Topic Content

Forces and What is the difference between a scalar and vector?

Motion
How do you represent vector quantities?

What is distance and what type of quantity is it?

What is displacement and what type of quantity is it?

How do you represent displacement?

What is speed and what type of quantity is it?

What is the difference between average and instantaneous speed?

What factors might affect the speed at which a person can run?

What are the typical values of speed for running, walking, cycling?

Is the speed of sound and wind always constant?

What is the typical value of the speed of sound in air?

How could you measure the speed of an object?

If an object is moving at constant speed, what equation links speed, distance

and time and what are the units for each quantity?

How do you calculate average speed from an object with varying speeds?

What is velocity and what type of quantity is it?

What happens to velocity and speed in circular motion?

What is a distance – time graph?

How can you calculate the speed of an object from a distance time graph for
objects that are travelling at a constant speed and accelerating?

How do you draw and interpret distance - time graphs?

What is acceleration and what type of quantity is it?

What equation can be used to calculate the average acceleration of an object

and what are the units of each quantity in the equation?

What is deceleration?

What is the magnitude of average accelerations of everyday objects?

What is the acceleration of any object falling freely under gravity near the Earth’s
surface?

What is the relationship between force and acceleration?

What is a velocity – time graph?

 How can you calculate acceleration and distance travelled from a velocity time
graph?

How do you draw and interpret distance - time graphs?

How do you describe the motion of a falling object in terms of the forces acting
upon it?

What does a velocity – time graph for a falling object look like?

What does a velocity – time graph for a falling object show? Explain
Describe, using particles, what is meant by fluid friction. Link to Terminal velocity

What is a force and what type of quantity is it?

How do you represent a force?

What is the difference between a contact and non-contact force? Give examples
of each

How do you describe the interaction between pairs of objects that produce a
force on each other?

What is a resultant force and how can you calculate it?

Can you draw free body diagrams to describe the forces acting on an object?

Can you use free body diagrams to work out the resultant force acting?

What is weight and what does it depend on?

What equation describes the weight acting on an object in a planet’s

gravitational field? What are the units of the quantities you use?

What is mass?

What instruments are used to measure weight and mass?

What is an object’s centre of mass?

Moments and What is needed to cause an object to rotate about a pivot?
Pressure
What everyday examples are there of objects rotating in this way?

What is a ‘moment’?

What equation links the moment of a force, the force, and the perpendicular
distance from the pivot? (what are the units of each quantity?)

What is the principle of moments for an object in equilibrium?

How do levers and gears transmit the rotational effects of forces?

What is pressure?
What equation describes pressure on a surface and what are the units of all
quantities used?
 How do you convert between: (mm-cm-m-km), (mm2-cm2-m2 -km2), (mm3-cm3-m3
-km3)

How is a fluid defined?

What is the difference between liquid and gas in terms of compressibility?

The pressure in fluids causes a force to act on objects in which direction?

What equation describes the pressure on an object in a fluid (and what are the
units?)

What happens to the pressure on an object in a fluid as depth increases?

What happens to the pressure on an object in a fluid as density increases?

What is upthrust?

What factors influence floating and sinking?

What is the atmosphere?

What happens to the atmosphere as you get higher above the Earth’s surface?

What causes atmospheric pressure?

What happens to atmospheric pressure as height above a surface increases?

Waves What is a wave and what is and is not transferred in a wave?

What are the definitions of the two types of wave? Give examples of each

What are the differences between the two types of wave?

What are compressions and rarefactions?

What are the definitions and units of: amplitude, wavelength, frequency and time
period?

What equation links frequency and time period?

What is wave speed?

What is the wave equation?

What experiment would you use to measure the speed of sound waves in air?

What experiment would you use to measure the speed of ripples on a water
surface?

How are changes in velocity, frequency and wavelength interrelated when a

sound wave moves from one medium to another?

Describe reflection, refraction, absorption and transmission

When are waves reflected?

When might waves be absorbed or transmitted?

How would you draw rays to show reflection at a surface?

Can you draw ray diagrams, including arrows and the normal line

Which way does light bend when entering glass from air?

What causes the light to bend?

What are the common properties of EM waves?

How are the waves from the EM spectrum grouped? What are the groups in
order?

Which part of the EM spectrum can our eyes detect?

What 4 things can happen to EM waves when they meet a boundary between
different medium?

What is refraction and what causes waves to refract?

How would you draw rays to show refraction of a wave at a boundary?

What is a wave front and how can it be used to show the change in wave speed
at a boundary between different media?

What is diffraction and what criteria are needed for a wave to diffract?

How would you draw a wave front diagram to show diffraction of a wave through
a gap?

What are the dangers of each type of EM radiation?

How can radio waves be produced?

How can radio waves be used to produce an alternating current and how does
the frequency of the ac current compare to that of the radio wave that produced
it?

Where do we use microwaves other than heating food?

How does the amount of infrared radiation absorbed or radiated by a surface

depend on the nature of that surface?

Where do gamma rays originate from?

Ultraviolet waves, X-rays and gamma rays can have hazardous effects on
human body tissue. What does the effect depend upon?

Can you use data to draw conclusions about the risks and consequences of
exposure to radiation

What are each of the EM waves used for?