Physics 11

Unit 1: Kinematics

Describing motion: reference frames, vectors, and the graphical and mathematical relationships among displacement, velocity, and time, tested through controlled motion experiments.

• Questions from motion problems
• Frame of reference
• Vectors for motion
• Displacement, velocity, and time

• Designing a motion experiment
• Selecting instruments and processes
• Carrying out procedures
• Using instruments accurately
• Displaying motion data
• Interpreting patterns in data
• Theoretical vs empirical values

• Displaying evidence (second investigation)
• Interpreting patterns (extended)

Unit 2: Dynamics

The causes of motion: forces as vectors, Newton's three laws, and the link between impulse and momentum, investigated with force and motion instruments.

• Representing forces as vectors
• Newton's laws of motion
• Impulse and momentum

• Using instruments accurately (forces)
• Displaying force data
• Interpreting force-data patterns
• Stating a conclusion

Unit 3: Work and Energy

Work, power, and the conservation of mechanical energy; the work-energy theorem and efficiency; and waves introduced as a form of energy transfer, tested through energy investigations.

• Work: force and distance
• Power: work and time
• Conservation of energy
• Mechanical energy
• Energy in kinematics and dynamics
• The work-energy theorem
• Efficiency of energy transformations

• Longitudinal and transverse waves
• The wave equation
• Reflection and refraction
• Interference and diffraction
• EM radiation and sound properties
• Producing and transmitting wave energy

• Designing an energy experiment
• Operational definitions
• Sampling procedures
• Selecting and integrating information
• Evaluating data quality
• Building and testing a prototype

Unit 4: Waves

Mechanical and electromagnetic waves as phenomena: production and characteristics, the universal wave equation, reflection, refraction, interference, and diffraction, investigated in the lab.

• Mechanical waves
• The universal wave equation
• Reflection and refraction of waves
• Interference and diffraction of waves
• Interference and diffraction applications
• EM radiation and sound as waves
• Producing and transmitting wave energy

• Operational definitions (waves)
• Selecting and integrating information (waves)
• Sampling and evaluating wave data
• Building and testing a wave device
• Predicting and hypothesizing about waves