Wednesday, 8 May 2013

Woo!

So I have now finished covering all of the specification for physics! Very exciting!
Hopefully people will makes use of this, whilst also remembering that I may have made mistakes (please feel free to correct me.)

Good luck to everyone!

If I make any resources I may share them...
In the mean time here are some of the resources that I have used when making my notes:


5.5 understand that the pressure at a point in a gas or liquid which is at rest acts equally in all directions

If you have a gas or liquid, it will be exerting an equal pressure in all directions.

4.17 describe the advantages and disadvantages of methods of largescale electricity production from various renewable and nonrenewable resources.

Fossil fuels: non renewable; release CO2.

Burning wood: renewable; release CO2; destroy habitats.

Wind power: visual pollution; produces small amounts of electricity for space and effort in comparison to other methods.

HEP: expensive to set up; limited places to put it; can kill fish.

Solar cells: rely on the weather.

Nuclear power: dangerous; many waste products.

There are many more types of power and fors/againsts but these are a few important ones.

1.26 recall that the weight of a body acts through its centre of gravity

An objects centre of gravity is where all of its weight acts through.

7.20 understand the role played by the control rods and moderator when the fission process is used as an energy source to generate electricity.

In nuclear power stations, nuclei are split by having neutrons fired at them, these release other neutrons as well as a large amount of energy. The energy is used to create electricity, and the radioactive by-products are disposed of.

Control rods can absorb neutrons. If there are two many neutrons the chain reaction could get out of control, so the control rods are lowered in to the reaction to absorb some neutrons and control the reaction.

The moderator slows neutrons down so that they are at the right speed to split nuclei, the moderator is usually water.

7.19 understand that a chain reaction can be set up if the neutrons produced by one fission strike other U-235 nuclei

When split by a neutron, uranium-235 releases neutrons (as well as splitting in half.) These neutrons can then go on to hit other U-235 nuclei which then do the same thing, this will be repeated in a chain reaction.

7.18 understand that the fission of U-235 produces two daughter nuclei and a small number of neutrons

When a neutron is fired at a uranium-235 nucleus, it splits in two. This leaves two 'daughter' nuclei.

At the same time, neutrons are emitted.