Physics Specification Definitions A2

DAMPING – A force which causes an oscillating object to lose energy and causes the amplitude of the
oscillation to decrease

INTERNAL ENERGY – The sum of randomly distributed kinetic energies and potential energy of the
particles in a body.

ABSOLUTE ZERO – The lowest possible temperature a substance can have, when particles have kinetic
energy equal to 0J.

AVOGADRO CONSTANT – The number of atoms in 12g of carbon 12.

MOLAR MASS – The mass that 1 mole of a substance would have

MOLECULAR MASS – The average mass of a molecule on a scale where 1/12th carbon 12 is exactly 1.

BROWNIAN MOTION - The random motion of particles suspended in a fluid

FORCE FIELD – The region in which a body experiences a non-contact force

GRAVITY – Universal attractive force acting between all matter.

GRAVITATIONAL POTENTIAL – The work done needed to move a unit mass from infinity to that point in a
gravitational field.

GRAVITATIONAL FIELD STRENGTH – The force per unit mass felt by an object in a gravitational field.

EQUIPOTENTIAL – A surface that joins all the points with the same potential energy in a field.

ESCAPE VELOCITY – The minimum speed required for an unpowered object to leave the gravitational field
of another object.

SYNCHRONOUS ORBIT – An orbit in which the orbiting object has the same orbital period as the rotational
period of the object it is orbiting.

PERMITTIVITY- A measure of how difficult it is to create an electric field in a medium.

ELECTRIC FIELD STRENGTH – The force per unit positive charge felt by a charge placed in an electric field.

CAPACITANCE – The amount of charge an object is able to store per unit potential difference across it.

TIME CONSTANT – The time taken for the charge, current or potential difference on a capacitor to fall to
37% of their initial value.

MAGNETIC FLUX DENSITY – The force on 1 metre of wire carrying a current of 1A at right angles to the
magnetic field.

TESLA – 1 newton per amp per metre.

MAGNETIC FLUX – The product of magnetic flux density and area. Equal to the number of flux lines passing
through a certain area.
FARADAY’S LAW - The induced EMF is directly proportional to the rate of change of flux linkage.

LENZ’S LAW – EMF is induced in a direction to oppose the change that caused it.

ACTIVITY – The number of unstable nuclei in a radioactive sample that decay each second.

DECAY CONSTANT – The probability that an unstable nuclei will decay per unit time.

HALF LIFE – The time taken for the number of unstable nuclei in a sample to halve.

ATOMIC MASS UNIT – 1/12th the mass of C12

FISSION – The spontaneous or induced splitting of a larger nucleus into two smaller nuclei.

FUSION – The fusing of two smaller nuclei to form one larger nucleus.

THERMAL NEUTRON – A neutron in a nuclear reactor that has been slowed enough by a moderator to
allow it to be captured by a nucleus that it can induce fission in.

CRITICAL MASS – The amount of fuel needed for a fission chain reaction to continue at a steady rate on its
own.

APPARENT MAGNITUDE – How bright a star appears to be as viewed from earth

ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE – How bright a star would appear to be if placed at 10pc from earth.

STEFAN’S LAW – The power output of a black body is proportional to the fourth power of the body’s
temperature and is directly proportional to surface area.

PARSEC – The distance of an object from earth if its angle of parallax is equal to one arc second.

PARALLAX – A measure of how much a nearby star appears to move in relation to the distant background
due to the observers motion.

BLACK BODY – A body that absorbs all electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths and can emit all
wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.

RED SHIFT – The shift in wavelength and frequency of a source moving away from us towards the red end
of the EM spectrum.

QUASARS – An object that is thought to be a galactic nucleus centred around a black hole that is the most
distant observable object and is a strong emitter of radio waves.

EXOPLANETS – Planets that are not in our solar system.