Physics 30

Unit 1: Student-Directed Study

A staged, self-directed physics investigation: designing a testable inquiry, carrying it out and analysing the data, and presenting the findings as a portfolio or demonstration.

• Designing the investigation
• Carrying out and analysing
• Presenting and reflecting

Unit 2: Modern Physics

The physics of the very fast and the very small: special and general relativity, the quantum nature of light and matter, and radioactivity, nuclear reactions, and their impact on society.

• Scales of physics: Newtonian, quantum, and relativistic
• Special and general relativity
• Quantum phenomena and wave-particle duality

• Types of radiation and radioactive decay
• Decay equations and half-life
• Fission, fusion, and mass-energy
• Societal and environmental impacts of nuclear technology

Unit 3: Forces and Motion

Kinematics and dynamics in one and two dimensions: uniform and accelerated motion, projectile and circular motion, and Newton's laws applied to forces, friction, and the forces behind circular and projectile paths.

• Uniform and uniformly accelerated motion
• Projectile motion
• Uniform circular motion

• Newton's laws and force problems
• Friction and balanced and unbalanced forces
• Forces in circular and projectile motion

Unit 4: Conservation Laws

The bookkeeping of physics: work, mechanical energy and efficiency under the law of conservation of energy, and impulse, momentum, and the law of conservation of momentum in collisions.

• Work, energy, and conservation of energy
• Efficiency in mechanical systems

• Impulse and momentum
• Conservation of momentum in collisions

Unit 5: Fields

Action at a distance explained by fields: gravitational fields and universal gravitation, and electric and magnetic fields, Coulomb's law, and electromagnetism.

• The field concept and gravitational fields
• Universal gravitation and field strength

• Electric fields and Coulomb's law
• Magnetic fields and hand rules
• Electromagnetism and its applications