friction
Forces and pressure
Pressure may be calculated as force divided by area
Units of pressure
Pressure in liquids
Pressure in hydraulic systems
Air pressure and pressure in gases.
Sound waves
Sound is made when objects vibrate
Relationship between the loudness and the amplitude of the vibration
Relationship between the pitch of a sound and the frequency of the vibration. Hertz as the unit of frequency
Structure of the human ear and how it works
Effects of loudness of sound on the ear and hearing
Echoes
Calculation of the speed of sound
Light waves
Light travels in straight lines from a luminous source
The meaning of transparent, translucent and opaque
The transmission, absorption and reflection of light from objects
Shadows
How light is reflected from a plane mirror
How light is refracted at the boundary of two different materials
That white light is a mixture of colours with different wavelengths
Primary and secondary colours of light