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Higher Physics
Definitions
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Acceleration | The rate of change of velocity. 2ms-2 means that the speed of the object increases by 2ms-1 every second. |
| Newtons 1st law of motion | States that an object will remain at rest or move with a constant speed in a straight line unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. |
| Balanced forces | Have the same size of force on an object but act in opposite directions. |
| Newtons 2nd law of motion | F = ma |
| Newtons 3rd law of motion | For every action, there is an equal AND opposite reaction. |
| The law of conservation of linear momentum | The total momentum before a collision (or explosion) is equal to the total momentum after the collision (or explosion), in the absence of external forces. |
| Elastic collision | The TOTAL kinetic energy before a collision is equal to the TOTAL kinetic energy after the collision. |
| Inelastic collision | The TOTAL kinetic energy after a collision is less than the TOTAL kinetic energy before the collision. |
| Time dilation | The increase in an observed time interval for an object moving relative to an observer compared to that measured when they are in a stationary frame of reference. |
| Length contraction | The decrease in the observed length of an object moving relative to an observer compared to that measured when they are in a stationary frame of reference. |
| Doppler effect | An increase (or decrease) in the frequency of sound, light or other waves as the source moves towards (or away) from an observer. |
| Redshift | When light from galaxies is being “stretched” towards longer wavelengths as they move further away from the observer. . |
| Blueshift | When light from galaxies is being “bunched” towards shorter wavelengths as they move towards an observer. |
| Evidence for The Big Bang | Cosmic microwave background radiation The abundance of hydrogen and helium The darkness of the sky The large number of galaxies showing redshift rather than blueshift. |
| Dark matter | The cause for the orbital speed of stars being higher than estimated. |
| Dark energy | The cause for the accelerating rate of expansion of the universe. |
| Potential difference | The number of joules of energy per coulomb of charge. |
| Fermions | Matter particles (Quarks and Leptons) |
| Bosons | Force mediating particles |
| Hadron | A group of quarks |
| Meson | Made of a quark and an anti-quark |
| Baryon | Made of 3 quarks. |
| Strong force | Holds quarks together (and also protons and neutrons together in the nucleus). |
| Beta decay | Caused by the weak nuclear force and is evidence of the neutrino. |
| Fundamental particle | A particle that is not made of any other particles. |
| Anti-matter | Particles that have the same mass but opposite charge to their corresponding matter particle. |
| Induced Nuclear fission reaction | A large nucleus being split into smaller nuclei by the bombardment of a neutron |
| Spontaneous nuclear fission reaction | A random splitting of a large nucleus into smaller nuclei with no external trigger. |
| Nuclear fusion reaction | Smaller nuclei combining to make a more massive nucleus. |
| Energy produced in a nuclear reaction | The mass of the products is less than the mass of the reactants. The lost mass is converted to energy according to E=mc2 |
| Irradiance | The power per unit area. |
| Point source | A source that follows the inverse square law Id2= k (if the distance is doubled then the irradiance will quarter). |
| Photoelectric effect | Proof that light is a particle. Only one photon can eject one electron. |
| Work function | The minimum energy required to cause photoemission. |
| Threshold frequency | The minimum frequency of an incident photon required to cause photoemission. |
| Interference | Proof that light is a wave |
| Coherent waves | Two waves that have the same wavelength, frequency and have a constant phase relationship. |
| Constructive interference | When two coherent waves meet peak to peak/trough to trough (or in phase) |
| Destructive interference | When two coherent waves meet peak to trough (or completely out of phase). |
| Line emission spectrum | Produced when an electron falls from a higher energy level to a lower one, resulting in a photon being emitted with a specific energy, |
| Absorption spectrum | Produced when an electron absorbs specific energies of photons and as a result, moves up to the relevant energy levels. |
| Refractive index | The ratio between the speed of light in air to the speed of light in the medium. |
| Absolute refractive index | The ration between the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light in the medium. |
| Critical angle | The angle of incidence inside a medium that causes an angle of refraction of 90 degrees in air, |
| Total internal reflection | Occurs when the angle of incidence inside the medium is greater than the critical angle. |
| Alternating current | when the charges in a circuit are continually changing direction. |
| E.M.F | The number of joules of energy given to each coulomb of charge that passes through the source. 10V means 10 Joules of energy given to each coulomb of charge. |
| T.P.D | The voltage across the terminals of the battery. This is the same as the voltage across the load resistor. |
| Capacitance | The number of coulombs of charge stored per volt. |
| Band theory in Conductors | The conduction band and valence band overlap. The highest occupied energy band is not completely full. |
| Band theory in Insulators | The gap between the conduction band and valence band is large. The highest occupied energy band is completely full. |
| Band theory in semiconductors | The gap between the valence band and conduction band is small. At room temperature, some electrons are able to move into the conduction band, Increasing the temperature increases conductivity and reduces resistance, |
| Terminal velocity | When an object is travelling at its maximum velocity, where the forces acting on the object are balanced. |
| Resultant force | One single force that replaces two or more forces acting on an object. |
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