A level physics notes
A full set of A level physics notes free to download. Use these to help revise for exams and to read through as you go along to build understanding. They are written for the AQA exam board but should still be useful for Edexcel, and OCR A and B. Use alongside the specification checklist for each unit.
These notes should provide a good summary. As a physics teacher with many years experience, I fully recommend that students buy and use a good quality general A-level physics textbook in addition to their course textbook, such as these on Amazon
Mechanics
Motion Graphs;
Velocity and Acceleration;
Equation of Motion;
Resolving vectors;
Newtons Laws of Motion;
Terminal Velocity and Projectiles;
Momentum;
Moments;
Electricity
Series and Parallel Circuits;
Ohms Law and I-V graphs;
Resistivity;
Kirchoffs Laws and Potential Dividers;
Energy and Power in Circuits;
EMF and Internal Resistance;
Waves
Progressive Waves
Transverse & Longitudinal Waves; Polarisation
Total Internal Reflection
Refraction
Superposition and Standing Waves
Polarisation and Diffraction
Interference
Photoelectric Effect
Wave Particle Duality
Further Mechanics
Circular motion
Centripetal force and acceleration
Further momentum
Electric & Magnetic Fields
Electric Fields
Electric Potential
Capacitor basics
Capacitors – Charging and discharging
Capacitors – Exponential Decay
Motion of charged particles in electric fields
Magnetic Fields – Force on a current carrying wire
Magnetic Fields – Force on charged particle
Magnetic Flux and Flux Linkage
Electromagnetic Induction
Transformers
Particle Physics
Structure of the atom
Rutherfords Alpha Scattering Experiment
Matter and Antimatter
The cyclotron and pair production
Thermodynamics
Heat, Temperature and Internal Energy
Specific Heat Capacity and Specific Latent Heat
Gas Laws
Ideal Gases
Kinetic Theory Equations
Nuclear Radiation
Ionising Radiation
Radioactive Decay
Mass Defecit and Binding Energy
Nuclear Reactors
Nuclear reactor safety
Gravitational Fields
Gravitational Potential
Gravitational Fields
Orbits and Escape Velocity
Comparing electric and gravitational fields
Oscillations
Resonance and Damping
Simple Harmonic Motion 1
Simple Harmonic Motion 2 – Graphs
Space
Doppler Effect
Expanding Universe and Hubbles Law
Evidence for the Big Bang
Star classification by temperature
Stellar Evolution
Stellar Spectroscopy
Evolution of Large Mass Stars
Hertzprung-Russell diagrams
Life Cycle of Stars and H-R diagrams
Many students find a good quality general A-level physics textbook very helpful, especially for question practice, such as these here on Amazon
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