standard grade revision
Standard Grade Physics contains the following units;
- Telecommunications
- Using Electricity
- Health Physics
- Electronics
- Transport
- Energy Matters
- Space Physics
The sections below contain links to revision summary notes, PowerPoint slides and extra questions to test your readiness for the exams on each of the areas listed above. If you need help to view a PowerPoint file, click here to look for the PowerPoint viewer on Microsoft’s site.
Alternatively, why not download the free OpenOffice.org office suite? It opens PowerPoint, Excel & Word files. You can also create your own files and save them so that you can open them in school with Microsoft programs, clever or what?
You will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader if you don’t have it on your home computer already.
Check this blog post to find out how you can get free physics revision software for home use only.
In the summary notes for each section you will find some boxes where the background is grey instead of white. These grey sections contain material that applies to the Credit paper only. If you are working towards a General level award you can skip the grey sections.
Some of the pdf files have been created by converting PowerPoint files. In places where the original slide is animated, you will need to read several pages in a row to see the full slide contents.
You will be given a copy of the SQA Physics Data Booklet for the exam. It’s a good idea to know what it looks like before you arrive at the exam room. You can download a copy here as a pdf file.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment for me on this page. I will do my best to answer you quickly. Please read the note at the bottom of this page if you have problems opening the files. Leave a comment on this page if you still can’t get the files to open and I’ll see if I can help you.
Here is a set of whole course summary notes from James Gillespie’s High School in Edinburgh.
Telecommunications
Remember that there are only really two triangles you need to know for this unit;
- speed/distance/time
- speed/frequency/wavelength
Make sure that you put everything into the correct unit before using these equations, e.g. change kHz into Hz. You will also need to know the speed of light in air (300,000,000m/s) and the speed of sound in air (340m/s).
Use this information to calculate the distance between the lightning flash and the video camera used to record this video clip.
Lightning from Daniel Dingemanse on Vimeo.
These files might help.
telecommunications-summary-notes.pdf
telcommunication revision slides
Telecommunications learning statements and extra questions
how TV works
Here is an example of coils being used to steer a spot around a screen.
raster scan from mr mackenzie on Vimeo.
Can you spot the difference between this scanning pattern and the pattern used in a TV set?
Total internal reflection
total internal reflection from mr mackenzie on Vimeo.
This video shows a simulation of a satellite in geostationary orbit.
A geostationary satellite is not actually stationary. By rotating at the same rate as the Earth, the satellite always appears to sit in the same point in our sky (this is quite handy, since it would be a nuisance if we had to move dish aerials to follow the location of a satellite broadcasting TV signals).
The video below is designed to show you what the view from a geostationary satellite might look like. Since the satellite and Earth rotate at the same rate, one full rotation every 24 hours, the satellite is always over the same point on the Earth’s surface.
Using Electricity
Here is a diagram of the most important language for the electricity topic. You can view a larger version by clicking on the image below.
This unit contains more equations but remember that the booklet you are given during the exam will have these, so don’t panic if you forget one of them.
AC and DC Electricity
electrical appliances -- power rating and safety features
electrical safety -- this is really meant for Standard Grade Science but I include it here because the descriptions of each safety measure are really good.
Watch this BBC Bitesize video about the ways that fuses and RCDs help protect us from electrocution.
resistance and graphs of current-voltage
current and voltage
electricity summary notes
electricity summary slides
electricity learning statements and extra questions
who wants to be a millionaire -- electricity quiz -- don’t click through too quickly or you might show the correct answers before you have had a chance to think about the question.
Health Physics
health physics summary notes
health physics revision
health physics learning statements and extra questions
Infrared is useful for taking thermograms (pdf) to learn about where heat is lost or where something is getting too hot.
A BBC article about how the police are using thermal images to find people who grow “illegal plants” in their homes.
BBC video about Alexander Litvinenko -- former Russian spy who was poisoned with alpha radiation
radiotherapy revision (ppt file)
Here is a video that explains how a Geiger-Müller tube works.
Here is a brilliant video of an ultrasound scan of a pregnancy at 18 weeks (that’s almost 1/2 way through). Keep watching and you’ll see the baby’s face, hands, feet, ribs and….. well, just watch it and see!
Ultrasound isn’t just for human babies, vets use it too.
How to do radioactivity/half-life calculations (pdf)
Electronics
Use the diagram below to make sure you know the terms you will need for the electronics unit. Click on the picture for a larger version.
comparison of LEDs and bulbs
electronics summary notes
electronics revision powerpoint slides
electronics learning statements and extra questions
High School of Glasgow’s electronics summary notes -- powerpoint version & pdf version
transistors capacitors and time delay circuits
Transport
Some of the key vocabulary for this unit is shown in the diagram below. Click on the picture to view a larger version.
transport summary notes
speed time graphs revision slides
acceleration revision slides
transport learning statements and extra questions
forces
Newton’s 1st law causes a headache for a lorry driver in this video
animation showing effects of air resistance
work, power and energy
potential energy examples
kinetic energy examples
conservation of energy in a roadrunner cartoon (youtube clip)
Friction: here are 3 clips about friction from the BBC programme Bang goes the Theory
and look what happens when cold weather removes the friction that helps you to control your car!
Energy Matters
Here is some of the vocabulary you will need in this unit. Click on the image below for a larger version.
ban the lightbulb (BBC News article)
energy matters -- learning outcomes and homework questions
how solar panels are made (youtube)
wave power trials near Orkney (youtube)
hydroelectric power -- how it works (youtube)
hydroelectric power plant animation (click for full size)
using fossil fuels to produce electricity (youtube)
how nuclear power works (youtube)
nuclear reactor simulator -- free download for windows pcs
simple electricity generator (java applet simulation)
transformer interactive animation
electricity transmission -- National Grid card sort activity
who wants to be a millionaire -- energy matters quiz (powerpoint)
transformer law (powerpoint)
heat summary with worked examples
heat and temperature are not the same thing -- a site to help you understand the difference between heat and temperature
Space Physics
space physics pupil pack (contains list of learning outcomes for the unit and additional homework questions)
colour temperature line spectra summary of the information we can get from the light received from any star (surface temperature of the star, what the start is made of, etc.)
orbits and gravity (animation showing planets in our solar system with some gravity information)
At Credit level, you should be able to draw a ray diagram to show how a convex lens produces an image. These video show you how to do that.
how to draw a ray diagram from mr mackenzie on Vimeo.
ray diagram for objects closer than 1f from mr mackenzie on Vimeo.
Rockets rely on Newton’s 3rd law of motion. Read my blog post about Newton III.
Space Shuttle
Here is a page with information on the space shuttle’s re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. You are expected to know that the friction encountered by the orbiter as it re-enters the atmosphere has the effect of transforming the vehicle’s kinetic energy into heat energy. The orbiter slows down as its kinetic energy is lost.
This article includes a photo taken from the International Space Station that shows just how high the temperature of the orbiter can get. This high temperature during re-entry is the reason those special black tiles are needed on its underside.
This short video shows a night-time re-entry over Texas, with the orbiter on its way to land at the Kennedy Space Centre.
Themocracy
awritey pal , lovin yer site man , it done me a solid, cheers fur at mate its pure helped me and at know
Thank you so much, it helped a lot!
What a site, but I already know that I’m gonna get a one, because physics is really easy:) :>
thanks for the help,
you should be proud of yourself
you’ve helped so many people with their physics
Okay. I’ve managed to get some papers now thanks.
I’m sure many of us here are very jealous of your trip, and would be interested in you putting up some of your photos and experience of the Large Hadron Collider when you’re back… ?
Thanks, you’ve got a great website here.
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I’ll see what I can do. Lots of photos being taken
This is like… actually the best revision site ever! :O Thankyou SO much!!
If it wasn’t for your site i would have failed physics
Could you please upload standard grade past papers which are older (pre 2007). These would be really helpful. By the way your website is really good.