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24 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
P1 Revision Cards
Core Physics |
If you can answer all of the questions on these cards then you need all you need to know to ace your exam! |
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1. How have our ideas about the solar system changed over time? |
1. People used to believe that everything in the solar system orbited the Earth (geocentric model) now we know that everything orbits the sun (heliocentric model).
2. Light, radio and micro-waves are used in telescopes to study the solar system and the milky way. 3. Gallileo's observations showed that there were moons that orbited Jupiter so not everything was orbiting the Earth. 4. Photography and telescopes have allowed us to make more detailed observations of the solar system. |
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1. How do you measure the focal length of a converging lens? |
1. Hold a lens near a window and focus the image of a distant object onto a piece of paper. Measure the distance between the lens and the paper.
2. Eyepiece lens: magnifies the image. Objective lens: refracts light to create the image. 3. The changing direction of light rays when they cross a boundary between two different mediums. 4. Light travels at different speeds in different mediums. Because light travels as a wave, if it hits an interface at an angle part of the wave changes speed before the rest, causing it to change direction. |
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1. What is reflection? |
1. When light hits an object some of it bounces back off of it. |
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1. What do waves do? |
1. Transfer energy but not matter from one place to another.
2. Transverse waves move particles up and down but transfer energy at right angles to this movement. Longitudinal waves move particles backwards and forwards and transfer energy in the same direction. 3. Frequency: number of waves passing a point in 1 second, measured in hertz; wavelength: distance from one point on a wave to the same point on the next wave, measured in metres; amplitude: distance from the central point to the top (crest) of the wave, measured in metres. 4. wave speed = distance/time wave speed = frequency x wavelength |
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1. What did William Herschel discover and how?
2. What did Johann Ritter discover and how? |
1. Infrared waves by placing thermometers in light that had been split into its separatre colours by a prism and seeing the temperature change. One of the thermometers was placed beyond the red end of the spectrum and this one heated up the most. |
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1. What is the order of the electromagnetic spectrum?
2. How does electromagnetic radiation travel? 3. What factors determine the order of waves on the electromagnetic spectrum? |
1. Radio; microwaves; infrared; visible light; ultraviolet; x-rays; and gamma rays. |
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1. List the dangers of each type of electromagnetic wave.
2. How does frequency and wavelength relate to the dangers? 3. describe the uses of each type of electromagnetic radiation. |
1. Microwaves: internal burning due to heating of water; infrared: external burning; ultraviolet: damage to eyes and skin cells leading to cancer; x-rays and gamma rays: damage to cells or mutation of DNA leading to cancer.
2. The higher the frequency and the shorter the wavelength the more dangerous the radiation is. 3. Radio: communication; microwaves: cooking and communication (mobile phones); infrared: heaters, toasters, thermal imaging and remote controls; visible light: photography and vision; ultraviolet: detecting forged banknotes, security marking and disinfecting water; x-rays: observing bones, airport security; gamma rays: radiotherapy (killing cancer cells), detecting cancer and sterilising food or medical equipment. |
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1. What is ionising radiation?
2. Describe the 3 types of ionising radiation. |
1. Radiation that can cause atoms to become ions by removing electrons.
2. Alpha particles and beta particles are not types of electromagnetic radiation but they have lots of energy and can be very damaging to cells; gamma rays are electromagnetic radiation and can also damage cells. All are emitted by radioactive sources. |
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1. Put these in size order: planets, galaxies, moon, universe, stars.
2. What is a galaxy? 3. Which galaxy do we live in? 4. What is in the universe? 5. What is a spectrometer used for? |
1. Moon, planets, stars, galaxies, universe. |
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1. Which regions of the electromagnetic spectrum are used by modern telescopes?
2. How have modern telescopes contributed to our understanding of the universe? 3. Why are some telescopes located outside of the Earth's atmosphere? |
1. All of them! |
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1. What is SETI?
2. What do they do and how? |
1. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
2. They search for alien beyond Earth using landers to collect soil samples from Mars; space probes to photograph other planets; and rovers to take close up photographs on other planets. |
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1. How are stars formed?
2. What are the 4 main stages in the life-cycle of a star? HIGHER ONLY 3. How is the evolution of massive stars different to the evolution of smaller stars? |
1. From a cloud of dust (called nebula). Gravity pulls the cloud of dust together so that it gets more dense and starts to glow. More mass gets pulled in until the nebula becomes a protostar. As the temperature and pressure increase, hydrogen nuclei fuse to form helium and lots of energy is released. |
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1. What are the 2 theories about the beginning of the universe?
2. What is the evidence supporting these theories? 3. Which theory has the most evidence supporting it? |
1. The Steady State and the Big Bang theory. Steady state: the universe has always existed and is expanding. The big bang: the universe started as a pinpoint of energy and has been expanding from there ever since.
2. Red shift: light that is moving away is shifted towards the red end of the spectrum shows that the universe is expanding; cosmic background radiation: the Big Bang theory states that lots of radiation was released at the beginning of the universe and should still be detectable now - it has been detected. 3. The Big Bang theory has more evidence supporting it. |
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1. What is infrasound?
2. What are 3 uses of infrasound? 3. What is ultrasound? 4. What are 3 uses of ultrasound? 5. How can depth be calculated using sonar? |
1. Sounds with frequencies less than 20Hz.
2. Communication between animals (eg. elephants); detection of animal movement in remote locations; and detection of volcanoes and meteors. 3. Sounds with frequencies above 20 000Hz. 4. Sonar; communication between animals (eg. dolphins); and foetal scanning. 5. Time how long it takes for a sound wave to return to the ship and then use the formula: distance = speed/time to calculate how far it has travelled and divide this by 2. |
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1. Where do seismic waves come from?
2. What are the 2 types of seismic waves and what are the differences between them? 3. What happens to seismic waves at the boundaries between different rock types? |
1. Earthquakes and explosions.
2. P waves and S waves. P waves are longitudinal and travel faster. S waves are transverse and travel slower. 3. They can be reflected and refracted. 4. Small explosions are set off and the time it takes for the seismic waves created to travel to different seismomometers is used to work out the rock types they have travelled through. |
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1. How are earthquakes detected?
2. How can you work out where the epicentre of an earthquake is? 3. What causes earthquakes? 4. Why is it difficult to predict earthquakes? |
1. With a seismometer. |
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1. What are the 6 renewable energy resources?
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1. Solar converts energy from the sun into electricity; wind turbines use wind to turn a generator; hydroelectricy traps water using dams and when iut is allowed to flow downwards this movement is used to generate electricity; geothermal energy uses heat from rocks underground; tidal power uses the movement of water to turn turbines in river estuaries; wave power uses floating electrical generators that convert movement energy to electricity. |
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1. describe the advantages and disadvantages of different methods of generating electricity.
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1. Fossil fuel power stations generate large amounts of cheap electricity and can run all of the time but fossil fuels will run out one day and burning them releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Nuclear power generates lots of electricity and can generate it all the time but they create radioactive waste and radioactive materials will run out one day. |
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1. What is electromagnetic induction?
2. How can the size of the induced current be increased? 3. What is the difference between direct and alternating current? 4. How is electricity generated on a large scale? |
1. When a wire moves through a magnetic field a current is produced.
2. Increase the strength of the magnet; or the number of coils of the wire; move the wire faster; and put an iron core inside the coil of wire. 3. Direct current only flows in one direction but alternating current changes direction several times a second. 4. Powerful electromagnets are used and the coil of wire is spun around inside the magnetic field to induce a voltage and therefore a current. |
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1. What does a transformer do?
2. Why are transformers necessary for the transmission of electricity around the country? 3. What is the difference between step-up and step-down transformers? HIGHER ONLY 4. How can you calculate the voltage produced by a transformer if you know the number of coils of wire on the transformer? |
1. Changes the size of the voltage. |
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1. What is power?
2. How is energy from the mains measured? 3. What is one unit of electricity? 4. What are the advantages of using low energy appliances? 5. What is payback time? |
1. The amount of energy transferred in one second (watts)
2. In kilowatt hours (1kW = 100W) 3. 1 kWh 4. They reduce energy usage and therefore save money on electricity bills. 5. The amount of time it takes to save the amount of money that the energy saving device cost to but. |
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1. What are the 9 types of energy?
2. What is the law of conservation of energy? 3. How are energy transfers represented in diagrams? 4. What is efficiency? |
1. Light, thermal, sound, chemical potential, elastic potential, gravitational potential, electricity, kinetic (movement) and nuclear. |
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1. Which colour absorbs the most heat?
2. How can we ensure that a system remains at a constant temperature? 3. What is the greenhouse effect? |
1. Black. |