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CAIE-IGCSE-Physics - Alternative To Practical

This document provides summarized notes on the CAIE IGCSE Physics syllabus for 2023-2025, including safety precautions, specific heat capacity, cooling rate of water, refraction of light, resistance and temperature, speed of sound, center of mass, inaccuracies in experiments, and graphing techniques. Each section outlines the necessary apparatus, procedures, and calculations involved in various physics experiments. The notes are intended for personal use by a student named Chichi and were prepared by a group of students.

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Paidamoyo Mushoriwa
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159 views5 pages

CAIE-IGCSE-Physics - Alternative To Practical

This document provides summarized notes on the CAIE IGCSE Physics syllabus for 2023-2025, including safety precautions, specific heat capacity, cooling rate of water, refraction of light, resistance and temperature, speed of sound, center of mass, inaccuracies in experiments, and graphing techniques. Each section outlines the necessary apparatus, procedures, and calculations involved in various physics experiments. The notes are intended for personal use by a student named Chichi and were prepared by a group of students.

Uploaded by

Paidamoyo Mushoriwa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ZNOTES.

ORG

UPDATED TO 2023-2025 SYLLABUS

CAIE IGCSE
PHYSICS
SUMMARIZED NOTES ON THE THEORY SYLLABUS
Prepared for Chichi for personal use only.
CAIE IGCSE PHYSICS

Apparatus: Heater, Thermometer, Beaker, Stopwatch,


1. Safety Precautions Beaker containing Water.
Procedure:
Live wires should not be touched. Place heater into beaker and turn it on to raise the
Hot objects should not be touched with bare hands - temperature of water to 60°C
gloves should be used Stir the contents of the water and place thermometer
Circuit connections should be checked and approved by into the beaker.
the teacher and then only the circuit should be switched Note the starting temperature and turn on the
on stopwatch.
While changing components of the circuit the power Take readings of the thermometer and stopwatch at
should be switched off so that one should not regular intervals (e.g. 60 sec).
experience electric shocks. Draw up a table and plot a graph to conclude your
Safety goggles, gloves and other safety components experiment.
should be used while handling experiments.
While handling a mercury thermometer, one should take
care/handle with care so that thermometer does not
4. Picking a Better Insulator
break/fall spilling mercury.
Apparatus: Two large cans, two small cans, cotton wool,
polystyrene beads, boiling water, thermometers,
2. Specific Heat Capacity stopwatch
Procedure:
Apparatus: Solid block, Drill, Thermometer, Heater (of Put the small cans into the large cans and insulate
known power), Cotton wool. the small can with (i) cotton wool and (ii) polystyrene
Procedure: beads
Drill two holes in the block. Pour boiling water into the small cans and place the
Measure the mass of the block. thermometers in them.
Place the heater in one of the holes, the Start the stopwatch and take readings of
thermometer in the other. temperature at regular intervals.
Use cotton wool to properly insulate/lag the block. Record readings in a table for each insulator.
Note the initial temperature of block and turn on The small can that has the higher temperature over
heater for xseconds the fixed period is better insulated.
Calculate Heat Energy Supplied by heater using Hence, object that provides a less temperature loss
formula Q=Pt. over the period is the better insulator.
Note the final temperature of block.
Specif ic heat capacity =
Q

m×ΔT
​

.
5. Refraction of Light
3. Cooling Rate of Water Apparatus: Ray Box, Rectangular piece of glass, Plain
paper, Pencil.
Procedure:
Place the Plain paper below the rectangular piece of
glass.
Project a ray towards the glass.
Make two points to mark the incident ray, two to
mark the refracted ray and two to mark the emergent
ray.
Join all the lines, measure the angles and calculate
refractive index.
Repeat with different angles; Snell's law shown.

Copyright © 2025 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is
WWW.ZNOTES.ORG authorised for personal use only by Chichi at WESTMINISTER INTERNATIONAL SCHOOOL on
28/04/25.
CAIE IGCSE PHYSICS
To increase stability:

6. Resistance and Lower the centre of mass.


Widen the base of the object.
Temperature
Apparatus: Resistor, Battery, Connecting wires,
9. Improving Accuracy
Ammeter, Voltmeter, Oven.
Procedure:
Make a circuit with the battery, connecting wires,
ammeter and voltmeter, resistor.
Measure the resistance of the resistor using the
formula R=V/I.
Heat the resistor in the oven. Place the resistor back
into the circuit.
Measure the readings again and calculate R=V/I.
Draw up a conclusion about how the resistance
increases as temperature increases.

7. Speed of Sound
Apparatus: Two observers, Gun, Stopwatch.
Procedure:
Two observers are set apart at a known distance.
One observer has the gun, the other has the
stopwatch.
Observer A fires the gun, Observer B starts the
stopwatch when he sees the puff of smoke.
Observer B stops the stopwatch when he hears the
sound and the time is noted.
Speed =
Time
applied.
Distance
​

The observers swap positions and repeat the


experiment.
The values are averaged and the speed of sound is
obtained.

8. Centre of Mass
Centre of mass of a plane lamina:

Make a hole in the lamina.


Hang it so it can swing freely.
Hang a plumb line in the hole and mark the line it passes
through.
Repeat the procedure again to get another line
Their intersection point is the center of mass.
Stability of simple objects:

The position of the centre of mass affects an object’s


stability. If the centre of mass of an object is low, it is less
likely to tip if tilted.

Copyright © 2025 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is
WWW.ZNOTES.ORG authorised for personal use only by Chichi at WESTMINISTER INTERNATIONAL SCHOOOL on
28/04/25.
CAIE IGCSE PHYSICS

10. Inaccuracies
Why angle i is NOT equal to angle r in ray
experiment:
Thickness of pins
Thickness of mirror
Protractor is not precise
Inaccuracy of ray box method: thickness of rays.
Inaccuracy of pin method: pins not straight, or too
close, or thickness of lines drawn.
Measuring 10 oscillations rather than 1:
Reduce human errors
Give more accurate value of time taken (T)
Gives an average of T

11. Graphs
Drawing graphs:
Label axis
Choose a proper scale
Well-judged best fit line
Thin and neat lines
Measuring the gradient:
Draw a triangle on graph
Use clear lines
Triangle must be larger than half the line
For 2 values to be directly proportional, graph of the
values be a straight line from origin.

Copyright © 2025 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is
WWW.ZNOTES.ORG authorised for personal use only by Chichi at WESTMINISTER INTERNATIONAL SCHOOOL on
28/04/25.
CAIE IGCSE
Physics

© ZNotes Education Ltd. & ZNotes Foundation 2025. All rights reserved.
This version was created by Chichi on Mon Apr 28 2025 for strictly personal use only.
These notes have been created by Shrey Agarwal , Reyansh Roy, Rushil Chari R8CFIFA & Ayesha Wasti and reviewed by Siddarth Soni for
the 2023-2025 syllabus.
The document contains images and excerpts of text from educational resources available on the internet and printed books.
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and we would immediately replace said media. No part of this document may be copied or re-uploaded to another website.
Under no conditions may this document be distributed under the name of false author(s) or sold for financial gain.
"ZNotes" and the ZNotes logo are trademarks of ZNotes Education Limited (registration UK00003478331).

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