Physics Definitions Unit 4

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Capacitance, gravitational fields and Orbits, Doppler, Dark Matter, Electrostatic fields, Physics of sport, Electromagnetic induction

Last updated 2:53 PM on 5/4/26
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110 Terms

1
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Capacitance (Capacitance)

Charge stored per unit volt (Q/V)

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What is capacitance proportional to? (Capacitance)

Area of plate

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Area under a VQ graph (Capacitance)

work done

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Capacitor combination in Series (Capacitance)

C+C

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Capacitor combination in parallel (Capacitance)

1/C +1/C

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Time constant for discharge (Capacitance)

Time taken for current/pd/charge to fall to 37% original value

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Time constant for charging (Capacitance)

time taken for the current/pd/charge to fall to 63% original value

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What type of decay happens during charging and discharging (Capacitance)

Exponential

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What type of force is the force between two masses? (gravitational fields)

attractive

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Inverse square law of gravitational fields (gravitational fields)

The force between two masses is proportional to the product of their masses and is inversely proportional to the square of their distance apart

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Gravitational field (gravitational fields)

region where a mass experiences a force

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Gravitational field strength (gravitational fields)

force per unit mass at that point

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Is gravitational field strength vector or scalar? (gravitational fields)

Vector

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What is the direction of the gravitational field strength given by? (gravitational fields)

The direction of the force acting on the mass in the field

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Uniform gravitational field (gravitational fields)

field with the same size and direction at all points

<p>field with the same size and direction at all points</p>
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Gravitational potential energy (gravitational fields)

energy a body has because of its position above the ground

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what type of field does mgh apply to? (gravitational fields)

Uniform

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Non-uniform gravitational field (gravitational fields)

where size and/direction of field changes within the field

<p>where size and/direction of field changes within the field </p>
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Equipotential Surfaces (gravitational fields)

spheres around a planet where the radius is constant - so potential is constant

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Radial Field (gravitational fields)

Field produced by a spherical mass (both size and direction alters)

<p>Field produced by a spherical mass (both size and direction alters)</p>
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Gravitational potential (gravitational fields)

Work done in bringing a mass from infinity to that point per unit mass

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What is the potential at infinity? (gravitational fields)

0

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Gravitational potential energy (gravitational fields)

Work done in bringing a mass from infinity to that point

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Gravitational potential energy for a system of 2 masses (gravitational fields)

work done in bringing either (or both) of the masses from infinity to that separation (r)

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Why are GPE and potential negative (gravitational fields)

Because the field does the work (masses are attracted to each other)

e.g. you don’t have to do work to make and object fall to earth (gravity does that)

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K1 Law (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the sun at one focus

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K2 Law (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

The radius vector (from the sun to the planet) sweeps out equal areas in equal time

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K3 Law (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

The square of the period of orbit (T) is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis (r)

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Semi-major axis (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

Half the major axis

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Major axis (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

longest diameter in an eclipse

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Semi-major axis in a circle (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

radius

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What type of force is the force between two masses (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

ALWAYS attractive

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G (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

universal constant of gravitation

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What accounts for missing mass in the universe?(Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

Dark matter

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Extended response for evidence of dark matter (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter) 4 points

  • measured velocities too high (from graph)

  • according to equation, line should drop off as 1/√r

  • ∴ we have extra mass

  • extra mass = dark matter

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What could be an explanation for dark matter? (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

Higgs Boson

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Doppler Effect (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

When received frequency differs from actual frequency due to movement of the object

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When is received frequency higher? (doppler)(Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

When object is moving closer

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When is received frequency lower? (doppler)(Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

When object is moving away

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When do we get red shift? (due to doppler) (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

Object moving away

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When do we get blue shift? (due to doppler) (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

Object moving closer

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Gradient of what graph gives Hubble constant? (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

How fast galaxy is moving away by how far away galaxy is

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Hubble Constant (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

Expansion rate of the universe

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1/ hubble constant (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

age of the universe

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open universe (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

universe continues to expand forever

kinetic energy to spare after reaching infinity

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closed universe (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

gravity of galaxies too great and pulls the universe back into big crunch!

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Flat Universe (Orbits, Doppler and Dark Matter)

universe continues to expand but comes to rest at infinite size (escape velocity theory)

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Electric Field (Electric fields)

region where an electric charge experiences a force

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electric field strength (Electric fields)

force acting on a unit positive charge placed at that point in the field

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What is direction of electric field given by? (Electric fields)

the direction a poistive charge would move if placed in the field at that point

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Where is all charge concentrated in a sphere? (Electric fields)

centre

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Direction of radial field from positive charge? (Electric fields)

Out

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Direction of radial field from negative charge? (Electric fields)

In

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What happens to the strength of radial fields when you get further away (Electric fields)

get weaker

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What are stronger: magnetic fields or electric fields? (Electric fields)

Electric fields

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Are Radial fields uniform? (Electric fields)

No

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Uniform electric field? (Electric fields)

doesn’t vary in size or direction

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Direction of electric fields? (Electric fields)

Positive to negative (with conventional current)

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potential difference between two points (Electric fields)

work done per unit charge in moving from one point to another

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potential at a point (Electric fields)

work done in bringing unit positive charge from infinity to that point

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Is potential a scalar or vector? (Electric fields)

scalar (ignore direction)

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What two things are assigned a potential of 0? (Electric fields)

Infinity and Earth

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Equipotential (Electric fields)

a line joining points in an electric field which have the same potential

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Where are equipotentials in relation to the electric field lines? (Electric fields)

at right angles

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What does the gradient of an electric potential against distance graph give you? (electric fields)

potential gradient

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What does the negative potential gradient give you? (electric fields)

electric field strength at that point

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What are B-fields produced by? (Magnetic fields)

permanent magnets or currents

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which way do field lines go? (Magnetic fields)

North → South

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What is a solenoid? (Magnetic fields)

Long coil of wire - such that length is much bigger than diameter

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What is μ0 ? (Magnetic fields)

permeability of free space

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n (Magnetic fields)

number of turns per meter

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What fields do static vs moving charges cause?

static - electric

moving - magnetic

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what direction does conventional current flow?

positive to negative

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What direction do electrons flow?

negative to positive

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What is magnetic flux density also known as? (Magnetic fields)

Magnetic field strength

B-field strength

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B (Magnetic fields)

force per unit length of current carrying wire

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At what angle is force maximum in a B-field?

90 (sinθ = 1)

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Will wires carrying current in the same direction attract or repel? (Magnetic fields)

Attract

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Will wires carrying current in opposite directions attract or repel? (Magnetic fields)

repel

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Why does a mass spectrometer have slits? (Magnetic fields)

to narrow the electron beam

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What happens in section 1 (velocity selector) of a mass spectrometer? (Magnetic fields)

electric force = magnetic force ∴ straight line motion

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What happens in section 2 (detection) of a mass spectrometer? (Magnetic fields)

no electric force ∴ no equilibrium ∴ particle in circular motion due to B-field

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Area used in Hall probe calculations? (Magnetic fields)

area that current goes into

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What do we use a hall probe to measure? (Magnetic fields)

B-field

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What placed inside a solenoid increases magnetic field strength? (Magnetic fields)

An Iron core (up to 200,00 times for pure iron)

86
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Electron volt (Magnetic fields)

energy gained by an electron when accelerated through a of of 1V

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What type of acceleration do particles experience in a particle accelerator? (Magnetic fields)

constant

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3 types of particle accelerators? (Magnetic fields)

  • linear accelerator (Linac)

  • cyclotron

    • synchrotron

89
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Centre of Gravity (physics of sport)

point at which the weight of the object seems to act

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2 things that increase stability (physics of sport)

  1. lower centre of gravity

  2. wider base

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What leads to toppling?

When line of action of weight is outside the base

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Moment of inertia (I) (physics of sport)

reluctance of an object to stop spinning around an axis

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Angular acceleration (⍺) (physics of sport)

rate of change of angular velocity

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L (physics of sport)

angular momentum

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principle of conservation of angular momentum (physics of sport)

total angular momentum of a system with no external resultant torque remains constant

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what does it mean when theres no slipping (e.g when a ball is rolling down a hill) (physics of sport)

velocity of the point of the ball touching the ground is zero

(forward velocity of CoM of the ball must cancel the rotational velocity at that point)

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Why does a rolling object not accelerate with gsinθ? (physics of sport)

less acceleration because some of the energy goes into rotational KE rather than purely linear KE

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what happens to pressure at high speeds? (physics of sport)

decreases

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Drag (physics of sport)

resistive force that always acts in the opposite direction to the motion

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Magnus Effect Force (physics of sport)

lift - at right angles to the direction of motion and its at right angles to the axis of rotation

<p>lift - at right angles to the direction of motion and its at right angles to the axis of rotation </p>