England · Pearson EdexcelQ&A
PhysicsQ&A by dot point
A short Q&A bank for every England Physics syllabus dot point. Each question and answer is drawn directly from our worked dot-point page, so you can scan key concepts before opening the long-form answer.
Electric circuits
- Series and parallel resistor combinations, Kirchhoff's two laws, EMF and internal resistance, and the relationship with terminal potential difference.4Q&A pairs
- Current as the rate of flow of charge, the equation , potential difference and EMF as energy per unit charge, and electrical power and energy.7Q&A pairs
- The potential divider equation, the use of dividers to provide a variable potential difference, and sensor circuits using thermistors and LDRs.3Q&A pairs
- Ohm's law, I-V characteristics of ohmic and non-ohmic components, resistivity , and the variation of resistance with temperature for metals and semiconductors.5Q&A pairs
Fields and their consequences
- Capacitance as charge per unit potential difference, the energy stored on a capacitor, and the exponential charge and discharge of a capacitor through a resistor with the time constant.4Q&A pairs
- Coulomb's law, electric field strength for radial and uniform fields, electric potential, and the motion of charged particles in a uniform field.6Q&A pairs
- Newton's law of gravitation, gravitational field strength for radial and uniform fields, gravitational potential, and orbital motion of satellites and planets.6Q&A pairs
- Magnetic flux density and the force on a current-carrying conductor, the force on a moving charge, magnetic flux and flux linkage, and Faraday's and Lenz's laws of electromagnetic induction.5Q&A pairs
Mechanics and materials
- Scalars and vectors, resolving and combining forces, free-body diagrams, Newton's three laws of motion, weight, friction and the conditions for equilibrium and moments.4Q&A pairs
- Hooke's law and the spring constant, stress, strain and the Young modulus, elastic strain energy, density and upthrust, and viscous drag with Stokes' law and terminal velocity.3Q&A pairs
- Linear momentum as the product of mass and velocity, conservation of momentum in collisions and explosions, impulse as the change in momentum, and elastic versus inelastic collisions.6Q&A pairs
- Displacement, velocity and acceleration; motion graphs; the equations of uniformly accelerated motion (suvat); projectile motion as independent horizontal and vertical components.6Q&A pairs
- Work done by a force, kinetic and gravitational potential energy, the principle of conservation of energy, power as the rate of doing work, and efficiency.4Q&A pairs
Nuclear and particle physics
- Mass-energy equivalence , mass defect and binding energy, the binding energy per nucleon curve, and energy release in nuclear fission and fusion.5Q&A pairs
- Quarks and leptons, hadrons (baryons and mesons), particles and antiparticles, the use of accelerators to create particles, and conservation laws in particle interactions.3Q&A pairs
- Alpha, beta and gamma radiation and their properties, the random nature of decay, the decay constant and activity, the exponential decay law, and half-life.5Q&A pairs
- The alpha-particle scattering experiment, the nuclear model of the atom, the proton and neutron, nuclide notation, and estimating nuclear radius and density.4Q&A pairs
Thermodynamics, space and oscillations
- Stellar luminosity and Wien's law and Stefan's law, the use of standard candles and parallax for distance, the redshift of galaxies, and Hubble's law and the expanding universe.5Q&A pairs
- Angular velocity and the relationship between linear and angular speed, centripetal acceleration, and centripetal force in horizontal and vertical circular motion.3Q&A pairs
- The defining condition for simple harmonic motion, displacement, velocity and acceleration in SHM, energy interchange in an oscillator, and free, damped and forced oscillations with resonance.5Q&A pairs
- Internal energy and temperature, specific heat capacity and specific latent heat, the ideal gas laws and equation of state, and the kinetic theory of gases.5Q&A pairs
Waves and the particle nature of light
- Refraction and Snell's law, refractive index, total internal reflection and the critical angle, diffraction at a single slit, and the diffraction grating equation.4Q&A pairs
- The principle of superposition, constructive and destructive interference, coherence and path difference, and the formation of stationary waves with nodes and antinodes on strings and in pipes.4Q&A pairs
- The photon model and , the photoelectric effect and the photoelectric equation, threshold frequency and work function, and the electronvolt and atomic energy levels.4Q&A pairs
- Transverse and longitudinal waves, amplitude, wavelength, frequency, period and speed, the wave equation, phase and phase difference, and polarisation of transverse waves.5Q&A pairs
- Wave-particle duality, electron diffraction as evidence for the wave nature of matter, the de Broglie wavelength, and the complementary wave and particle models of light.5Q&A pairs