Physics
For Physics Discussions
1,008 topics in this forum
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- 2 replies
- 880 views
Okay so this may be impossible, wrong, ridicolous, I don't really know but my homework is stating that I have to find the percentual error of certain values and one of them is 0.0. The value that I'm talking about is the first one and it is measured in Volts. The minimum scale of the voltmeter is 0.1. I know that to find the percentual error of something I have to take the absolut error which in this case would be 0.1, divide it into the actual value which would be 0.0 and multiply it by 100. Now, I don't get it. How am I supposed to divide by 0.0. Blame my teacher, this is wrong right? or is it possible to take the percentage error of this with another method?
Last reply by Procrastination, -
Lab Report How to write a solely CE Lab?
by Guest kenshi64- 1 reply
- 2.4k views
Hey guys, I doing labs that one could say have a 'teensie' bit of data collection but are mainly conclusion and evaluation focused. I know the format of a normal design lab, but I'm new to this how does it go? I already have a sheet that has the design, procedure etc and I just have to take a few reading and answer a question. So right now I'm typing all of that out as one.
Last reply by dessskris, -
Electircal circuit sum query
by Guest kenshi64- 3 replies
- 827 views
On the attached image of a circuit I was given a sum in the exam as follows, but I can't make sense of it: The circuit has an EMF of 12V and an internal resistance of 5ohms. Q1) Total resistance of the circuit A) 50(45+5) I don't get why they add 5 since that's the internal resistance! Q2) Current in the internal resistance A) I= (12/50) = 0.24. Why is 50 used? the internal resistance is 5 not 50! and EMF is provided too, please explain! Q3)Potential difference between points X and Y A)across 30ohm voltage drops by 3.60 V (so potential at X is 3.60 V); across 60ohm voltage drops by 7.20 V (so potential at Y is 7.20 V); so potential difference between X and Y is …
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- 5 replies
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hey guys I was wondering if anyone has access to the markscheme for the May 2010 Physics SL paper (TZ1). I'm attempting to do question A3 - it's about solar heating panels. I've worked out the values but I'm not sure if it's correct, can someone let me know the answers? it's Section A3 part a) b) & c)
Last reply by bigbangfan, -
How is rate of decay proportional to number of nuclei?
by Guest kenshi64- 6 replies
- 933 views
Hi guys, I THINK I understand this but i'm checking. First of is activity and rate of decay the same? Secondly to my understanding rate of decay is how many time a nuclei breaks down in a nucleus in a given time period, so the higher the activity the more the fewer the nuclei left in the nucleus right? or have I got something wrong. (since the proportion would be inverse as per what I understand. Thanks a kilotonne!
Last reply by dessskris, -
- 6 replies
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Hi people, I'm doing Physics SL. and I need some sample lab report to have an idea of how a good one looks like. My teacher gave very vague instructions how to write a lab report so I seriously need your help. Many thanks
Last reply by ecieee, -
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Hey guys, for my IA I am slightly stuck. I'm doing stuff with inclined planes i.e ramps, and how changing the height above the ground and angle of incline affect the time taken for a ball to roll down, but I'm unsure as to how to keep the wooden ramp straight and still, because holding it would cause to much error, so they must be some way to ensure its stability during the motion of the ball? Thanks in advanced Its a fairly big ramp, like around 4 to 5 metres
Last reply by saunders is god, -
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I am a HL student taking exam in May 2012. I have some problems understanding single and double slit diffraction. I do get the principle and formation of them, (ie. diffraction) but I don't really understand the graph shown in single or double diffraction,especially the graph of maxima and minima. Can any genius in physics give me a brief introduction and explanation of the topic above? Thanks.
Last reply by Ezeh, -
- 11 replies
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In all honesty. I need to know that I'm at a place when this year ends that there is enough time to still be ready for the Exams I'll be taking this time next year! My teacher has taught us parallel to his lower leveled classes and gave us the same materials as them. I'm not to sure what we have even covered this year other than projectiles, frequencies (we are studying now along with standing waves), gravitational stuff that deals with outer space, springs, circular and uniform motion, there was more... but that's all I can remember. We are spending now to the end of the year (June) on frequencies and apparently there is a lot more to be covered! Any suggestions. Tips. T…
Last reply by Eizhowa, -
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Hi everyone. 2 questions. In going through some past paper marking schemes, ive noticed that the answers arent always kept exactly as they have been calculated, they often get rounded to a number of significant figures. The number isn't always consistent either. So i'm confused as to how many decimal places or significant figures i have to round to in the actual IB exam? DO i just follow the prac guidelines and not exceed the number of sig figs or dp's the original data had? Also, with the prac, do all the data in the same column (e.g. 10 different points for surface area) have to have the same number of significant figures? or decimal places? i've heard some people s…
Last reply by Ezeh, -
Number of IAs (total, un-selected too) to be performed
by Guest kenshi64- 5 replies
- 1.3k views
Well we perform an number of PSOWs or IAs or whatever you want to call them in our IB years, and the teacher sends the best 2 for each criteria like CE,DC and design. So I was told by my teacher that I had to have a total of 20 IA!! that too only for Physics!! and out of those 20 they're going to choose six...(is that efficient economic students ? :/) IS this true or not, to my knowledge 12-14 is good, am I right?
Last reply by dessskris, -
- 3 replies
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Not really an IB physics problem, but a physics 11 problem regardless... I don't understand how this question makes sense. :/ A detailed and thorough (long) explanation would be good! "An interesting and practical feature of the Montreal subway system is that, in some cases, the level of the station is higher than the level of the adjacent tunnel. Explain the advantages of this design. Take into consideration such concepts as FORCE, ACCELERATION, WORK, POTENTIAL ENERGY, AND KINETIC ENERGY. And there is a picture showing this train going up a hill, but im really not sure if the train is going down or up the hill since thers no direction on it.... Help.
Last reply by Drake Glau, -
- 14 replies
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Hello IB Survival, i'm struggling against a huge problem. It's Physics, because our teacher barely explains things to us, and i'm failing a lot of exams, and i need serious help. I'm currently at IB1, should i buy another book? I have the one by Wilson, Buffa, Lou, but it's horrible anyways. Thank you guys.
Last reply by Rigel, -
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I'm doing a Physics lab report on uncertainties. What we did was, we measured our reaction time, i.e. we used a meter stick, one student was releasing it (quietly) and other one tried to catch it as soon as possible after he/she sees that the meter stick has been released. We measured our "catching" 10 times for each hand. Now we have to find the uncertainties in our results, but the problem is that I have some formulas etc. but i have no idea how to use them, and how to find the uncertainties.. Our teacher didn't really explain how to do it, so I'm totally lost... HELP!
Last reply by Chipmunks, -
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Hello guys, I am currently doing my physics IAs and i am stuck at processing the graphs. I have performed the experiments and have generated several graphs, which are all exponential. Now, how can I turn that exponential line into a straight line on excel? I know I have to log it, but i am not sure how to do it. I've tried changing the scale of the graph to logarithmic scale and converting the data one by one with =ln(), but both methods failed to give me a proper straight-line-with-proper-axes-and-proper-linear-trendline graph. Anyone has experience in this? Can you tell me how to do it on excel, if not, on other applications? I really need your help, my IA final draft i…
Last reply by dessskris, -
- 11 replies
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Hey everyone, Im in SL Physics and one of the options I'll definitely be doing for tomorrow's paper is Astrophysics. But what else should I choose to study? Sight and Wave Phenomena or Quantum, because our teacher rushed through both just in case. Looking at the syllabus, I'm inclined to do Quantum because I like Atomic and Nuclear much more than SHM, but what are your thoughts?
Last reply by Rigel, -
- 2 replies
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Hello IB world . My exams are on november, and my teacher hasn't finished the options yet (Astrophysics and Wave phenomena) ! I've got two books on IB physics: "IB Diploma Progarmme Physics Course Companion" from Oxford (authors: Tim kirk and Neil Hodgson) and "Standar Level Physics" from Heinemann International (authors: Chris Hamper and Keith Ord). I've been reading the options while doing the course, but I'm worried about paper 3, particularly wave phenomena because I haven't read anything about it yet! What would you recommend me to do? Should I read the options from now or wait for my teacher to get to them in class? Also, I was wondering whether it would be a goo…
Last reply by Procrastination, -
- 9 replies
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Hey guys, So i've been doing terribly in chemistry this year, and am interested in switching to physics. However, my IB coordinator isn't letting me based on the fact that they have apparently already taken too much material. So, I've decided to teach myself everything they've learned so far, and then take a test to prove that im capable of taking physics. My question is- is this possible? or is physics too hard to comprehend on my own? If it is possible, any tips? thanks
Last reply by Classof2013, -
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Hey guys, i'm doing a Physics design IA, and i need help on how to measure g. The main problem is that i need to know howto do a free fall apparatus in order to measure time with accuracy. Thank you!
Last reply by Rigel, -
- 4 replies
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I am struggling with physics in general because I totally understand all the formulas and can constantly get the right numbers but I am useless when it comes to physics theory and that is very problematic. My teacher is very math inclined so he teaches us how to sole problems very well but I rarely learn anything about why this or that works in his class. Right now we are studying circular motion and I just fail to understand the acceleration concept. I know that if something moves in a circle, it accelerates towards the centre, just as the centripetal motion of the object also goes towards the object but WHY?? The acceleration aspect in particular boggles my mind but I d…
Last reply by puyol9, -
- 3 replies
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Hello.. I've tried everything to add different error bars for each point in Excel, both Excel 2003 and Excel 2007, but it just seems impossible to do.. i need SERIOUS HELP.
Last reply by Ezeh, -
- 1 reply
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Desperately needing some past papers for HL physics.. is anybody that kind who has them to give them to me please? thanks
Last reply by DDuino, -
- 10 replies
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Hi guys...my teacher of physics is not very well...she said except for group 4 project there is nothing for IA:....but i cannot believe...anybody helping to explain? cheers
Last reply by Drake Glau, -
- 5 replies
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Hi! Can anyone tell me which energy transformations take place in a nuclear power station? I have been looking all over the internet but I cant find anything Thanks!
Last reply by Ezeh, -
- 4 replies
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We recently did an internal about finding the magnetic flux density (B), by rearranging the formula F=BIL to B=F/IL. This was done, and a graph was drawn on exceel. Y-axis representing force (F) and the x-axis representing I*L (Current and length of the wire). Afterwards, the gradient was found to be 0.033 (or sth) Tesla, while the Tesla-meter (lit. value) gave me 0.022 Tesla. My question is, why is this so? Can someone describe why I got a higher value..or at least what can be discussed?
Last reply by ib2, -
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It's my first IB year and I've got a teacher who is new to the IB programme, so I suspect that he does not know all the specifics of the programme. However I might be too hasty in that assumption and would like to ask you is it possible to make a decent IB lab report of the experiment we conducted. Topic: Measuring the melting heat of ice. We installed the electronic heat sensors in calorimeter, full of water of certain temperature. Then we took some ice, which temperature we've measured too and put it in the water. We had to record the temperature of the water, as soon as the ice completely melted. My question is: does anyone know, how to do a lab report, when there's on…
Last reply by Drake Glau, -
- 3 replies
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My given IA is to investigate what affects the period of a simple pendulum. I cannot investigate mass, length of string, angle of rotation, or gravity. I was thinking maybe use different strings and talk about elasticity or something along those lines..? Thoughts/ideas?
Last reply by Drake Glau, -
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Hello IBS, i was wondering about two things: What does the slope of a distance-time squared graph represent? Is this the actual acceleration or do i have to multiply it? And is it bad that my intercept with the y-axis is 8? Using: S = (at2)/2
Last reply by Rigel, -
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Hello guys Im currently doing a IA on calculating the internal resistance in the battery, and got stuck on the improvements. During the lab the only major problem was the chemical reaction of the battery - polarization, voltage was reducing. I've been trying to think what could I suggest to improve. My teacher gave me a clue, comparing a battery to a human, that if you break your leg when you play football, on the next day you wont be able to do that, but after few months your leg will recover, and you will be able to play. I just cant link his clue to the polarization of the battery in the lab. Please help!
Last reply by Rigel, -
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hello, this is a question from the book that i got no idea on it 'When two proton are travelling at same velocity parallel to each other, like this (respect to groung) proton A >>> proton B >>> an observer is also travel at the same speed along their path. according to him, two proton are stationary, so the only force is the electrical attraction Another observer who is stationary will observe two proton moving, both create magnetic field which influence the motion of the other proton What do you say? I thought the two observer are both in inertial frame, therefore should applied the same law. but the situation is different to that? i am totally confused…
Last reply by tomzzz, -
- 7 replies
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My physics class is useless! I noticed this on my first Ib exams (which where simulations of the actual ones). The day my group took physics exam everyone came out worried. No one knew exactly how to answer the exam. Later on, we saw our grades. Everyone on the classroom, except me (lucky of me), failed the exam. This was a big surprise for all of us, so we decided to ask the IB students one year older than us. They told us that in our school we are learning physics as the school wants to (learn formulas and know how to apply them, just as a math course with a twist). This is completely different from IB physics, which revolve strongly on theories and the way matter and e…
Last reply by Daedalus, -
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Hey people hows physics prep going on for you all.. any last moment tips..
Last reply by chuckygm, -
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Hello IBS, i need help on this: Design a method to determien the factors that take part in an inertial mass and a gravitational mass. I can't think of anything, but i know that Gravitational Mass and Inertial Mass are equivalent, and have to do with the Laws of Gravitation and Newton's second law.
Last reply by ElLos, -
- 2 replies
- 870 views
So basically I'm not looking for a high score on physics, honestly a 2 will do, and I know that if I get that, I'll get enough points cumulative for the diploma, because physics is the only subject I have trouble with. Because of various unfortunate circumstances, mainly a god-awful teacher, I don't really know much of it well at all. Basically, the question is, if I'm shooting for a 4 at the most and more likely a 2 or 3, should I study (for the next few ours, he he), say, 3 units closely and glance over the others, or study all of them an equal amount? Is a good understanding of a smaller amount better for testing purposes than an OK understanding of all of them? Just f…
Last reply by Jacques de Bois, -
- 2 replies
- 1.8k views
I went on ************* they only have the papers until nov 2007. Does anyone know which website has 2008 and 2009 ones?? thank you soo much!! And good luck to everyone who is writing physics HL and SL papers this year:) (i personally hate it with a passion tho)
Last reply by d_z, -
- 2 replies
- 1.4k views
I need someone to explain this to me: In a time-displacement graph, Why is time the independent variable? I need this for a Uniformly Accelerated Motion experiment. Also, does someone know how to find the maximum and minimum gradient in a graph?
Last reply by dessskris, -
- 3 replies
- 1.2k views
Hey everyone, First off I'd like to wish everyone good luck and I hope that all your exams are a success. Secondly, I was wondering if anyone had created a list of formulas that you need to memorize, I know there are a couple from the electricity unit, and the mechanics one too. Thanks already!
Last reply by Slovakov, -
- 3 replies
- 1.2k views
Hello IBS, i'm doing Physics SL at my school, and i wanted to buy another book because our book is rubbish (Physics by Wilson, Buffa, Lou), and don't know which one to choose. Should i buy the IB Physics Course Companion by T. Kirk, or the one by K.A. Tsokos? Thank you!
Last reply by Rigel, -
- 0 replies
- 1k views
Just thought I'd see what most people found interesting. It's hard for me to decide what was the best!
Last reply by slack, -
- 3 replies
- 2.2k views
There is an examiner at my school that says that Physics HL is not a big leap from Physics SL, he says like a 20% added difference... Im a Physics SL student, and im just wondering? Is this true or not? Is there such a big difference between HL and SL?
Last reply by HoolaBaloola, -
- 1 reply
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Well I'm suppose to do a design project or report for the evaporation of water. The thing is that I don't know what to do or how to do a design report. i don't even know the objective or what I have to get from this project u.u. So, mainly what I am asking is for help to know how to do it. what do I have to put, aim, variables diagram, what else?
Last reply by Drake Glau, -
- 1 reply
- 1.4k views
Hello! I need some type of help since my teacher gave me the chance to do the 2nd option by myself. Currently I'm in Physics SL and I've taken as first option Astrophysics. I don't know which one to chose as second? I am between Quantum and Nuclear Physics or Relativity and Particle physics. Which one is easier? Which other one should I consider? Thank You for your help!!!! Mathematics HL History HL Chemistry HL Physics SL English A1 SL Spanish A1 SL EE: Spanish A1
Last reply by Drake Glau, -
- 11 replies
- 2k views
hello, in my class we have covered Astrophysics, and I am not that bad in it. However, there is a big problem (I am session May2011): I have either not been to class, or haven't been listening, so I have to teach myself another whole option. My class rushed through Option G (Electromagnetic waves). But as I said, I wasn't there or wasn't listening, so basically don't know ANYTHING from that Topic. I am HL, and now I need to teach myself another option besides Astrophysics (E). Do you know any option that you feel is easy enough for a self-study?
Last reply by docp, -
- 1 reply
- 973 views
i find understanding the concepts really hard.this is why i am struggling to stay focused in class.it would be really nice if someone could give tips on how to understand physics
Last reply by Drake Glau, -
- 1 reply
- 2.2k views
Hi everyone, I need help please! I had to make a design for the Internal assessment and I did it relating friction with momentum: The basic idea of the lab is a pendulum that I release from an specific height (to be able to determine velocity) and it would crash against a block making it move. I measured the distance and with that I was able to determine the friction force knowing that Work in this case is equal to energy (kinetic energy)The force would be equal to the Ke over the distance. With the force I was able to determine the friction coefficient. I used blocks with different surfaces. The case is that the whole lab is focused on friction. But now!! my teacher told…
Last reply by Drake Glau, -
- 2 replies
- 1.1k views
Please does any one have digital physics notes like tht stuff on ccds and compression and all that stuff
Last reply by Ezeh, -
- 2 replies
- 814 views
hey guys this problem is eating my head out If you are travelling in a car at constant speed and you throw a ball up where will it land?
Last reply by Ezeh, -
- 2 replies
- 3.6k views
I kind of get the idea that FE = FM But what i don't get is how you get from FE = Ee to FE =(V/l)e any help would be appreciated
Last reply by Ezeh, -
- 0 replies
- 732 views
Would anyone be able to help me with atomic and nuclear physics more specifically binding energy and does anyone know any good videos that can help cover almost the whole syllabus
Last reply by jayrobsah, -
- 6 replies
- 2.2k views
Hello IB Survival, i got some doubts about my experiment. It's about measuring the density of plasticine, i've got the raw values for the volume and the mass of the object, but, do i have to make a graph about the results? Or i just have to find the uncertainities of the values? And, if i have to make a graph, which program should i use? (With max and min gradients). The results were: Volume 10ml 11ml 11ml 11ml 10ml 11ml Mass 14.1g 14.0g 14.1g 14.1g 14.1g 14.1g Those are the raw results. Once again, Do i have to make a graph about the results? Or it's not necessary? This is for the portfolio. Also, do i have to state the dependent/independent/controlled variables? Thank …
Last reply by Keel,
