* Physics HL 2011 * HL predictions / discussion / aftermath * (1 thread only please)

Dbstf

Anybody else worried about the paper or is it just me?
Also any predictions?

Aoifums

I'm a little bit worried. I'm fairly weak on electricity and I wasted too much time studying it and didn't put as much work into anything else. I'm still not confident that I could answer on it either
I'm just freaking out that they could combine the options with Q11. Particle physics and Q11 are the ones I'm most confident about.

jumpguy

I'll worry about it next weekend tbh! I'll probably have a look over waves and wave motion, particle physics and nuclear physics the weekend before. Electricity if I've time.

Tij da feen

Aoifums wrote: »

I'm a little bit worried. I'm fairly weak on electricity and I wasted too much time studying it and didn't put as much work into anything else. I'm still not confident that I could answer on it either
I'm just freaking out that they could combine the options with Q11. Particle physics and Q11 are the ones I'm most confident about.

You can leave Electricity out all together if you're confident on all of the other topics. You still need to know the experiments for it though. I'm taking the option of leaving electricity alone completly as it just wrecks my head.

Aoifums

Tij da feen wrote: »

You can leave Electricity out all together if you're confident on all of the other topics. You still need to know the experiments for it though. I'm taking the option of leaving electricity alone completly as it just wrecks my head.

I can't. I'm a little shaky on parts of mechanics too :rolleyes: Kicking myself for not perfecting it in fifth year.
Ah well, I have three and a half days to go over a subject and a half. I should be grand.

Numb.Muzik

Anyone have any predictions or ideas on what is to come up this year [HL] not looking for mad points just a C would suffice.

Any ideas & tips on getting the most marks:D

Dbstf

Numb.Muzik wrote: »

Anyone have any predictions or ideas on what is to come up this year [HL] not looking for mad points just a C would suffice.

Any ideas & tips on getting the most marks:D

I would be happy to pass... My teacher is really horrible at teaching physics. He only started teaching physics 2 years ago and last year everybody that did honours in his class failed the exam. Im really worried about it because I failed the pre and I need to pass it.

Digits

Well I've all the mandatory expirements learned so thats section A covered (thank fook). For section B I'm going over Modern Physics, Electricity, Light and Waves and Forces well. That should have me covered enough. :cool:

Numb.Muzik

Dbstf wrote: »

I would be happy to pass... My teacher is really horrible at teaching physics. He only started teaching physics 2 years ago and last year everybody that did honours in his class failed the exam. Im really worried about it because I failed the pre and I need to pass it.

Basically identical to myself

Wats_in_a_name

Apparently conservation of momentum is likely to come up as well as measurement of speed of sound in air.

ADeVoy

Hmm looking through the papers myself I'd be keen to take a look at measuring the wavelength of monochromatic light.

stealinhorses

Yeah, an experiment on sound looks likely. Probably something with trolleys and ticker tape for the mechanics section in the experiments.

Presumably a more "down-to-earth" question for mechanics in Section B? As in, linear/circular motion rather than gravity/planets?

Walton-Cockcroft experiment in particle physics?

Also, maybe Joule's Law or resistivity of a wire in experiments.

Maybe_Memories

You should all check out Boyle's Law experiment. Hasn't been up since 2003. We all thought it was certain last year because our teacher never shut up about it.
Here's an exact quote:

"Now lads, if Boyle's Law was to come up it'd be the exact same as every other boyle's law question. Boyle's law is boyle's law and you can't change boyle's law because boyle's law is boyle's law and it will be the same as every other time boyle's law came up."

By the amount of times he said Boyle's Law in that sentence we assumed he knew some kind of inside info :cool:

doctorg

Maybe_Memories wrote: »

You should all check out Boyle's Law experiment. Hasn't been up since 2003. We all thought it was certain last year because our teacher never shut up about it.
Here's an exact quote:

"Now lads, if Boyle's Law was to come up it'd be the exact same as every other boyle's law question. Boyle's law is boyle's law and you can't change boyle's law because boyle's law is boyle's law and it will be the same as every other time boyle's law came up."

By the amount of times he said Boyle's Law in that sentence we assumed he knew some kind of inside info :cool:

But did it come up then!! :P

randylonghorn

doctorg wrote: »

But did it come up then!! :P

Maybe_Memories wrote: »

Hasn't been up since 2003.

We all thought it was certain last year ...

*cough*

danoboy254

Would i be crazy to do all the experiments but to leave out electricity and mechanics. Just couldnt be bothered with that stuff. like u'd get 4 questions outta the short questions,the 4 parts q, the option question and light/waves/nuclear. No?

doctorg

randylonghorn wrote: »

*cough*

Hence the ' :P '


*cough* :P

stealinhorses

danoboy254, there's bound to be an experiment on mechanics AND on electricity, you can't really afford leaving out both of them, as you have to do three experiment questions.

But for Section B, you could get away with it, depends on the questions. Sometimes electricity ties in with magnetism as a separate question, so if they mix things up you might be in trouble. And by the looks of it, the SEC are really into lumping loadsa sections into one question this year!

mahon93

danoboy254 wrote: »

Would i be crazy to do all the experiments but to leave out electricity and mechanics. Just couldnt be bothered with that stuff. like u'd get 4 questions outta the short questions,the 4 parts q, the option question and light/waves/nuclear. No?

DONT LEAVE OUT ELECTRICITY.

takes up approx 2.5 of the Section B questions each year, it the section worth revising the most if you ask me. The questions are generally straight-forward. Leave out mechanics if anything.

Cardor

Mechanics is the most important topic because it ties in with so many other chapters..

I'm studying for section A

-Mechanics
-Light and wave motion
-Heat
-Nuclear Physics
-Particle physics

I asked my teacher could I leave out electricity and she said that i'm restricting myself to only being able to answer 6 questions out of 8 but that If I study the other chapters really well I should be fine...

This is how I think it'l be this year!

Question 5 - easy
Qusstion 6 - Mechanics
Qustions 7 - Light/wave motion
Question 8 - Nuclear physics
Question 9 - Resistance
Question 10 - Particle Physics
Question 11 - Circuits in the home
Question 12
a - Mechanics
b - Magnetism
c - Electrostatics
d - Radioactivity

I think this year's paper should be good.. fingers crossed.. my teacher thinks different to me.. so maybe I should be listening more to her.. :P She thinks theres gonna be a big question this year on heat, magnetism and momentum.. so i'm looking over heat and momentum.. but i'm leaving out magnetism.. :P

LilMissCiara

Experiments:

Boyle's Law
Calibration of a thermometer
Speed of sound in air
Metallic conductor (variation of current...)

Also study Momentum, Joule's law and Frequency of a strenched string with length.

Areq

Hey is the physics exam going to be different in any way because of the new math tables came out ? my teacher last year said that they aren't going to give them "tips" at the end of the question, the constants etc he meant.

I don't believe it really .. so is that true ?

LilMissCiara

Areq wrote: »

Hey is the physics exam going to be different in any way because of the new math tables came out ? my teacher last year said that they aren't going to give them "tips" at the end of the question, the constants etc he meant.

I don't believe it really .. so is that true ?

The constants are in the log tables but the variables will be at the end of the question!

LimboPanto

I'm feeling way in over my head with Higher Physics. Got a D1 in the mocks, really did my best to put the work in since then, but with all the other subjects and exams, I've sort of let it slip for the past two weeks. It's a bit late now to attempt to go through the whole textbook, and I'm at a total loss as to how I should make use of the three days I have before the exam. Any tips, advice, help out there? Thanks in advance =]

ride-the-spiral

I found Exam Edge for Physics a great help when revising.

kevmcdonnell

just a heads up for people revising for the physics exam, excellent website at http://www.thephysicsteacher.ie/ for revision notes with all relevent leaving cert questions and answers at the end of each question

epicwinning

I got an A2 in the mocks. Love how my worst 2 questions were the short questions and the mechanics question, even though I do Applied Maths... :rolleyes:

sh1tin-a-brick

Highest in my class for the mock was 55% - me! All I did was learn the definitions and glanced at a few experiments. To be fair chemistry helped a lot with the radioactivity stuff....

Worried now though, I want a B2 at least (damn Queens and their obsession with B2s) and I havent done anything really since the mock. My teacher is up on cloud nine, reckons we'll go up 2 grades from the mock - ie an A for me. Unlikely to say the least!

Can I leave out last years experiments? Any other good tips as to what might come up? My teacher is obsessed with electricy, says it's "easy" so it's all he talks about, doesnt believe in predictions

DM360

I've got my money on magnetism to come up. Hasn't appeared for 2 years, which is crazy seeing as it usually comes up in some shape or form every year. The questions aren't particularly difficult, just wordy.

And know your option and modern physics well, they can be absolute gifts in the middle of a tough exam

augmented reality

I'm just doing an experiment question now from my mocks, it's measuring the speed of sound in air with the glass tube.
They give values for frequency and length and ask to draw a graph, then to calculate the speed of sound in air using the graph.

Do I need to change anything first before plotting??
How do you calculate the speed using the graph??
Really think something like this will come up.
Thanks!

epicwinning

c = f*4(l + 0.3*d)

OR:

wavelength = 4(l + 0.3*d)

Graph fq vs 1/(wavelength).
fq - x-axis
1/wavelength - y-axis
c = fl

Slope = 1/c

augmented reality

Oh, now I see, thanks!

DM360

augmented reality wrote: »

I'm just doing an experiment question now from my mocks, it's measuring the speed of sound in air with the glass tube.
They give values for frequency and length and ask to draw a graph, then to calculate the speed of sound in air using the graph.

Do I need to change anything first before plotting??
How do you calculate the speed using the graph??
Really think something like this will come up.
Thanks!

Someone gave a solution with wavelength but it most likely gives you length of the column (l)

y-axis = length (m)
x-axis = 1/frequency (Hz^-1)

slope*4 = speed of sound in air

However the end correction (the 0.3d) isn't accounted for

luciemc

Does anyone think Rutherford could come up? It's the 100th anniversary of his alpha particle/gold foil experiment? ..might be too easy, there anything difficult they could ask?

Floydy B

LimboPanto wrote: »

I'm feeling way in over my head with Higher Physics. Got a D1 in the mocks, really did my best to put the work in since then, but with all the other subjects and exams, I've sort of let it slip for the past two weeks. It's a bit late now to attempt to go through the whole textbook, and I'm at a total loss as to how I should make use of the three days I have before the exam. Any tips, advice, help out there? Thanks in advance =]

You've got two days.so just use them well. I got a D2 in the mocks,mostly because all i studied was experiments,same as you I've put in the work since then,but i still have a load of work to do for the weekend. Just make sure you can do all the question 5's from every year and that alone should really stand to you,they cover so much. We did partical physics for the option,easy enough to learn. Q. 12's are generally nice enough too. Learn as many diagrams as you can then for the small experiments to show various principles,and you can generally work out the rest from them. Other then that,just hope that it will be a sweet paper! This may be stuff you know already,but this is just the approach i'm taking!

The_Don_21

I'm just gonna watch the Back to the Future Trilogy and hope for the best guaranteed at least an A2 i reckon..

Geog ariphic

Wats_in_a_name wrote: »

Apparently conservation of momentum is likely to come up as well as measurement of speed of sound in air.

Yes! So i've heard, from two physics teachers in my school. That exp. on speed of sound hasnt been up for a while though, that's the basis for this.

What's everyone thinking for cicular motion, deriving the gravtational formula etc? Likely?

Geog ariphic

LilMissCiara wrote: »

The constants are in the log tables but the variables will be at the end of the question!

A guy in my class knows a man who actually corrects the physics papers. Sweet right? He said now they WILL NO LONGER ACCEPT FORMULAE FOR DEFINITIONS, even when you write down what every symbol means after it.

But fear not! There are two solutions.

1)I'd reccomend this http://www.thephysicsteacher.ie/leavingcertphysicsrevision.html and click on the word file for definitions.
It does out a list of the VAST majority of definitions that are on the course. (You'll need to do a little editing to print out however, its very spread out).

2)Should you forget a particular definition in the exam, 'derive' the worded definition by finding the relevant formula and filling in the words for their letters, then seeing how you could write as a sentence.

Eg: g= (G(m1)(m2))/(d^2)
= (G(one mass)(other mass))/(square of distance between the two)
= "The product of two point masses, divided by the distance between the two points"

Obviously this will only take you so far and you need some idea of the def. before starting, but it will get you off to a good start.

Hope this helped.:)

LilMissCiara

Geog ariphic wrote: »

A guy in my class knows a man who actually corrects the physics papers. Sweet right? He said now they WILL NO LONGER ACCEPT FORMULAE FOR DEFINITIONS, even when you write down what every symbol means after it.

But fear not! There are two solutions.

1)I'd reccomend this http://www.thephysicsteacher.ie/LC%20Physics/Revision/3.%20Definitions.doc
it does out a list of the VAST majority of definitions that are on the course. (You'll need to do a little editing to print out however, its very spread out).

2)Should you forget a particular definition in the exam, 'derive' the worded definition by finding the relevant formula and filling in the words for their letters, then seeing how you could write as a sentence.

Eg: g= (G(m1)(m2))/(d^2)
= (G(one mass)(other mass))/(square of distance between the two)
= "The product of two point masses, divided by the distance between the two points"

Obviously this will only take you so far and you need some idea of the def. before starting, but it will get you off to a good start.

Hope this helped.:)

Isn't it obvious you can't put a formula you are given down as an answer..?!

Geog ariphic

Sorry, possibly i wasnt clear.
When they asked for a definition, they used to accept a formula, cos there were hardly any in the Tables. Just so long as you explained what each letter stood for in your equation.
From what my contact says, this is no longer acceptable,
as last year pretty much every definition was given as a formula in the log tables,
so i'm going to brush up on my worded definitions and not risk it.

clartharlear

I'm kinda expecting to see SHM, current in a magnetic field and a wheatstone bridge.

But I wouldn't be putting any money on any predictions! As a physics teacher, I always try to emphasize how much everything is connected.
Being able to make connections and transfer knowledge is quite the big thing in education these days, so if *I* were the examiner, I would be doing my best to mix up the topics in the questions as much as possible.
eg moments on a current carrying conductor in mag field, momentum in radioactive decay.

Basically, keep an open mind in the exam! And be aware that physics can sometimes reward the student who is able to think and work something out, even if they didn't learn it off...

Colm92

Geog ariphic wrote: »

A guy in my class knows a man who actually corrects the physics papers. Sweet right? He said now they WILL NO LONGER ACCEPT FORMULAE FOR DEFINITIONS, even when you write down what every symbol means after it.

But fear not! There are two solutions.

1)I'd reccomend this http://www.thephysicsteacher.ie/LC%20Physics/Revision/3.%20Definitions.doc
it does out a list of the VAST majority of definitions that are on the course. (You'll need to do a little editing to print out however, its very spread out).

2)Should you forget a particular definition in the exam, 'derive' the worded definition by finding the relevant formula and filling in the words for their letters, then seeing how you could write as a sentence.

Eg: g= (G(m1)(m2))/(d^2)
= (G(one mass)(other mass))/(square of distance between the two)
= "The product of two point masses, divided by the distance between the two points"

Obviously this will only take you so far and you need some idea of the def. before starting, but it will get you off to a good start.

Hope this helped.:)

This is in no way true, so dont worry people. Pat Doyle from the institute of education was on the radio today and he said you can use the forumlae and explain all the letters for definitions. So no offence but I'm just going to take his word for it.

clartharlear

Oh yeah, and as a physics teacher, I would really like you to know that nothing makes me happier than a clear, well-labelled diagram.
Especially when the question didn't even specifically ask for a diagram, and yet it's the best way to explain something.

LilMissCiara

Geog ariphic wrote: »

Sorry, possibly i wasnt clear.
When they asked for a definition, they used to accept a formula, cos there were hardly any in the Tables. Just so long as you explained what each letter stood for in your equation.
From what my contact says, this is no longer acceptable,
as last year pretty much every definition was given as a formula in the log tables,
so i'm going to brush up on my worded definitions and not risk it.

No I get what you mean but I thought it would be obvious that because we now get the formulas we can't use them as answers and instead have to use a definition..

LilMissCiara

Colm92 wrote: »

This is in no way true, so dont worry people. Pat Doyle from the institute of education was on the radio today and he said you can use the forumlae and explain all the letters for definitions. So no offence but I'm just going to take his word for it.

It's what we were told as well. I wouldn't risk it.

(It being definition not formula)

stealinhorses

I heard Pat Doyle on the radio saying that explaining the formulae is an acceptable way for answering the definition questions.

And why wouldn't it be?
Instead of saying, for example, "Pressure is defined as force per unit area", if you just wrote P=F/A, where P is pressure, F is force in Newtons and A is area in m^2, then you're stating the exact same information, but expressed mathematically.
It's not like the examiner won't understand the equation :S

DM360

Colm92 wrote: »

This is in no way true, so dont worry people. Pat Doyle from the institute of education was on the radio today and he said you can use the forumlae and explain all the letters for definitions. So no offence but I'm just going to take his word for it.

Absolutely agree, the thing they reckon will happen, Pat Doyle said it himself, is that the constants like electron mass, speed of light etc. won't be on the paper. Instead you'll just have to look them up in the Fundamental Constants page of the tables.

Went to an Easter Institute course with him, fantastic teacher, knows the syllabus and exam papers inside out, I'd have full faith in him

Oh and as a side note to the guy who claims this change, plenty of teachers correct exam papers so a guy in your class knowing one person who corrects the papers is no big deal, there are hundreds of correctors and they would have told their classes

fresh2011

LOL, you were so wrong! Yeah I was at a course with Pat Doyle too and he has in all his notes that you can just give the definition and explain the symbols, so don't panic.

Really hoping the mechanics and electromagnetic induction questions aren't too hard if they appear on the paper

sparagon

What is the distance between a crest and a trough?

RP77

The horizontal distance between crest and next trough is half a wavelength

stealinhorses

Just a quick question about this whole physical constants deal.

If they're not given in the questions this year and, let's say, we have to use the value for the speed of light in an equation. Normally this would be given as 3x10^8 m/s in the question, but in the tables book it's 2.99792458x10^ 8m/s.

Does that mean we always have to use the full value given in the tables book for every question?