Northern Ireland · CCEASyllabus
Physics syllabus, dot point by dot point
Every dot point in the Northern Ireland Physicssyllabus, with a focused answer for each one. Click any dot point for a worked explainer, past exam questions, and links to related dot points. Written by Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic's latest AI.
A2 1 Deformation, Thermal Physics, Circular Motion, SHM and Gravity
Module overview →- What keeps an object moving in a circle, and where does the force come from?Angular velocity and the period of circular motion, centripetal acceleration and centripetal force, and examples such as orbits, conical pendulums and banked tracks.11 min answer →
- How do materials stretch and store energy, and what do stress-strain graphs tell us?Hooke's law and the spring constant, stress, strain and the Young modulus, elastic strain energy, and the behaviour of materials from stress-strain graphs.11 min answer →
- How does gravity act over distance, and what governs the orbits of planets?Newton's law of gravitation, gravitational field strength and potential, the motion of satellites including geostationary orbits, and Kepler's third law.11 min answer →
- What defines simple harmonic motion, and how does energy move during it?The defining condition for simple harmonic motion, the equations for displacement, velocity and acceleration, energy in SHM, and free, damped and forced oscillations with resonance.11 min answer →
- What is temperature really, and how do ideal gases behave?Internal energy and temperature, specific heat capacity and specific latent heat, the gas laws and the ideal gas equation, and the kinetic theory of gases.11 min answer →
A2 2 Fields, Capacitors, Particles and Astronomy
Module overview →- How do we measure the universe, and what is the evidence for the Big Bang?Stellar distances and luminosity, the Doppler effect and redshift, Hubble's law and the expanding universe, and the evidence for the Big Bang.11 min answer →
- How does a capacitor store charge and energy, and how does it charge and discharge?Capacitance and the charge stored, the energy stored in a capacitor, capacitors in series and parallel, and the exponential charging and discharging through a resistor.11 min answer →
- How do electric charges interact through fields, and how do those fields compare with gravity?Coulomb's law, electric field strength and electric potential, uniform and radial fields, and the parallels and differences between electric and gravitational fields.11 min answer →
- How do magnetic fields exert forces, and how is electricity generated by induction?The force on a current-carrying conductor and on a moving charge, magnetic flux density, and electromagnetic induction with Faraday's and Lenz's laws.11 min answer →
- What are the fundamental particles, and how does the standard model classify them?Quarks, leptons and the standard model, hadrons as baryons and mesons, antiparticles and annihilation, and the conservation laws governing particle interactions.11 min answer →
AS 1 Forces, Energy and Electricity
Module overview →- How do Kirchhoff's laws and the idea of e.m.f. explain DC circuits?Kirchhoff's two laws, series and parallel resistor combinations, electromotive force and internal resistance, and the potential divider.11 min answer →
- How do Newton's laws and momentum describe and predict motion?The equations of motion for uniform acceleration, Newton's three laws, linear momentum and impulse, and the conservation of momentum in collisions.11 min answer →
- What is electric current, and what determines a conductor's resistance?Electric charge and current, potential difference, Ohm's law and resistance, resistivity, and the I-V characteristics of components.11 min answer →
- When is an object in equilibrium, and how do moments and forces balance?Forces as vectors, the moment of a force and the principle of moments, couples, centre of gravity, and the conditions for the equilibrium of a body.11 min answer →
- How do physicists measure quantities and check that equations make sense?Physical quantities, SI base and derived units, prefixes and standard form, homogeneity of equations, and estimating and handling uncertainties.11 min answer →
- How do we add quantities that have direction, and split them into components?The difference between scalars and vectors, adding vectors by scale diagram and calculation, and resolving a vector into perpendicular components.9 min answer →
- How are work, energy and power linked, and when is energy conserved?Work done by a force, kinetic and gravitational potential energy, the principle of conservation of energy, power, and efficiency.11 min answer →
AS 2 Waves, Photons and Medical Physics
Module overview →- How is physics used to image the body and treat patients?The production and use of X-rays, ultrasound imaging and the acoustic impedance principle, and the use of radioactive tracers in medicine.12 min answer →
- Why does the photoelectric effect show that light comes in photons?The photon model and the energy of a photon, the photoelectric effect, the work function and threshold frequency, and Einstein's photoelectric equation.12 min answer →
- How does light bend at boundaries, and how do lenses form images?Refraction and refractive index, total internal reflection and the critical angle, optical fibres, and image formation by converging and diverging lenses.12 min answer →
- What happens when waves overlap, and how do stationary waves form?The principle of superposition, coherence and path difference, two-source and double-slit interference, diffraction, and stationary waves on strings and in pipes.12 min answer →
- How can particles behave like waves, and what is the de Broglie wavelength?Wave-particle duality, electron diffraction as evidence for the wave nature of particles, the de Broglie wavelength, and atomic energy levels and line spectra.11 min answer →
- What are the properties shared by all waves, and how do we describe them?Transverse and longitudinal waves, the wave quantities and the wave equation, the relationship between intensity and amplitude, and polarisation.12 min answer →