P1 REVISION

Key knowledge
What radiation is given out by hot objects?
Infrared

What are radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light,

ultra violet, X-rays and gamma rays all part of?
The electromagnetic spectrum

What does a solar furnace do?

Focuses sunlight using reflectors to heat things.

What is the greenhouse effect?

Short wavelengths of infrared from the Sun pass in but
longer wavelengths that are emitted cant pass out.

Name three greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Water vapour, methane, carbon dioxide
Which surfaces are the best emitters of radiation?
Dark, matt surfaces

Which surfaces are the worst emitters?

Light, shiny surfaces.

Which surfaces are the best absorbers of radiation?

Dark, matt surfaces

Which surfaces are the best reflectors of radiation?

Light, shiny surfaces

What colour should radiator fins in a car cooling system be

painted?
Black and matt.
What are the three states of matter?
Solid, liquid and gas

Name the changes of state when an ice cube is heated.

Melting then boiling or vaporisation

Name the changes of state when a vapour is cooled.

Condensation followed by freezing.

What is it called when a solid turns straight into a gas?

Sublimation

How do particles in liquids and gases move?

Randomly in all directions.

How are particles in solids arranged?

Close together in fixed positions, vibrating.
What is the opposite of a conductor?
An insulator.

Why are metals good conductors?

They contain lots of free electrons that can move and
diffuse, transferring kinetic energy.

Why are non-metals poor conductors?

All the electrons are held in the atoms..

What currents are produced when we heat fluids?

Convection currents.

What happens to the density of a fluid when it is heated?

It becomes less dense as the particles spread out more so
it rises. Denser gases or liquids which are cooler fall.
What happens to the water in clothes as they dry?
It evaporates.

Why do bathroom mirrors steam up?

Water vapour cools and condenses on the mirror.

If a liquid evaporates from your skin, what do you feel?

Your skin feels colder.
Why does this happen?
The fastest molecules escape from the liquid and the
remaining ones have lower kinetic energy so the liquid is
cooler.
What factors increase the rate of evaporation?
Larger surface area, higher temperature, more air flow.
What factors increase the rate of condensation?
Larger surface area,
Lower surface temperature higher humidity.
In a thermos flask, what energy transfer is reduced by the
vacuum?
Conduction and convection.

In a thermos flask, what energy transfer is reduced by the

silvery glass?
Radiation.

In a thermos flask, what energy transfer is reduced by the

plastic cap?
Evaporation and conduction.

What factors affect the rate of energy transfer?

The temperature difference.
Surface area
Shape
What is defined as the energy needed to increase the
temperature of 1kg of a substance by 1C?
Its specific heat capacity

Two metal blocks are heated for three minutes using

identical electrical heaters. One is much hotter than the
other at the end. Does it have a higher or lower specific
heat capacity?
Lower.

Heavy bricks are used inside electric night storage

heaters. Should they have a high or low specific heat
capacity in order to store the most energy?
High.

What is the advantage of storing their energy at night?

Electricity is cheaper
For each type of insulation, state the way it reduces
energy transfer.
Loft insulation
Reduces conduction and convection through the roof.
Cavity wall insulation
Reduces convection between the two layers of bricks.
Aluminium foil behind radiators
Reflects radiation back into the room.
Double glazed windows
Trapped air reduces conduction and a vacuum stops
convection.
What does a U value tell us?
How good an insulator a material is. The lower the value
the better the insulator.
What does a solar heating panel do?
Uses solar energy to heat water.
What is payback time?
How long it takes to save back the money you paid out.
Which form of energy is stored in fuels?
Chemical energy.
Which form do moving objects have?
Kinetic energy
Which energy is gained when an object is lifted up?
Gravitational potential energy.
Which energy is stored in a coiled spring?
Elastic potential energy
Which energy is transferred by an electric current?
Electrical energy.

What energy transfer occurs when an object is dropped?

Gravitational potential to kinetic.

What does the Law of conservation of energy state?

Energy cannot be created or destroyed.
What do we call energy that is transferred where it is
wanted and in the correct form?
Useful energy.

What is wasted energy?

Energy that is not usefully transferred.

What happens to some of the energy when there is

friction between surfaces?
It heats up the objects and is transferred to the
surroundings.

What does dissipated mean?

Energy spreads out to the surroundings.

What is the unit of energy?

Joules
Weight is a force. What is weight measured in?
Newtons

What does a Sankey diagram show?

All the energy transfer through a device drawn to scale.

How do you calculate the efficiency of a device?

Useful energy transferred x100
Total energy supplied.

Give four causes of energy waste and how to reduce it

Friction: Lubrication
Resistance of a wire causing heating: Use low resistance
wire
Air resistance: Improve streamlining
Sound: Reduce noise and tighten loose parts
What is the useful energy transfer in the following
appliances?
Light bulb: Light.
Toaster: Heat energy
Hair dryer: Kinetic and heat energy

How will some energy be wasted in each appliance?

It will heat the appliance itself.

What is the major cause of wasted energy in the light

bulb?
Energy transfer from the filament heating the
surroundings.

What should a good appliance do?

Waste as little energy as possible.
What is power a measure of?
How quickly energy is transferred.
What is the unit of power?
The Watt (W) or kilowatt (1kW = 1000W).
Two identical twins run up the same flight of stairs. Twin A
reaches the top 2 seconds before Twin B. Which one is
more powerful?
Twin A as they did the same amount of work faster.
How do you calculate efficiency?
Useful power out x 100
total power in
How do you calculate the energy supplied by an appliance?
Energy supplied = power x time
What does your electricity meter record?
How many kilowatt hours (kWh)of energy is supplied.
How is the cost calculated?
Cost = number of kWh used x cost per kWh
When does cost effective mean?
If something is value for money when you take into account
purchase price, running costs and lifespan.
Loft insulation has a faster payback time than cavity wall
insulation. What does this mean?
The savings on your energy bills will cover the costs of the
loft insulation in a shorter time.
Name three types of room heater.
Fan heater, radiant heater, tubular heater.
Why have filament bulbs been banned from sale?
They have very low energy efficiency.
What alternatives are there?
Low energy fluorescent bulbs and low energy LEDs
How do more efficient bulbs help the environment?
Less fossil fuel is burnt in power stations producing less
carbon dioxide and acid rain.
What is the fuel for most power stations?
Coal, oil or gas.
What happens to this fuel?
It is burnt to heat water to produce steam which drives a
turbine which turns an electricity generator .
What are biofuels?
Fuels produced from animal or plant materials.
Give two advantages of biofuels.
They are renewable and they can be carbon neutral.
Which two particles are in an atomic nucleus?
Protons and neutrons
How does a nuclear power station work?
Uranium atoms split and release energy by nuclear fission
that heats water to produce steam.
Give an advantage and disadvantage of nuclear power.
No greenhouse gases produced but waste needs to be
stored for a long time.
Give four examples of renewable energy from wind and
water.
Wind power Wave power Hydroelectric power
Tidal power

Why is tidal power more reliable than wind power?

Tides happen every day but wind doesnt always blow.

How does hydroelectric power work?

Water flows downhill and turns turbines.

How can it affect habitats?

A reservoir is created that could destroy existing habitats
but create new ones.
What does solar radiation do?
Transfers energy to Earth from the Sun.
What is produced by a solar cell?
Electricity
What comes out of a solar heating panel?
Hot water.
How does a solar power tower work?
Thousands of mirrors reflect sunlight onto a large water
tank. It is turned into steam and used to turn generators.

What is geothermal energy?

Energy released by radioactive substances deep within the
Earth.
How is it used?
We put pipes down into the hot rocks and use the heat to
produce steam or warm water for heating buildings.
What fuels do we use to produce most of our electricity?
Fossil fuels
What environmental problems do they cause?
Release greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide
Release sulphur dioxide causing acid rain
They are non-renewable so they will be used up one day.

What is carbon capture and storage?

Collecting carbon dioxide from power stations and storing
it underground.
What are the advantages of renewable energy sources?
They will never run out. They dont produce greenhouse
gases. They dont create radioactive waste. They can be
used in isolated areas or for local small scale production.
What are the disadvantages?
Wind turbines cause noise pollution. Tidal barrages affect
habitats. HEP Reservoirs flood habitats. Solar farms cause
visual pollution and cover farmland that could grow food.
What is the National grid?
A network of cables and transformers that connects power
stations to homes and factories.
What is the voltage used by the National Grid ?
132 000V
What voltage do power stations produce?
25 000V.
How is the voltage changed?
Using step up transformers to increase it and step down
transformers to reduce it.
What are the advantages of transmitting power at such a
high voltage?
Power is voltage x current so only a small current is needed
to transmit the power so energy losses due to heating in
the wires are very low.
Give two reasons why we dont bury all cables.
It is more expensive and they are hard to repair.
At what time of year are energy demands highest?
In the winter.
What is the start up time of a power station?
How long it takes for it to begin generating electricity.
Which type of power station is quickest to start?
Gas powered.
Which takes longest to start?
Nuclear.
Why are renewable resources unreliable?
Reservoirs can dry up, days can be too calm for wind or
wave power, tides vary in heights and there is no solar
energy at night.
Which types of power stations supply the base load
demand (a constant amount).
Nuclear, coal and oil.
Which can meet sudden daily variations?
Gasfired and pumped storage schemes.
What do we use waves to transfer?
Information and energy.
Which waves need a medium to travel through?
Mechanical waves like sound waves, water waves, ropes,
springs and seismic wavew.
Which waves dont need a medium and travel through a
vacuum at 300 000 kilometres a second?
Electromagnetic waves like light, radio and microwaves.
What are the two types of mechanical waves?
Transverse and longitudinal.
In transverse waves, how do the particles move compared
to the direction of travel of the wave?
At right angles
In longitudinal waves, how do the particles move compared
to the direction of travel of the wave?
Parallel
What is the amplitude of a wave?
The height of a crest or the depth of a trough

What is the wavelength?

The distance from one crest to the next
How could you tell by looking at it that one wave
transferred more energy than another one?
It would have a greater amplitude
What is the frequency of a wave?
The number of wavecrests that pass a point each second.
The unit is the Hertz (Hz)
How do you calculate the speed of a wave in m/s?
Multiply the frequency in Hz by the wavelength in metres.
What does the law of reflection state?
The angle of incidence is equal to the
angle of reflection.
What line at right angles to the
surface do we use to measure all
angles?
The normal.
What four words do we use to describe
the image in a plane mirror?
Virtual upright laterally inverted.
What do we call an image that can be
seen on a screen?
A real image.
How far behind the mirror does the
image of an object appear?
The same distance behind as the
object is in front.
What is refraction?
The change in direction of a wave
when it enters a medium of
different density.
What causes the direction to
change?
The speed of the wave changes
If a wave enters a denser medium,
which direction does it bend in?
Towards the normal
What happens when it leaves the
denser medium?
It bends away from the normal.
What happens to white light when
it is refracted by a prism?
It is split into the colours of the
spectrum.
What is diffraction?
The spreading out of waves as they
pass through a gap or the edges of
an object.
How does the size of the gap affect
the amount of diffraction?
A narrow gap diffracts waves more.
Diffraction is greatest if the gap is
similar to the wavelength of the
wave.
How do the Hubble telescope and
ultrasound scanners avoid
diffraction problems?
They are wide
Why is radio reception bad behind
hills sometimes?
The waves dont diffract enough.
What produces sound waves?
Vibrations.
What type of waves are sound waves?
Longitudinal.
If the frequency increases what do you hear?
The pitch gets higher
If the amplitude increases what do you hear?
The sound gets louder.
What is an echo?
A reflected sound.
Why are echoes best from hard surfaces?
Soft surfaces absorb more of the energy of the sound
waves.
Why does sound travel further at night?
The sound waves refract back to the ground.
What vibrates when you play a flute, guitar or drum?
Air, the string and the skin.
What do electromagnetic waves transfer?
Energy
Which waves have the longest wavelengths?
Radio waves up to 10 km
Which have the shortest wavelengths?
X-rays and gamma rays
What is the relationship between wavelength and
frequency?
v = x so the shorter the wavelength the higher the
frequency must be so they can all travel at the same speed
in a vacuum.
What do we call light from the sun and lamps?
White light.
How do film and digital cameras work?
A lens focuses light onto a light-sensitive film or a sensor
with thousands of light sensitive cells called pixels.
What radiation is emitted by all hot objects?
Infra red

How does infra red damage skin cells?

It heats them up.

Where is infra red in the EM spectrum?

Between microwaves and visible light so it has a longer
wavelength than red light but shorter than microwaves.

Give four devices that use infra red .

Optical fibres
Remote control handsets
Infra red scanners in medicine
Infra red cameras
Where are microwaves in the EM spectrum?
Between radio waves and infra red with shorter
wavelengths than radio waves.
What are they used for?
For satellite communication as they can pass through the
atmosphere.
For mobile phones (with radio waves) and beaming signals
as they dont spread out too much.
What are the characteristics of radio waves?
Longer wavelengths and lower frequencies than all other
EM waves.
How do we use them in communication?
To carry radio, TV and mobile phone signals.
What is Bluetooth?
Low power wireless communication using radio waves over a
short distance between devices.
How are radio waves emitted?
An alternating voltage is applied to the aerial and
produces a signal with the same frequency.
How are they detected?
A small alternating voltage of the same frequency is
produced in the receiver.
What are the pros and cons of shorter wavelengths?
They carry more information
They spread out less
They have a shorter range as they are absorbed more
by the atmosphere
Which radio waves are used for TV?
Wavelengths less than 1m to carry lots of information.
Which are used for local and national radio?
Local:Wavelengths from 1-100m as they have limited
range. National radio: Greater than 100m for longer
range.
How do mobile phones work?
Radio signal from phone local phone mast phone
network other phone at a different frequency.
What is the wavelength of the waves?
About 30cm so not quite as short as microwaves (about
10cm) but similar in their heating effect.
Why dont they cook your brain like a microwave oven?
Radiation is much weaker.
Frequencies are slightly different.
What are optical fibres?
Thin glass fibres used to transmit signals using light or
infra red waves.
How are they better than microwaves or radio waves?
They carry more information as their wavelength is
shorter.
They are more secure as the signal is inside the fibre.
What is the name for the change in observed
wavelength of waves coming from a moving object?
The Doppler effect
What happens to the pitch of a siren as it comes
towards you and then goes away?
It rises and then falls as the frequency increases and
then decreases.
What is the Milky Way?
The name of the galaxy of about 100 000 million stars
that our Sun is part of.
How many galaxies are there in the Universe?
Billions.
What is a light year?
The distance light travels in a year.
How big is our galaxy.
About 100 000 light years across.
How do we study stars and galaxies?
By looking at the light coming from them.
What happens to the colours of the spectrum from a
distance star or galaxy moving away?
The wavelengths are stretched and move towards the
red end of the spectrum.
What is this called?
Red shift.
What if the object is moving towards us?
The light waves are squashed together with shorter
wavelengths and we get blue shift.
If the shift is greater what does this tell us?
The object is moving faster.
What did Edwin Hubble discover in 1929?
Light from distance galaxies is red-shifted so they are
moving away from us. The further they are the bigger
the red-shift. The whole universe is expanding.
How do we think the Universe began?
With a Big Bang.
What was created in the Big Bang?
Space, time and matter.
What theory did people support before the Big Bang
theory?
The Steady State theory.
What is the evidence for the Big Bang?
Cosmic microwave background radiation CMBR comes
from all directions. It was gamma radiation created just
after the big Bang and has stretched to become
microwave radiation over time.
What will happen in the future?
The expansion may continue to end with a Big Yawn or
the expansion may reverse to produce a Big Crunch.
Distance galaxies seem to be accelerating away from
each other so dark energycould be involved!