PHYSICS

Units 1 & 2 (Year 11) – Foundation Topics

Unit 1: How Is Energy Useful to Society?

Thermal Physics

  • Temperature and heat

  • Specific heat capacity

  • Latent heat (fusion and vaporisation)

  • Energy transfer (conduction, convection, radiation)

  • Laws of thermodynamics

Electricity

  • Electric charge and current

  • Voltage, resistance, and Ohm’s law

  • Series and parallel circuits

  • Power and energy in electrical systems

  • Electrical safety (fuses, circuit breakers)

Nuclear Physics

  • Atomic structure and isotopes

  • Nuclear reactions (fission and fusion)

  • Radioactive decay and half-life

  • Radiation and its effects

Unit 2: What Do Experiments Reveal About the Physical World?

Motion and Forces

  • Displacement, velocity, and acceleration

  • Graphical analysis of motion

  • Newton’s laws of motion

  • Free-body diagrams

  • Friction and tension forces

  • Circular motion

Wave Physics

  • Types of waves (mechanical, electromagnetic)

  • Wave properties (wavelength, frequency, amplitude)

  • Wave behaviour (reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference)

  • Doppler effect

Optics

  • Light as a wave

  • Reflection and refraction (Snell’s Law)

  • Total internal reflection and critical angle

  • Lenses and optical systems

Units 3 & 4 (Year 12) – Advanced Topics

Unit 3: How Do Fields Explain Motion and Electricity?

Motion

  • Projectile motion

  • Forces in two dimensions

  • Work, energy, and power

  • Momentum and impulse

  • Circular motion and centripetal force

Electromagnetism

  • Electric fields and forces

  • Magnetic fields and forces

  • Motion of charged particles in fields

  • Electromagnetic induction

  • Lenz’s Law and Faraday’s Law

  • Transformers and AC circuits

Unit 4: How Can Two Contradictory Models Explain Both Light and Matter?

Wave-Particle Duality

  • Electromagnetic spectrum

  • Wave model of light (interference, diffraction)

  • Particle model of light (photoelectric effect)

  • Quantum theory and photons

  • Matter waves and de Broglie hypothesis

Special Relativity

  • Einstein’s postulates

  • Time dilation

  • Length contraction

  • Simultaneity and relativistic momentum

  • Mass-energy equivalence (E=mc2E = mc^2E=mc2)

Nuclear and Particle Physics

  • Standard Model of particle physics

  • Fundamental forces and exchange particles

  • Antimatter and annihilation

  • Quarks and leptons

  • Conservation laws in nuclear reactions

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