Physics Summative Notes

1.1 Numbers and units:

 Physical Quantity – When the complete measurement is
made up of 2 parts, number and a unit.
 m/s is the unit of speed
 remember to make sure that the ans is with the unit.
 Scientific Notation – Numbers that are written in powers of
ten.
 Scientific Notation = Standard Form

1.2 System of Units:

 SI Units – Le Systeme International d’Unites
 SI Units are used to
measure mass = kilogram (Kg)
time = second (s)
length = metre (m)
temperature = kelvin (k)
electrical current = amperes (a)
 Mass – measure of quantity in an object.
 Mass has 2 effects:
1 - The greater the mass the greater the earth’s
gravitational pull on the object.
2- The greater the mass the greater the resistance to
change in motion.
 1 millisecond – (ms)
 1 microsecond – (us)
 1 nanosecond - (ns)
1.3 Measuring Length and Time:
 Lengths of several objects can be measured using a
tape with a scale one it.
 Time can be measured using a stopwatch and
stopcock.
 Time can be accurately measured using a motion
senor or an infrared sensor.
1.4 Volume and Density:
 Volume – The quantity of space an object takes up is
called its volume.
 SI Unit of volume = cubic metre (m^3)
 Density: density = mass/volume
  Unit of Density = kg/m^3
1.5 Measuring Volume and Density:
 Volume of a regular object is measured by l*b*h
 Volume of irregular object is measured by using the
displacement method.
 Displacement Method – put an object in a measuring
cylinder and notice the change in the water
measurement, the change in water measurement is
the volume of the object.
 Hydrometer – used to measure the density of a liquid.
1.6 More about Mass and Density:
 Weight is a force which is measured in Newtons.
2.1 Speed, velocity and Acceleration:
 Speed measured in m/s
 Velocity – speed of something and its direction of
travel.
 Quantities, such as velocity, which have a direction
as well as a magnitude (size) are called vectors.
 Acceleration is measured in m/s^2
 A negative acceleration is called deacceleration or
retardation
 Final velocity = original velocity + extra velocity OR
final velocity = original velocity + (acceleration*time)
2.2 Motion Graphs:
 Changes in Y axis/Changes in X axis = gradient
 The area under the line in a graph is the
distance covered.
 On a distance time graph the gradient = the
speed
 On a distance time graph the gradient = the
acceleration.
2.6 Forces in Balance:
 A fore is a pull or push.
 SI Unit of force is Newton (N)
 Upthrust – the upward force from a liquid or gas
that makes some things float.
 Weight – the gravitational force upon an object.
  Tension – the force in a stretched material.
 Friction – the force that opposes the motion of one
material sliding past another.
 Thrust – the forward force from an aircraft engine.
 Air Resistance – The resistance provided by air,
one type of friction.
 Newton’s 1st Law of Motion:
If no external force is acting on it, an object will
- if stationary, will remain stationary.
- if moving, keep moving at a steady speed on a
straight line

 If forces are in balance they cancel each other out

and the object will not move.\
 With balanced forces on it, an object is either
stationary or moving at a steady velocity.
 Terminal Velocity – when max velocity is achieved,
no more can be gained, no more speed can be
gained.
2.7 Force, Mass, Acceleration:
 All objects resist a change in velocity.
 Resistance to change velocity is known as Inertia.
 The more mass, the more Inertia.
 Resultant force is when 2 forces are unbalanced, for eg.
Force on left is 10N and force on right in 20N, so resultant
force is 10N right.
 If forces are balanced the resultant force is 0.
 If 2 or more forces act on something they change its shape
or volume (or both).
2.8 Friction:
 Friction: the force that stops objects from sliding across
each other.
 To reduce friction, wheels are mounted, or the object is
coated with oil or grease to make it slippery.
 Friction is used to provide grip to tires ,shoes etc, also
used in breaking systems.
 There are 2 kinds of friction, dynamic or static.
 Static friction: the force that keeps the object at rest.
  Dynamic friction: when an object is moving the force
which opposes the motion of the object is know as
dynamic friction.
 Dynamic friction heats up objects in order to try and stop
them from moving.
 Drag: the friction objects experience when they move
through a liquid or a gas.
 Drag is also known as air resistance.
2.9 Force, Weight and Gravity:
 Gravitational Force: a force that pulls objects downwards
towards earth.
 To measure gravitational force use a spring balance.
 Weight is measured in newtons.
 Mass is measure in Kg.
 Gravitational force has 3 main features:
1- All masses attract each other
2- The greater the masses, the greater the force
3- The closer the masses, the greater the force
 Gravitational field: a region in which a mass experiences a
force due to gravitational attraction.
 Earths gravitational field streng+th is 10 newtons per Kg
(N/Kg)
 Gravitational field strength is represented by the symbol
g.
 Acceleration of free fall is represented by symbol g.
 Mass is constant.
 m/s^2 is the unit for acceleration.
2.10 Action and Reaction:
 forces are always push or pull, between 2 objects.
 Hence they always occur in pairs.
 The paired forces are known are action and reaction.
 One force cannot exist without the other.
 For eg, runner pushes backward on ground – ground
pushes forward on runner, in this case the earth will not
move as it has a much larger mass.
 For eg, forward force on bullet when it shoots out –
backward force on gun as it recoils.
  If forces occur in pairs why don’t they cancel each other
out – as the forces in each pair act on different objects, not
the same object.
 Newtons 3d law of motion – to every action there is an
equal but opposite reaction.
 For eg, if object A exerts a force on object B, then object B
will exert an equal but opposite force on object A.
 Rockets use the action and reaction principle – a rocket
engine gets thrust in one direction by pushing out a huge
mass of gas very quickly in the opposite direction.
2.11 Momentum 1 :
 Momentum is a vector force so + or – is often used to
denote direction, if moving right +, if moving left -.
 With a resultant force on it, an object will accelerate.
Therefore its velocity will change, and so will
momentum.
 Resultant force = rate of change of momentum.
 The quantity force*time is called an impulse.
 Momentum is denoted by p
 Its is a vector quantity
 Momentum – physical quantity associated with any
moving object that is the product of its mass and
velocity.
 Unit = Kgm/s
 Inertia = the tendency of an object to resist change
in its state or rest or motion.
 2nd Law of newton = Force is equal to the rate of
change of momentum.
 Impulse – the product with a change in time
 Change in p = impulse
 Unit of impulse = newton per second (Ns)
2.12 Momentum (2):
 Velocity can be measured using ticker-tape timers.
 When two or more objects act on each other, their total
momentum remains constant, provided no external forces
are acting.
2.13 More about Vectors:
  Quantities such as force which have a direction as well as
a magnitude are called vectors.
 Finding the resultant of 2 or more vectors is called adding
the vectors.
 Quantities such as mass and volume, which have
magnitude but no direction are called scalars.
 Adding scalers is very easy. A mass of 30kg + a mass of
40kg = 70kg.
2.14 Moving in Circles:
 The inward force neede to make an object move in a circle
is clled the centripetal force.
 More centripetal force is needed if:
- the mass of the object had increase
- the speed of the object hs increased
- the radius of the circle is reduced
 Centripetal force – it is the force that must be supplied to
make something move in a circle rather than in a straight
line.
 Velocity is speed in a particular direcrion. So a change in
velocity can mean either a change in speed or a change in
direction.
 If something has a changing velcocity , then it has
acceleration – in the same direction as force. So with
circular motion , the acceleration is towards the center of
the circle.
 Satalites around the earth – gravitational pull ( inother
words, the satlites weight) provides the centripetal force
needed.
 If the mass in doubled, twice as much centripetal force is
rquired, but that is supplied by the doubles gravitational
pull of the earth.
 Planets around the sun – the centripetal force is supplied
by the sun’s gravitational pull.
 Electrons around the nucleas – the elctristaic forces
provide centripetal force.