IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

IGCSE: DEFINITION & CONCEPTS OF FORCES AND MOTION

SPEED: The distance travelled per unit time. Speed is a scalar. Units can be m/s km/h etc

VELOCITY: The distance travelled per unit time in a stated direction. Velocity is a vector. Units can be m/s km/h etc UNIFORM or CONSTANT: When a quantity does not change in magnitude or direction. DISPLACEMENT: Distance moved in a stated direction. Vector. Unit: metre (m). ACCELERATION: The change in velocity per unit time. Vector. Unit usually m/s2

DISTANCE-TIME GRAPH: The gradient at a point gives the speed. VELOCITY-TIME GRAPH: The gradient at a point gives the acceleration. The area under the graph gives the distance travelled. FORCE - Push or a pull on an object. It will accelerate an object or change its shape or size. A force is a vector quantity. Unit: Newton (N) VECTOR: A quantity with both magnitude and direction. SCALAR: A quantity with only a magnitude. ADDING FORCES ALONG A LINE: They are added like directed numbers taking into account positive or negative direction. FRICTION: The force which opposes motion when the surface of an object moves over another. Unit: Newton (N) UNBALANCED FORCE: It causes acceleration on the body on which it acts on.

GRAVITY: The force that all masses exert on each other. The effect is very small unless one of the bodies is massive. Eg the Earth. BY RAJ

IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES NEWTON: The unit of force. A force of 1 N gives to a mass of 1kg an acceleration of 1m/s2. 1N is approximately the force of gravity on an apple. ACTION AT A DISTANCE - Gravity is a force which acts between two bodies even when there is no contact between them. Other examples are Magnetic force and Electric force WEIGHT - The force of gravity on a body and it acts through the centre of gravity of the body. Unit: Newton

STOPPING DISTANCE - the sum thinking distance and braking distance. FACTORS AFFECTING STOPPING DISTANCE: The more the speed and mass of the vehicle the more the stopping distance because of the high momentum it posses. Certain road conditions can increase the stopping distance. i.e., watery and icy surfaces reduce friction causing brakes to work less effectively. The longer the reaction time, the greater the overall stopping distance. Reaction time is affected by such things as drugs alcohol, loud music, conversation etc. NEWTON METER or SPRING BALANCE: Measuring instrument containing a spring which measures weights using the idea that extension is proportional to load on a spring. MOMENTUM: Product of mass and velocity. Its a measure of how difficult a body is to stop. Unit: kgm/s

CHANGE IN MOMENTUM: Impulse SAFETY FEATURES IN A VEHICLE: Air-bags prevent injuries from the steering wheel and windshield by increasing the time duration for the impulse. Seat belts do the same as air-bags and crumple zones in a vehicle are to increase the time taken for the impulse which causes less force exerted on the people inside. NEWTONS THIRD LAW: When object A exerts a force on object B, then object B exerts an equal and opposite force on object A. MOMENT OF A FORCE: Moment = force perpendicular distance of the line of action from the pivot (fulcrum). Unit: Nm

BY RAJ

IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES PRINCIPLE OF MOMENTS: When a body is in equilibrium, the sum of the clockwise moments about any point equals the sum of the anticlockwise moments about the same point, provided that no external force acts on it. HOOKE'S LAW: Many objects and materials such as springs stretch when a force is applied. Often, the stretching force is proportional to the extension. I.e. if the force is doubled, the extension is also doubled. ELASTIC BEHAVIOUR: A material with the ability to recover its orignal shape after the foces causing deformation are removed is said to have elastic behaviour EXTENTION VARIATION: Helical spring extention varies proportionally to the applied force upto a certain point called elastic limt. If the forces causing deformation are removed before reaching the elastic limit, theres no permanent extention but if forces are removed after reaching the point, therell be a permanent extention. Metal wires stretching it too far will leave a permanent extention on it and break down if it after reaching a point called breaking point. Rubber band at the beginning, large force aplied will have less extention, then a small force will have a large extention and at last no matter how much force is applied, itll extend for a short time and then not any more. NATURE OF DRAG FORCE: Drag force of an object keeps increasing until it equals the weight of the object. TERMINAL VELOCITY: When the drag force, which opposes an objects motion becomes equal to its weight, theres is no resultant force acting on the object and thus the vertical acceleration goes to zero. With no acceleration, the object falls at constant velocity where this constant vertical velocity is called the terminal velocity. WHY OBJECTS REACH TERMINAL VELOCITY: The drag force resisting motion is approximately proportional to square of its spe ed. At low speeds, the drag is much less than the gravitational force and so the object accelerates. As it accelerates, the drag increases, until it equals the weight. GRAVITATIONAL FORCE: A force between all masses which increases if the masses are large and decreases as they get further apart. Planets and comets are held in orbit by the gravitational forces of the Sun. GRAVITATIONAL FIELD STRENGTH: The strength of gravitational force. Its different on the surface of each planet or satellite. On

BY RAJ

IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES earth its approxamately 10 N/kg and on the Moon its approxamately 1.6 N/kg. CENTRE OF GRAVITY: Its the point on a body where the whole weight of the body tends to act on. MOON: Moons are natural objects that orbit a planet and are nonluminous objects like planets. Some planets have no moon and some have more than one. Mars has 2 moons, Jupiter has over 60 and Uranus has 27 moons. SATELLITES: They are objects that orbit a planet. Moons are natural satellites and some objects are manufactured that orbit planets are artificial satellites. They orbit planets due to the gravitational forces of the planets acting on them. ORBIT: A satellite will orbit around a larger body due to gravitational attraction. Comets orbit the Sun in an eccentric ellipse and the Moon orbits the Earth

THE UNIVERSE: contains 1010 galaxies which each contain 1010 stars. Moons and satellites orbit planets which orbit stars. The solar system is a part of our galaxy a spiral galaxy called the Milky Way.

BY RAJ