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S2 PHYSICS Unit-3 & 6 Revision Note
S2 PHYSICS Unit-3 & 6 Revision Note
S2 PHYSICS Unit-3 & 6 Revision Note
➢ The rock will now move because the sideways forces are not balanced.
➢ The rock will now start to move in the direction of the larger sideways force.
Slowing down
➢ Unbalanced or unequal forces can also make moving objects slow down.
➢ A parachute makes a falling object slow down.
➢ When the parachute first opens, the forces are unbalanced. This unbalanced force makes the
object slow down.
➢ When the object slows, the air resistance decreases, so the forces become balanced again.
➢ Then the object falls at a constant speed.
Changing direction
➢ Unbalanced forces can also make objects change direction.
➢ This tennis ball will change direction because of an unbalanced force.
➢ When the ball contacts the tennis racket, the ball pushes on the tennis racket.
➢ To make the ball go back in the opposite direction, the hitting force must be larger than the
force from the ball.
➢ The tennis ball will change direction because of an unbalanced force.
➢ Planets orbit the Sun due to the force of gravity.
➢ The force of gravity on a planet is a constant, unbalanced force.
➢ When an object moves in a circle, its direction is always changing.
➢ A constant unbalanced force is needed to keep an object moving in a circle.
3.2 Speed
Units of speed
➢ The standard unit for speed is metres per second. The word per means ‘in each’.
➢ Therefore, metres per second means the number of metres travelled in each second.
➢ Metres per second is written as m/s.
𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞
speed =
𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞
➢ Note: the term average speed is sometimes used because the speed of an object during a
journey is not always constant.
➢ if you have a distance in km and a time in hours, the equation will give you a speed in km/h
as you are dividing a distance in km by a time in hours.
3.3 Describing movement
Distance–time graphs
➢ Scientists use graphs to describe how two variables are related.
➢ We can use graphs to describe the movement of an object.
➢ One way to do this is to plot distance travelled on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal
axis. A graph like this is called a distance–time graph.
➢ Graphs are more useful than words for describing movement because:
• it is easier to see trends and patterns
• you can read any value of distance or time during the journey, from the graph
• other values, such as speed, can be calculated from a graph
• information about the whole journey can be seen easily.
➢ If you draw a sketch graph you do not have to put numbers on your graph axes.
➢ Sometimes, distance–time graphs have values on the axes.
➢ This means you can use the graph to make calculations.
➢ Read the distance from the vertical axis, and the time from the horizontal axis.
This distance–time graph shows a short train journey between two stations, P and R, that are
2000m apart.
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UNIT-6
LIGHT
6.1 Reflections
Reflection
➢ When you think of reflection you probably think of using a mirror.
➢ Most of the mirrors you use are plane mirrors. ‘Plane’ means flat’.
➢ Remember that light travels in straight lines called rays.
➢ When drawing light rays, always use a ruler and put an arrowhead on the ray to show its
direction.
➢ A light ray arriving at a mirror is called an incident ray. An incident ray is the ray coming onto
a surface.
➢ The incident ray makes an angle with the surface of the mirror. Measure this angle from a line
perpendicular to the mirror and not from the mirror itself.
➢ The line perpendicular to the mirror is called the normal.
➢ The normal is perpendicular to the mirror where the incident ray meets the surface.
➢ The angle between the incident ray and the normal is called the angle of incidence (i).
➢ The angle between the reflected ray and the normal is called the angle of reflection (r).
6.5 Galaxies
The Milky Way
➢ If you look at the sky on a clear night, far away from any lights, you can see a milky band
across the sky.
➢ This milky band is part of the galaxy where we live, called the Milky Way.
➢ The word ‘galaxy’ comes from a Greek word for ‘milky’.
Shapes of galaxies
➢ The reason why our own galaxy looks like a band across the sky is because of the shape of the
galaxy.
➢ The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy. If you were to look at the Milky Way from far away, it
would appear as a spiral.
➢ Because we live in a spiral galaxy, we can only see one ‘arm’ of the spiral, which is that band
across the sky.
➢ In fact, most of the stars we see at night are in our own galaxy. There are an estimated
250 000 000 stars in the Milky Way including our Sun.
➢ There are other galaxies in the universe besides our own. The word ‘universe’ is used to
describe all of space and everything in it.
➢ These other galaxies have different shapes, and they are classified according to shape. They
are called elliptical galaxies or irregular galaxies.
What are galaxies made of?
➢ Galaxies are made from stellar dust, gas, stars and solar systems held together by gravity.
Stellar dust is the dust that is found in space.
➢ The gravity holding a galaxy together is very strong because galaxies are very large and have
very large mass.
➢ Even if you could travel at the speed of light (300000 kilometres per second), it would take
you more than 100000 years to cross from one side of the Milky Way to the other!
➢ Scientists estimate the mass of the Milky Way to be 1500000000000 times the mass of the
Sun.
How many galaxies are there?
➢ Scientists have counted the galaxies in one part of space.
➢ The scientists then multiplied this number up to estimate the number of galaxies in the
universe.
➢ The answer they got was 100 000000000 galaxies!
➢ Estimates such as this may not be accurate.
➢ The force of gravity holding the lumps of rock together is weak because the asteroid is a
relatively small object.
➢ When an asteroid such as Itokawa passes a large object such as a planet, tidal forces can change
the shape of the asteroid.
➢ Some asteroids are made from a single piece of rock. Scientists know this because these
asteroids are small and spin quickly.
➢ The force of gravity in these asteroids would be too weak to hold separate pieces of rock
together.
Asteroids and Earth
➢ Scientists think that a large asteroid impacts the Earth on average every 130 000 years.
➢ Smaller asteroids impact with Earth very frequently.
➢ These smaller asteroids were less than diameter and broke apart in the atmosphere, so never
reached the Earth’s surface.
➢ There are two reasons why asteroids impact with Earth.
❖ The Earth exerts a strong force of gravity on passing objects such as asteroids.
❖ Many asteroids have orbits that pass relatively close to Earth.
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