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    OCR (A) Physics A-Level: Module 5 - Newtonian World and Astrophysics

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    This document defines key concepts and terms related to physics topics including thermal physics, circular motion, oscillations, gravitational fields, and astrophysics/cosmology. Some terms defined include absolute temperature, Boyle's law, centripetal force, damping, escape velocity, Kepler's laws, and concepts such as black holes, galaxies, and the Big Bang theory. The document is intended to provide foundational knowledge on these physics subjects for an A-Level physics course.

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    OCR (A) Physics A-Level: Module 5 - Newtonian World and Astrophysics

    Uploaded by

    jmsonl
    29 views7 pages
    This document defines key concepts and terms related to physics topics including thermal physics, circular motion, oscillations, gravitational fields, and astrophysics/cosmology. Some terms defined include absolute temperature, Boyle's law, centripetal force, damping, escape velocity, Kepler's laws, and concepts such as black holes, galaxies, and the Big Bang theory. The document is intended to provide foundational knowledge on these physics subjects for an A-Level physics course.

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    Module 5 Newtonian World and Astrophysics

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    This document defines key concepts and terms related to physics topics including thermal physics, circular motion, oscillations, gravitational fields, and astrophysics/cosmology. Some terms defined include absolute temperature, Boyle's law, centripetal force, damping, escape velocity, Kepler's laws, and concepts such as black holes, galaxies, and the Big Bang theory. The document is intended to provide foundational knowledge on these physics subjects for an A-Level physics course.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    29 views7 pages

    OCR (A) Physics A-Level: Module 5 - Newtonian World and Astrophysics

    Uploaded by

    jmsonl
    This document defines key concepts and terms related to physics topics including thermal physics, circular motion, oscillations, gravitational fields, and astrophysics/cosmology. Some terms defined include absolute temperature, Boyle's law, centripetal force, damping, escape velocity, Kepler's laws, and concepts such as black holes, galaxies, and the Big Bang theory. The document is intended to provide foundational knowledge on these physics subjects for an A-Level physics course.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 7

    OCR (A) Physics A-level

    Module 5 - Newtonian World and


    Astrophysics
    Definitions and Concepts

    www.pmt.education
    Definitions and Concepts for OCR (A) Physics A-level

    Module 5 - Newtonian World and Astrophysics

    5.1: Thermal Physics

    Absolute Temperature: ​A temperature value relative to absolute zero.

    Absolute Zero: ​The lowest possible temperature of a system, where no heat


    remains and the particles in the system have no kinetic energy.

    Avogadro Constant: ​The number of particles that make up one mole of any gas.

    Boltzmann Constant: ​A constant relating the average kinetic energy of the


    particles in a gas, to the gas’ temperature.

    Boyle’s Law: ​The pressure of an ideal gas is inversely proportional to its volume
    when held at constant temperature.

    Brownian Motion: ​The random motion of particles.

    Change of Phase: ​The transitions between solids, liquids and gases. During a
    change of phase, there is a change of internal energy but not temperature.

    Equation of State of an Ideal Gas: ​An equation linking pressure, volume, number
    of moles, temperature and the ideal gas constant.

    Gas: ​A phase of matter in which the particles are high energy and free to move.
    Gases will fill the space they are placed in.

    Internal Energy: ​The sum of the randomly distributed kinetic and potential
    energies of the particles in a given system.

    Kelvin: ​The unit of absolute temperature.

    Liquid: ​A phase of matter in which the particles can slide over each other, but still
    have forces of attraction between each other.

    Solid: ​A phase of matter in which the particles can only vibrate about fixed
    positions, due to strong intermolecular forces.

    Specific Heat Capacity: ​The amount of energy required to increase the


    temperature of 1kg of a substance by 1 Kelvin.

    www.pmt.education
    Specific Latent Heat: ​The amount of energy required to change the state of 1kg
    of a substance without a change of temperature.

    Thermal Equilibrium: ​A stable state in which there is no thermal heat transfer


    between two regions.

    5.2: Circular Motion

    Angular Velocity: ​An object’s rate of change of angular position.

    Centripetal Acceleration: ​The acceleration of an object moving in circular motion.


    Any object in circular motion must have an acceleration since the direction of the
    object, and therefore the velocity of the object, is constantly changing.

    Centripetal Force: ​The resultant force responsible for an object moving in circular
    motion. Centripetal forces always act towards the centre of the object’s rotation.

    Frequency: ​The inverse of time period. The number of rotations per unit time.

    Period: ​The time taken for one whole rotation.

    Radian: ​A unit of angle, where 2π equal to one complete angular rotation.

    5.3: Oscillations

    Angular Frequency: ​A measure of an object’s angular displacement per unit time.

    Critical Damping:​ The form of damping that reduces the displacement of an


    oscillating object to its equilibrium position in the quickest time possible and
    without further oscillation.

    Damping: ​The dissipation of energy from an oscillating system. The consequence


    is that the amplitude of oscillation will decrease. Damping occurs when a force
    opposes the system’s motion.

    Forced Oscillations: ​Repeated up and down oscillations, at the frequency of a


    driver. The amplitude of oscillation is small at high frequencies and large at low
    frequencies.

    Free Oscillations: ​Oscillations that are not caused by a driver. An object will
    naturally oscillate at its natural frequency.

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    Isochronous Oscillator: ​An oscillator whose frequency is independent to
    amplitude.

    Natural Frequency: ​The frequency that a system naturally oscillates at when


    there is no driving force.

    Overdamping: ​A type of damping where the system is damped more than


    required to stop the oscillations. It takes longer for the system to return to
    equilibrium than for critical damping.

    Resonance: ​Resonance occurs when the frequency of oscillations is equal to the


    natural frequency of the oscillating system. The rate of energy transfer is at a
    maximum during resonance.

    Simple Harmonic Motion: ​Motion where the acceleration of an object is directly


    proportional, and in the opposite direction, to its displacement.

    Underdamping: ​A type of damping where energy is gradually removed from the


    system and the amplitude of oscillations slowly decreases.

    5.4: Gravitational Fields

    Escape Velocity: ​The minimum velocity required by an object to be able to


    escape a gravitational field of a mass when projected vertically from its surface.

    Field Lines: ​A line representing the path that a mass would take when placed
    within the field.

    Geostationary Satellite: ​A satellite that orbits above the equator with a 24 hour
    period, so it will always remain above the same position on the Earth. They orbit
    approximately 36,000km above the surface of the Earth.

    Gravitational Field Strength: ​The force per unit mass exerted on a small test
    mass placed within the field.

    Gravitational Field: ​A region surrounding a mass in which any other object with
    mass will experience an attractive force.

    Gravitational Potential Energy: ​The component of an object’s energy due to its


    position in a gravitational field.

    Gravitational Potential: ​The work done per unit mass required to move a small
    test mass from infinity to that point.

    Kepler’s First Law: ​All planets travel in elliptical orbits, centred around the sun.

    www.pmt.education
    Kepler’s Second Law: ​All planets sweep out the same area in a given period of
    time.

    Kepler’s Third Law: ​The square of a planet's period is directly proportional to the
    cube of its mean distance to the sun.

    Newton’s Law of Gravitation: ​The force between two masses is proportional to


    the product of the masses involved and inversely proportional to the square of the
    separation of the masses.

    5.5: Astrophysics and Cosmology

    Absorption Line Spectrum: ​A spectrum consisting of dark lines at specific


    frequencies that have been absorbed by the gases present. Elements can only
    absorb certain energies, and therefore frequencies, of photons.

    Astronomical Unit: ​The mean distance of the earth to the sun.

    Big Bang Theory: ​The theory that the universe originated as a small, dense and
    hot region that expanded and cooled forming the structures in the universe we see
    today.

    Black Hole: ​A law stating that the power output (luminosity) of a star is directly
    proportional to its surface area and its absolute temperature to the 4​th​ power.

    Chandrasekhar Limit: ​The maximum mass that a white dwarf star can have
    whilst remaining stable.

    Comets: ​Concentrated clusters of ice and dust that travel through space. When
    near the sun, they begin to melt and so leave a trail as they move.

    Continuous Spectrum: ​A spectrum that covers a full range of frequencies without


    any gaps. The electromagnetic spectrum is an example of a continuous spectrum.

    Cosmological Principle: ​A principle stating that the universe is isotropic (same in


    all directions to all observers) and homogenous (matter is distributed evenly).

    Dark Energy: ​An energy that is responsible for the acceleration in the expansion
    of the universe which cannot be explained by any observable energy.

    Doppler Effect: ​The apparent change in the wavelength of a wave as the source
    moves relative to an observer. For a source moving away the wavelength
    increases, for a source moving towards the observer the wavelength decreases.

    www.pmt.education
    Electron Degeneracy Pressure: ​The outwards force, resisting the inwards force
    of gravity, produced as a result of multiple electrons not being able to exist in
    identical states in an energy level.

    Emission Line Spectrum: ​A series of bright lines at specific frequencies that


    have been emitted by the gases present. Elements can only release photons of
    certain energies, and therefore frequencies.

    Galaxies: ​Collections of billions of stars, planets, gases and dust, held together by
    gravitational attraction.

    Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram: ​A visual representation of the lifecycle of a star. It


    is a plot of luminosity against temperature.

    Hubble’s Law: ​The speed of a galaxy moving away from ours is proportional to its
    distance away from us. The constant of proportionality is Hubble’s constant.

    Light-Year: ​The distance travelled through space by a photon in a year.

    Nebula: ​A cloud of dust and gas in space.

    Neutron Star: ​An incredibly dense star that is formed when the core of a large
    star collapses. Protons and electrons are forced together under gravity to form
    neutrons.

    Parsec: ​The distance at which the angle of parallax is 1 arcsecond.

    Planet: ​A body that orbits around a star, in our case, the Sun.

    Planetary Satellites: ​Bodies that orbit a planet. The gravitational force of the
    planet’s mass provides the centripetal force of rotation.

    Red-Giant: ​A stage in the life cycle of a star less than 3 solar masses, in which
    the hydrogen has run out and the temperature of the star increases. Helium nuclei
    fuse to form heavier elements.

    Solar Systems: ​A collection of planets that orbit a common star.

    Stefan’s Law: ​A law stating that the power output (luminosity) of a star is directly
    proportional to its surface area and its absolute temperature to the 4​th​ power.

    Stellar Parallax: ​The change in position of an object depending on the viewing


    angle. It can be used to estimate the distance of a star, based on how much it
    moves relative to the background of stars in the time it takes for the earth to move
    half an orbit.

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    Supernova: ​When a star greater than 1.4 solar masses dies, the core collapses
    rapidly inward and becomes rigid. The outer layers then fall inward and rebound
    off of the core in a shockwave, causing heavy elements to be fused and
    distributed into space in an explosion.

    Universe: ​The name given to all space and matter.

    White Dwarf: ​A dense star, similar mass to the sun, similar size to the earth. A
    final stage of a low mass star’s life with low luminosity.

    Wien’s Displacement Law: ​A law stating that the peak wavelength of emitted
    radiation is inversely proportional to its absolute temperature.

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