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1
Q

What is pico?

A

X10^-12

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2
Q

What is Tera?

A

X10^12

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3
Q

Order of powers?

A

Pico
Nano
Micro
Milli
Centi
Kilo
Mega
Giga
Tera

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4
Q

How many joules in a kilowatt hour?

A

3.6 MJ

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5
Q

What are the two main types of error?

A

Random
Systematic

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6
Q

What is a random error? How do you prevent it?

A

An error that causes random, unpredictable fluctuations in an instruments reading due to uncontrollable factors like the environmental conditions
It affects the precision of a reading, causing a wider spread about the mean
Prevent it through repetitions

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7
Q

What is a systematic error? How do you prevent it?

A

These are errors caused by faulty instruments or experimental procedure
They affect the accuracy of readings as it will affect every reading
Prevent this by repeating experiment with a range of instruments or recalibrating them

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8
Q

What is a zero error? How do you handle it?

A

There is a reading when value should be 0
All errors affected so account for it within data

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9
Q

What is precision?

A

How spread the data is about the mean of the data
Measurements with greater sig fig are more precise

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10
Q

What is accuracy?

A

How close a value is to the true value
Increase accuracy through repeats to remove clear anomalies

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11
Q

Difference between repeatability and reproducibility

A

Repeatability is if same experimenter and equipment could produce same result
Reproducibility is if a different experimenter with different equipment could produce same result

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12
Q

How do you find uncertainty in repeated data?

A

Half the range of the data

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13
Q

How d o you combine uncertainties when adding or subtracting?

A

Add absolute uncertainties

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14
Q

How do you combine uncertainties if multiplying or dividing?

A

Add percentage or fractional uncertainties

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15
Q

How to add uncertainties if increasing by a factor

A

Multiply percentage uncertainty

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16
Q

How to fine uncertainty in a graph?

A

Plot best and worst gradient through error bars.
Change over original x100 for y intercept and gradient.

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17
Q

How do you calculate specific charge for a nucleus?

A

Charge is how many protons present

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18
Q

How to calculate specific charge for an ion

A

Charge = total number of electrons added or subtracted

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19
Q

What are three isotopes of hydrogen?

A

Hydrogen
Deuterium
Tritium

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20
Q

How can carbon-14 be used to figure out age of a sample?

A

Carbon 14 is a radioactive isotope
It has a known half life of 6000 and so can be used to date objects back as the ratio of radioactive carbon 14 will change over time due to decaying

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21
Q

What is the strong force?

A

Responsible for holding the nucleus together via their quark structure.
Only acts on hadrons
Overcomes electrostatic repulsion

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22
Q

What is the range of the strong force?

A

Below 0.5fm repulsive
Attractive 0.5-3fm
Max around 1fm
Negligible after 3fm

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23
Q

Describe annihilation

A

When a particle meets its equivalent anti–particle they both are destroyed and their mass is converted into energy in the form of two gamma ray photon.
To conserve momentum the photons move in opposite directions

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24
Q

Describe pair production

A

When a photon interacts with a nucleus or atom and the energy of the photon is used to create a particle–antiparticle pair
Energy of photon must be greater than rest mass energy of particle pair

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25
What are the two groups of hadrons and what do they have in common?
Baryons (protons, neutrons) Mesons (pions, kaons’) All have quark structure and feel the strong force
26
Key feature of baryons quark structure?
Antiparticles have all anti quarks
27
Key feature of meson quark structure?
Quark/antiquark pair
28
What is the most stable baryon and why?
Proton because it is the lightest All other baryons will eventually decay into a proton and so it has the longest half-life. (10^32 years) If it were to decay it would disobey conservation of baryon number
29
Where can pions be found?
Cosmic rays and experimentally in cloud chambers
30
What is the exchange particle if the strong force?
Pion It is a virtual exchange and so does not impact conservation laws
31
What is a kaon and give a common example of its decay.
It is a meson that is unstable and normally decays into a pion. It has a strange quark K0 > pi+ + pi-
32
What are leptons?
A group of fundamental particles. They do not interact via the strong. Electrons muons and neutrinos are examples
33
How does a muon decay
Decays via the weak interaction into an electron, and antielectron neutrino and an anti-muon neutrino The exchange particle is a W minus boson
34
What is the quark structure for kaons
K+. U anti-S K- anti-U S K0- D anti-S or S anti-D
35
What are the conservation laws of strangeness?
Anti-strange particle = +1 Strange particle = -1
36
How are strange quarks produced?
Via the strong Interaction. A gluon Is exchanged changing aquark
37
Why does particle physics require extreme collaborative experimentation?
Physicists master hypothesise. Experiments then need to be repeated in order to be validated. Particle accelerators enable particles to move at speeds similar to that of the speed of light. They can be circular or linear but a very expensive to manufacture and design as they need extremely powerful magnets. Collaboration brings about expert scientists and engineers. The large hadron collider is another clear example of collaboration
38
Put the four interactions into the order of strength?
Strong electromagnetic weak gravity
39
Put the four interactions in order of range
Electromagnetic and gravity are both infinite. The strong has a range between 0.5 to 3 fm The week as a range up to 10 to the -18 
40
What is the exchange particle of the electromagnetic
Virtual photon
41
When would the electromagnetic interaction occur
Between two charged particles for example 2 electrons repelling
42
What is the photoelectric effect phenomenon?
The photoelectric effect is the phenomena in which electrons are emitted from the surface of a metal upon the absorption of electromagnetic radiation
43
What is evidence that light is quantised?
One electron absorbs one photon Only light above threshold frequency will emit a photoelectron
44
Where does the photoelectric effect occur?
On the surface of a metal
45
Why is maximum kinetic energy independent of light intensity?
Each electron absorbs one photon Therefore dependent on frequency of photon Increasing intensity will increase number of photos emitted
46
When and why is kinetic energy a maximum?
When the electrons are closest to the surface
47
What is a photon?
Discrete packets of energy (electromagnetic energy)
48
What equation relates energy to wavelength?
E=hc/wavelength
49
Describe electrons energy levels?
Discrete Ground state is lowest energy level Move up levels by absorbing a photon, colliding with other electrons, or from a physical source like heat Electron emitted when electrons move back down energy levels
50
What is line spectra?
Excited atoms emit photons of certain wavelengths and therefore colours There is absorption or emission spectra
51
What is emission line spectra?
When an electron de-excites, a photon is emitted Each transition corresponds to a different wavelength and point in the spectrum The emission therefore corresponds of a black canvas with discrete coloured lines
52
What is absorption spectra?
Consists of a full spectrum with dark lines where certain wavelengths of light are missing Electrons absorb a photon of a discrete wavelength and thus when electron deexcites it is remitted in a random direction. Therefore rest of white light has travelled in one direction and the absorbed wavelengths have gone in a different direction and so are missins
53
Meaning of different energy levels
Correspond to wavelength of a photon
54
Particle nature of light
Photoelectric effect One photon per electron Intensity of light does not impact kinetic energy of photons emitted There is no time delay in electrons being emitted
55
Wave nature of light
Electron diffraction- a pattern would not be seen if light acted as a particle, they would be distributed normally
56
Using the de Broglie wavelength, how can energy and momentum be related?
E=p^2/2m
57
Examples of longitudinal waves and examples of transverse
Transverse: EM waves, guitar vibrations, Longitudinal: sound waves, ultrasound waves
58
What causes a stationary wave?
Two waves moving in opposite directions with same frequency and amplitude superpose
59
Feature of stationary wave?
Store energy instead of transferring Has nodes and anti nodes Each point oscillates at different speeds
60
What is a node and what is an antinode?
Nodes are regions of no vibration Antinodes are regions of vibrations at max amplitude
61
What is the principle of superposition?
When two or more waves with same frequency arrive at a point, the resultant displacement is the sum of the displacements if each wave
62
What are some examples of stationary waves
Stretched strings (guitar) at resonant frequencies a while number of half wavelengths fit on the length of string, therefore standing waves are produced Microwaves Sound waves in an air column like a clarinet
63
How many nodes does the first second and third harmonic have?
First = 2 Second =3 Third = 4
64
Equation for frequency of harmonic
F = v/wavelength
65
Equation for speed of a wave along a string at two fixed ends?
V = root of T/u Where u = mass per unit length
66
What is an equation for mass per unit length?
Density/area Mass/length
67
What is interference?
When two waves overlap and resultant displacement is the sum of the displacement of each
68
What is coherence? Give an example.
Same frequency Constant phase difference Laser light
69
Path difference for constructive and destructive interference?
Whole number of wavelengths = constructive Half a number of wavelengths = destructive
70
What must the source be for two source interference to be observed?
Monochromatic (single wavelength) Coherent (same phase difference)
71
Features of double slit interference pattern
Equally spaced minima and maxima Central bright maxima
72
When can double slit not be used?
Diffraction grating/single source When slit spacing is not much smaller than distance

Physics (7 decks)

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