A level Physics (Topic 12-18)

Angular Displacement

In circular motion, the angle turned through.

Angular Velocity

The angular displacement per unit time.

Centripetal Acceleration

The acceleration of an object moving in circular motion.

Centripetal Force

The resultant force responsible for an object moving in circular motion.

Frequency

The number of rotations or oscillations per unit time.

Period

the time taken to complete one full rotation or oscillation.

Gravitaional Field Lines

A line representing the path that a point mass would take when placed within the field.

Geostationary Satellite

A satellite that orbits above the equator with a 24 hour period.

Gravitational Field Strength

The gravitational force on an object divided by its mass.

Gravitational Potential

work done in moving a point mass from an infinity to a point.

Gravitational Potential Energy

energy due to its position in a gravitational field.

Newton’s Law of Gravitation

The force between two masses is proportional to the product of the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the separation of the masses.

Synchronous Orbits

An orbit with a time period of one day.

Radian

The angle subtended at the centre of a circle by an arc equal in length to the radius of the circle

Amplitude

the maximum displacement of an oscillator from its equilibrium position.

Angular Frequency

angular displacement per unit time

Damping

the loss of energy from an oscillating system due to a resistive force leading to a decrease of the amplitude.

Free Oscillations

when an oscillating system naturally oscillates at its natural frequency.

Forced Oscillations

Repeated up and down oscillations due to a driving frequency

Natural Frequency

The frequency at which a system naturally oscillates at when there is no driving force.

Phase Difference

The difference between how far through two different cycles are.

Simple Harmonic Motion

acceleration of an object is directly proportional, and in the opposite direction, to its displacement.

Coulomb’s Law

the force that acts between two point charges is diectly proportional to the product of their charges and inversely proportional to the square of their separation

Electric Field

A region surrounding a charged object expirences a field.

Electrical Field Strength

The force per unit positive charge at a point.

Electric Potential

work done per unit charge on a positive test charge in bringing it from infinity to a point

Electric Potential Energy

work done on a positive charge in bringing it from infinity to that point in the field.

Equipotential

A surface of constant potential. No work is done by the field when an object moves along an equipotential.

Electric Field Lines

Lines that show the direction in which a positive charge would feel if placed at that point in the field.

Specific Latent Heat

The amount of energy required to change the state of 1kg of a substance without a change of temperature.

Thermal Equilibrium

A stable state in which there is no thermal heat transfer between two regions

Absolute Temperature

A temperature value relative to absolute zero.

Absolute Zero

When the particles of a substance have zero kinetic energy, 0 K.

Kelvin

The unit of absolute temperature.

Ideal Gas

A hypothetical gas that has molecules with no interactions and occupies negligible space so it obeys the ideal gas law.

Internal Energy

The sum of all the randomly distributed potential and kinetic energies of the particles that make up a substance.

Specific Heat capacity

The amount of energy required to raise1kg of a substance by 1K without a change of state