Physics 2 VCE Units 3 and 4 & eBookPLUS

Table of Contents:
About eBookPLUS and studyON ix About this book x Acknowledgements xii UNIT 3 Area of study 1 Chapter 1 Forces in action 2 Describing motion 3 The language of motion 3 Acceleration 4 Graphical analysis of motion 5 Position–time graphs 5 Velocity–time graphs 6 Acceleration–time graphs 6 Algebraic analysis of motion 8 Newton’s laws of motion 10 Changing motion 10 Newton’s First Law of Motion 10 Newton’s Second Law of Motion 11 Newton’s Third Law of Motion 11 Feeling lighter — feeling heavier 12 Accelerating upwards 12 Accelerating downwards 12 Applying Newton’s Second Law of Motion 13 On the level 15 Inclined to move 16 Projectile motion 18 Falling down 18 Moving and falling 19 What goes up must come down 22 Shooting at an angle 25 Projectile motion calculations 27 The real world — including air resistance 27 Uniform circular motion 28 Getting nowhere fast 28 Instantaneous velocity 28 Changing velocities and accelerations 29 Calculating accelerations and forces 31 Examples of forces that produce centripetal acceleration 33 Friction 34 Inside circular motion 36 Non-uniform circular motion 38 Amusement park physics 39 Chapter review 41 Chapter 2 Collisions and other interactions 47 Impulse and momentum in a collision 48 Impulse from a graph 49 Momentum and impulse 50 Conservation of momentum 50 Modelling a collision 51 Work in energy transfers and transformations 54 Getting down to work 55 Gravitational potential energy 56 Strain potential energy and springs 58 Hooke’s Law springs to mind 59 Elastic and inelastic collisions 61 A tale of two collisions 62 What’s the difference? 62 Energy transformations in collisions 63 Chapter review 67 Chapter 3 Special relativity 72 What is relativity? 73 There is no rest 73 The principle of relativity 74 Examples of Galilean relativity 76 Frames of reference 78 Electromagnetism brings new challenges 80 The Michelson–Morley experiment 82 Einstein’s two postulates of special relativity 82 Broadening our horizons 83 The speed of light is constant 85 Space–time diagrams 86 Time dilation 87 Time dilation and modern technology 90 Length contraction 90 A note on seeing relativistic effects 95 The journey of muons 95 The most famous equation: E = mc2 97 Kinetic energy in special relativity 101 Mass conversion in the Sun 101 Chapter review 104 Area of study 1 Chapter 4 Gravitation 107 Explaining the solar system 108 Evidence of elliptical orbits 108 Kepler’s Second Law 109 Kepler’s Third Law 109 Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation 110 Gravitational fields 114 Astronauts and satellites in orbit 122 Geostationary satellites 122 ‘Floating’ in a spacecraft 124 Chapter review 126 Chapter 5 Electric fields 129 The long road to Coulomb’s Law 130 Electric fields 132 Drawing an electric field 132 Calculating the value of an electric field 133 Dipole fields 134 Graphing the electric field 135 Changes in potential energy and kinetic energy in an electric field 136 Uniform electric fields 136 Linking the concepts together 140 Chapter review 142 Chapter 6 Magnetic fields 145 Early ideas about magnetism 146 Magnetic fields 148 Magnetic effect of a current 149 The right-hand-grip rule 150 Differences between magnetic fields 152 Explaining magnetism 152 Comparing gravitational, electric and magnetic fields 153 Magnetic force on an electric current 154 Left-hand rule 155 Right-hand-slap rule 155 Magnetic propulsion 156 Meters 156 DC motors 156 Magnetic force on charges 158 Crossed electric and magnetic fields 161 Overview 161 Chapter review 162 Area of study 2 Chapter 7 Generating electricity 166 Making electricity 167 Generating voltage with a magnetic field 167 Generating a current 168 The source of a current’s electrical energy 169 Faraday’s discovery of electromagnetic induction 170 Magnetic flux 171 Induced EMF 173 Rotating a loop 175 Using Lenz’s Law 175 Using magnetic force on the charges in the wire 176 Peak, RMS and peak-to-peak voltages 177 Producing a greater EMF 178 Chapter review 180 Chapter 8 Transmission of power 183 Electric power 184 Transformers 185 How does a transformer work? 186 Power distribution and transmission line losses 189 Using Ohm’s Law wisely 193 Chapter review 195 UNIT 4 Area of study 1 Chapter 9 Mechanical waves 198 Light and its properties 199 Sources of light 199 Speed of light 200 Shadows 201 Ray model 202 Plane mirror reflection 202 Regular and diffuse reflection 203 What is colour? 204 Waves — energy transfer without matter transfer 204 Properties of waves 205 Interference of waves 207 Superposition 207 Reflection of waves 208 Standing waves 209 Interference of waves in two dimensions 211 Interference with sound 213 Colour effects of interference 215 Diffraction 216 Diffraction of water waves 216 Directional spread of different frequencies 217 The Doppler effect 218 Resonance 221 Chapter review 222 Chapter 10 Light as a wave 226 Bending of light 227 Snell’s Law 227 Limitations of the ray model 229 Speed of light in glass 232 Total internal reflection and critical angle 233 Mirages 234 Optical fibres 236 Dispersion: producing colour from white light 237 Rainbows 239 Young’s experiment 239 Interpreting Young’s experiment 241 Spacing of bands in an interference pattern 243 Other interference experiments 245 Newton’s rings 245 Fresnel’s biprism 245 Lloyd’s mirror 246 Diffraction of light 246 Diffraction and optical instruments 248 Linking diffraction and interference 249 Light as an electromagnetic wave 249 Polarisation 252 Chapter review 255 Area of study 2 Chapter 11 The photoelectric effect 260 Physics before the observation of the photoelectric effect 261 A mysterious radiation 263 Some preliminaries — measuring the energy of light and the energy of electrons 265 Measuring the energy of photoelectrons 267 The photoelectric effect 269 The experiment 270 The particle model view of a light bulb 273 A wave model view of a light bulb 274 The particle model and the photoelectric effect 275 An energy perspective 276 Explaining Lenard’s experimental observations 277 What’s wrong with the wave model? 281 Great photoelectric effect results 282 A photon model for the photoelectric effect 285 Chapter review 286 Chapter 12 Matter — particles and waves 289 The particle model of matter unhinged 290 The discovery of electrons 291 Emission spectra — atoms emit photons 293 Absorption spectra — atoms absorb photons 298 Comparing emission and absorption spectra 298 Making light 303 Accelerating charged particles 303 Thermal radiation 303 Incandescent light sources 304 Fluorescent light sources 304 Light-emitting diodes 306 Synchrotron radiation 306 Characteristics of synchrotron radiation 306 The wave behaviour of electrons 308 Matter waves show themselves 310 Electrons through foils 312 Electrons, atoms and standing waves 315 Louis de Broglie’s picture 315 Waves or particles? 316 Photons have wave properties too 316 Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle 318 Why classical laws of physics are unable to model motion at very small scales 322 Chapter review 323 Area of study 3 Chapter 13 Practical investigations 327 What is the benefit to you? 328 What is involved? 328 How does this investigation differ from the Unit 2 investigation? 328 Selecting a topic 329 Turning the topic into a good question 330 Submitting a research proposal 330 Keep a log 330 Variables 332 Selecting your measuring instruments 332 Making the most of a measurement 335 Repeated measurements 336 Finding patterns 338 Drawing a line of best fit 338 Using Microsoft Excel 339 Other aspects of scientific measurement 339 Handling difficulties 340 Safety 340 Presenting your work for assessment 340 Presenting your work as a digital poster 341 Advice on assembling a poster 341 Topics 342 Brainstorming variables 344 Chapter review 345 Appendix 1: Skill checks 347 Appendix 2: Periodic table of the elements 360 Appendix 3: Some useful astronomical data 362 Appendix 4: Useful formulae 363 Glossary 366 Answers to numerical questions 370 Index 376