For some reason, I'm actually really struggling with Light and Matter.
The Heinemann textbook's explanations aren't adequate for my liking, and the examples involving the use of the equations aren't sufficient enough for me.
Not only that, if you look at the worked solutions you can see they utilize shortcut equations such as p = sqrt(2*m*Ek) (Ek = 0.5mv^2 btw so you can just substitute that in) but there isn't any derivations or even any mention of this at all nor has my teacher ever mentioned it.
But this is the first time I've actually struggled to grasp the actual concepts in physics... And we're so close to the exams (and the L&M SAC is this Thursday).
Is anyone else feeling this way?
Personally, I found light and matter to be one of the most straightforward parts of the course. You can almost rote-learn the concepts and you'll be fine.
What concepts are there? De Broglie wavelength and what it means, energy of a photon, maybe interference, particle model explanation of the photoelectric effect (intensity and current, voltage and maximum kinetic energy of electrons as well as the role of the stopping voltage), why there are quantised energy levels for atoms (strictly speaking VCE physics, in saying that you just fit standing waves to an atom, is wrong here but you don't need to know that), light emission and absorption...and I think that's it. Please remind me if I've missed anything.
As for these shortcut equations...p=mv, p^2=m^2 v^2, p^2/2m = mv^2/2 = KE
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