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.
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.
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).
These files might help.
telecommunications-summary-notes.pdf
telcommunication revision slides
Telecommunications learning statements and extra questions
how TV works
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 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
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
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)
Note:You will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader if you don’t have it on your home computer already.
If you don’t have Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, please go to this page on the school website and follow the links to download FREE Microsoft viewer software to let you read the files on your web browser.
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?
Comments»
this website is absolutely brilliant
i am very impressed and i will consider to use it again in the future
it is very helpful but it would be better if we had more summary notes for the rest of the topics which will be coming up for the real standard grade exam.
-thanking u!
Hi Deepthi,
I have added some note for Unit 6 – Energy Matters. More material to cover Unit 7 (Space Physics) will follow shortly.
Have you concidered a forum?
Hello Bruce,
Yes, I have considered one.
Hi i was wondering if you have any similar information about the Space Physics Topic that they are now teaching. Anything would be much appreceiated. Thanks.
Hmmmm.
Mr Mackenzie. Good website with great resources but I still haven’t forgot the incident with you and Mrs. Glasgow in Dunkeld – therefore I’ll say you’ve got a lot of rubbish up here!!
Superb site, far better than bitesize anyway.
Summary notes are excellent and dead clear.
Came across this site as I left all my notes jotters in school today, and my exam is tommorow. You’ve probably just saved my ass though, I’ll let you know how I do though, haha.
Thanks.
=D Yehh Rather Lacking In Notes Atm With All The Exams God Knows Where Half Of Them Have Gone … Proved Very Useful And Organised Thanks!
Thank you, good website layout i see your into IT. This will be handy to revise over.
best revision site ever :O
got a test tomoro and this makes revision sooo much easier than boring old notes
thanks for makin this
great site
this site really helped with my telecomm test last week
Thanks for all the revision help, it’ll all really help me to get good marks in the exam.
this site realy helped me with my physics standard grade test today. Thanks!
Do you have any other health pyhsics notes?
TA!
I’ve added some more files to the health physics section now, including some videos. If there is something specific you want help with, please leave a comment and I will see what I can do.
just wondered if you could put up some extra information on how to calculate half life without a graph.
Thanks
Stephanie,
I have added something to the Health Physics section. Hope this helps.
[...] standard grade revision [...]
it helped a lot
thanks
This is such a good website
this helps soo much because my class are failing physics because our teacher cant teach =/
thanks !!!
This is such a great website i got everything i needed !!!
thanks !!!!!!
An great site i have added it to my favourites sooooo much easier to learn from than jotters thanks alot my parents really respect you for putting the summary notes up for free as some websites charge the energy topic helped me achieve two credit level 1’s thanks a billion mr Mackenzie
A great site!
It is helping me alot with my revision for exams
Thank
Brilliant site. Thanks for taking the time to share all of your hard work.
Laurie
This one of the best sites i have tried for revising for my physics exam. Heres hoping that i will pass. Thanks for makin this site it’s brilliant.
!!
thank you
cheryl x
great site,
will definitely help me pass “fizzics”
thanks for thsi btw (:
helps alot
)
might help me pass my using electricity credit test tomorrow hopefully! :S
the summary notes make everything so simple!
thank you
woooo
omg great site mahn rock on (h)
hey
just to say thanks for all ths help
you’ve helped me get my first 1(KU) an 1(PS)
only been stuck on 2’s before
so thanks again
This is the best website ever for physics!
I have my prelim in 2 days and it helped me with the things i couldnt quite figure out, thanks so much :d!
xxxxxx
hi, was just wondering if you could help me?
see when ultrasound is traveling in water, is it the speed of light in water or the speed of sound?
thanks kim.
xx
Hi Kim,
Ultrasound travels through water at the speed of sound in water. This is usually provided in the data section at the front of a SQA exam paper. For example, look at page 3 of the 2009 Credit paper here
http://www.sqa.org.uk/pastpapers/downloadpastpaper.htm?id=2879
and you will see that it gives the speed as 1500 m/s.
awww, thanks so much.
i was unsure.
this website helps so much btw!
thank you. xxx
This website is AMAZING!!!!! thank god for the internet, i have a physics prelim in a couple of days, wish me luck.
Thanks again
Bridget
Thanks so much! I got a 1 in my prelim
Hi.
I believe that we are required to know where each part of the electromagnetic spectrum fits in eg. infrared radiation has a lower frequency than visible light.
However, I was wondering if we are required to know the actual frequencies of any parts of the electromagnetic spectrum or any other frequency values in the Health Physics Unit (as I know we must know ultrasounds have frequencies of over 20000Hz)?
Hi Melissa,
You won’t need to *know* actual frequencies of any part of the electromagnetic spectrum for the Health Physics unit but it is always possible that you might be asked to *calculate* a frequency if wavelength is given in the question. You would use
wave speed = frequency x wavelength
to do this.
Looking at the Standard Grade course as a whole, there are learning outcomes in the Space Physics unit that do expect you to know more about electromagnetic waves. Here are the outcomes I am talking about:
at General level
>state that different colours of light correspond to different wavelengths
>list the following colours in order of wavelength: red, green, blue
>state that white light can be split into different colours using a prism
>state that there exists a large family of waves with a wide range of wavelengths which all travel at the speed of light
and at Credit level
>classify as members of the electromagnetic spectrum the following radiations: gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet, visible light, infrared, microwaves, TV and radio
>list the above radiations in order of wavelength (and frequency)
>give an example of a detector for each of the above radiations
>explain why different kinds of telescope are used to detect signals from space.
Notice that wavelength and frequency appear in these, so remember that the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. Hope this helps.
Oh, that’s a real help.. Thankyou.
awesome. thanks