Hi, current year 11 here doing physics 1/2. I'm hoping to get a head start for 3/4 next year and was wondering what are some key areas which I should start looking over now? Also what company would everyone recommend for practice exams? Thanks so much.
it would be really good to get head start on newtonian mechanics(classical physics for motion, refering to point 1 mentioned below), which you should be doing as your unit 2 atm or starting.
1. Kinematics, vectors, Forces(newtons laws), Energy(conservation of energy, kinetic energy, GPE, Spring potential energy stuff) momentum and impulse, projectile motion, circular motion.
2. Special Relativity
3. Fields and their patterns, Gravitational Fields, Electric Fields, Magnetic Fields.
4. DC motors, Power generation principles, Transformers and transmission. (this part relates a bit to your electrical circuit component)
5. Light (wave-particle duality) -
(i) light as a wave - wave principles(what is a wave?), wave phenomenon(interference, diffraction, dispersion and
refraction), standing waves (harmonics, look into rubens tube for this its fun!) - light is not dicrete but continuos
(ii) light as particle - photo electric effect (how solar panel works), light is emitted in quantised(discrete) packets of
energy and the amount of energy is dependent of frequency of the photon, how matter can also behave like wave
De Broglie’s wave–particle theory, emission spectra and energy levels of an atom.
I dont really find textbook helpful at all (I have both Jacaranda and Heinmann textbooks), but if you want you can use it as a guide. Khan academy, Lectures by Professor Walter lewins and some other resources are much better. Building things throughout the course will help you further you understanding i think, if you really wanna do it, even little simulations and thought experiments are good.
Hope it helps