Definitions/Laws/Principles

A LEVEL PHYSICS
1 Radian The angle subtended at the centre of a circle by an arc of length
equal to the radius of the circle.
2 Angular Ratio of the length of arc, subtended at the circumference of the
displacement circle, and the radius of the circle.
3 Angular speed Angle subtended at the centre of the circle by an object moving at
the circumference of the circle in unit time.
4 Centripetal It is the resultant force acting on an object moving in a circular path
Force at constant speed; always towards the centre of the circle and
perpendicular to the velocity of the object.
5 Newton’s law The gravitational force between two point masses is proportional to
of gravitation the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square
of their separation.
6 Gravitational A region of space in which a mass experiences a force.
field
7 Gravitational The gravitational force exerted per unit mass on a small test mass
field strength placed at that point
8 Line of force Represents the direction of the force exerted on a small test mass in
of a a gravitational field.
gravitational
field
9 Geostationary An orbit in which a geostationary satellite always stays above the
orbits same point on the surface of a planet.
10 Potential ability to do work as a result of the position/shape, etc. of an object.
energy
11 Gravitational Gravitational potential energy at a point is defined as the work done
potential in bringing a test mass from infinity to the point.
energy
12 Gravitational work done in bringing a unit test mass from infinity to the point.
potential
13 Kepler's 3rd The square of the period of the orbit is proportional to the cube of
law the radius of the orbit.
14 Escape speed The minimum initial speed a mass must have so that it escapes the
gravitational field of a planet/star/, etc. to infinity.
15 Displacement Shortest distance of the object from equilibrium position.
(in SHM)
16 Amplitude (in Maximum displacement of the object from the equilibrium position.
SHM)
17 Frequency (in Number of oscillations completed per unit time.
SHM)
18 Period (in Time to complete one oscillation.
SHM)

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 19 Angular The relation to the period by 2π/T and the frequency by 2πf.
frequency
20 Simple The magnitude of the acceleration is directly proportional to the
harmonic displacement from equilibrium position, and always directed
motion towards the equilibrium position.
21 Free Oscillations without any external forces.
oscillations
22 Forced When a body’s oscillations are being influenced by an external
Oscillations periodic force.
23 Damping The process whereby energy is taken from the oscillating system. /
The damping is a resistance offered to the oscillation.
24 Light damping Amplitude decreases gradually. It takes many oscillations for the
motion to stop.
25 Heavy Amplitude decreases rapidly. The motion stops after a few
damping oscillations.
26 Critical The minimum amount of damping required to return an oscillator to
damping its equilibrium position in the shortest time without oscillating.
27 Natural If a system undergoes free oscillations, the frequency at which it will
frequency oscillate is called its natural frequency.
28 Driving If the oscillations are forced, the system then oscillates at the
frequency frequency of the periodic force. This is called the driving frequency.
29 Resonance When driving frequency is equal to natural frequency, the amplitude
becomes maximum; this is called resonance.
30 Mole amount of substance containing same number of particles as in
0.012 kg of carbon-12.
31 Relative Ratio of mass of an atom to one twelfth of the mass of an atom of
atomic mass carbon-12. Numerically equal to mass of one mole of atoms in
grams.
32 Relative Ratio of mass of a molecule to one twelfth of the mass of an atom of
molecular carbon-12. Numerically equal to mass of one mole of molecules in
mass grams.
33 Avogadro's The number of atoms in 12g of carbon-12 (6.02x10^23).
number
34 Ideal gas An ideal gas is a gas which obeys the ideal gas equation, Pv=NRT, at
all pressures, volumes and temperatures.
35 Boltzmann molar gas constant divided by the Avogadro constant.
constant
36 Brownian Brownian motion refers to the random movement displayed by
motion small particles that are suspended in fluids.
37 assumptions • All molecules behave as identical, hard, perfectly elastic spheres.
about kinetic • The volume of the molecules is negligible compared to the
theory of ideal volume of the containing vessel.
gases • There are no forces of attraction or repulsion between
molecules
• There are many molecules all moving randomly.

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 38 root-mean- the measure of the speed of particles in a gas, defined as the square
square root of the average velocity-squared of the molecules of a gas.
velocity (r.m.s
speed)
39 Thermal When two bodies are in thermal equilibrium their temperatures are
equilibrium equal and there is no net heat transfer between the two bodies.
40 thermometric A thermometric property is any physical property of a substance
property that changes measurably with temperature.
41 Zeroth Law of If body A is in thermal equilibrium with body C and body B is in
thermodynami thermal equilibrium with body C then body A and B are also in
cs thermal equilibrium with each other.
42 Fixed points A fixed point is any temperature where all thermometers give the
same reading even when they are using different thermometric
properties.
43 Ice point The temperature where pure ice and pure water are in thermal
equilibrium at standard atmospheric pressure.
44 Steam point The temperature at which pure water and vapor are in thermal
equilibrium at standard atmospheric pressure.
45 Absolute zero The temperature at which it is suggested that no more energy can
be removed from a gas and it is at its lowest temperature.
46 Triple point of The temperature and pressure at which ice, water, and steam are in
water thermal equilibrium and all three can coexist.
47 Kelvin One Kelvin(1K) is 1/273.16 of the triple point of water on the
thermodynamic scale.
48 Specific heat The numerical value of specific heat capacity of a substance is equal
capacity to the amount of heat energy needed to raise the temperature of a
unit mass by 1K.
Heat
49 capacity The numerical value of specific heat capacity of a substance is equal
to the amount of heat energy needed to raise the temperature by
1K.
50 Latent heat of The energy required to melt a solid without a change in temperature
fusion is called latent heat of fusion.
51 Specific latent The numerical value of specific latent heat of fusion is equal to the
heat of fusion quantity of heat energy needed to melt a solid of unit mass, without
a change in temperature.
52 Latent heat of The energy required to vaporize a liquid without a change in
vaporization temperature is called latent heat of vaporization.
53 Specific latent The numerical value of specific latent heat of vaporization is equal to
heat of the quantity of heat energy needed to boil a liquid of unit mass,
vaporization without a change in temperature.
54 Internal can be expressed as the sum of a random distribution of kinetic and
energy potential energies associated with the molecules of the system.
55 First law of The increase in internal energy of a system is equal to the sum of
thermodynami heat added to the system and the work done on the system.
cs

Talha Ahmed 3 A2 Level Physics

 56 Coulomb's law Any two point charges exert an electrical force on each other that is
proportional to the product of their charges and inversely
proportional to the square of the distance between them.
57 Electric field Electric field is a region of space where a charge experiences an
electric force.
58 Line of force They represent the direction of the electric force that will be exerted
of electric on a positive test charge in an electric field.
field
59 Electric field The force exerted on a unit positive test charge at that point.
strength
60 Electric The electric potential at a point is equal to the work done in bringing
potential unit positive charge from infinity to that point
61 Electric Electric potential energy of a test charge q at a point in the electric
potential field is defined as the work done to bring the test charge from
energy infinity to that point.
62 Field of force A region of space in which a particle experiences a force.
63 Capacitance The capacitance of a capacitor is the charge stored on one plate per
unit of potential difference between the plates.
64 Farad The Farad (1F) is the capacitance of a capacitor which stores one
coulomb of charge when the potential across the capacitor is one
volt.
65 Time constant the time it takes for the charge on a capacitor to fall to 1/e of its
initial value when a capacitor is discharging.

66 Magnetic field A region of space where a magnetic north pole, experiences a force.

67 Magnetic flux the force experienced per unit length by a long straight conductor
density carrying unit current and placed at right angles to the field at that
point.

68 Magnetic flux The magnetic flux Φ through area A is defined as:

∅= 𝐵𝐴 , where B is the component of the magnetic flux density
perpendicular to the area.
69 Magnetic flux For a coil with N turns, the magnetic flux linkage is defined as the
linkage product of the magnetic flux and the number of turns.
70 Weber The weber is defined as the magnetic flux through a surface if a
magnetic field of flux density 1 T exists perpendicularly to an area of
1 m2.
71 Tesla 1 Tesla is defined as the magnetic flux density of a uniform magnetic
field when a wire of length 1m , carrying a current of 1A, placed
perpendicular to the field, experiences a force of 1N in a direction at
right angles to both the field and the current.
72 Faraday's law The magnitude of the induced emf is proportional to the rate of
change of magnetic flux linkage.

Talha Ahmed 4 A2 Level Physics

 73 Lenz's law Any induced current or induced emf will be established in a direction
so as to produce effects which oppose the change that is producing
it.
74 Specific Specific charge of any charged particle is defined as the charge to
charge mass ratio of that particle.
75 r.m.s current The rms value of the alternating current or voltage is that the value
or voltage of the direct current or voltage that would produce heat at the same
rate in a resistor.
76 Peak current The maximum value attained by an alternating current or voltage
or voltage during one cycle is called its Peak value.
77 Rectification Rectification is the process in which an alternating current is forced
to only flow in one direction.

78 Smoothing When a circuit is used to remove ripple from the output of a

rectifier.

79 Photon A photon is a discrete “packet” or a “quantum” of energy of

electromagnetic radiation.
80 Photoelectric The photoelectric effect is the phenomena in which electrons are
effect emitted from the surface of a metal upon the absorption of
electromagnetic radiation.
81 Threshold Threshold frequency is the minimum frequency of an incident
frequency radiation required to just remove an electron from the surface of a
metal. Below this frequency no emissions take place.

82 Threshold Is the maximum wavelength of an incident radiation required to just

wavelength remove an electron from the surface of a metal. Above this
wavelength no emission take place.

83 Work function The work function of a material is defined as the minimum amount
energy of the work necessary to remove a free electron from the surface of
the material.
84 De Broglie The wavelength associated with a moving particle. It is equal to the
wavelength ratio of Planck’s constant and momentum of the particle.
85 Mass defect The mass defect of a nucleus is defined as the difference between
the total mass of the separated nucleons and the combined mass of
the nucleus.

86 Mass excess the difference between the mass of a nuclide (in u) and its mass
number.

87 Binding The energy required to break a nucleus into its constituent protons
energy and neutrons to infinity.
88 Nuclear fission Nuclear fission is the disintegration of a heavy nucleus into two
lighter nuclei of approximately equal masses, and energy is released.

Talha Ahmed 5 A2 Level Physics

 89 Nuclear fusion Nuclear fusion is the combining of the two light nuclei to produce a
heavier nucleus, and energy is released.
90 Spontaneous nuclear decay is spontaneous because: the decay of a particular
radioactive nucleus is not affected by the presence of other nuclei. And the
decay decay of nuclei cannot be affected by chemical reactions or external
factors such as temperature and pressure.
91 Random nuclear decay is random because: it is impossible to predict when a
radioactive particular nucleus in a sample is going to decay. And each nucleus in
decay a sample has the same probability of decaying per unit time.
92 Half-life Half-life is defined as the time taken for half the original number of
radioactive nuclei to decay.
93 Decay The decay constant λ of a nucleus is defined as its probability of
constant decay per unit time.
94 Activity The activity of a radioactive substance is defined as the average
number of atoms disintegrating per unit time.
95 Ultrasound Any sound with a frequency above 20,000 Hz (or 20 kHz); above the
highest audible frequency is defined to be ultrasound.
96 Specific product of medium density and the speed of sound in the medium.
acoustic
impedance
97 Piezo electric A material that produces an e.m.f. when it is stressed, causing its
transducer shape to change. Also, when a voltage is applied across it in one
direction, it changes its dimensions slightly.
98 Intensity The intensity reflection coefficient a is defined as the ratio of the
reflection intensity of the reflected wave relative to the incident wave.
coefficient
99 X-rays X rays are relatively high-frequency EM radiation. They are produced
by transitions between inner-shell electron levels, which produce x
rays characteristic of the atomic element, or by accelerating
electrons.
100 Intensity of x- Intensity is the power / rate of energy transfer per unit cross-
rays sectional area.
101 Hardness of x- The measure of the penetrating strength of a beam. The greater the
rays frequency the greater the hardness.
102 Sharpness How well defined the edges of structures are.
103 Contrast The difference in degree of blackening between structures.
104 Annihilation When a particle and its anti-particle interact, their mass becomes
pure energy and released as radiation.
105 Anti-particle The anti-particle of any particle has the same mass but equal and
opposite charge.
106 Tracer a substance that can be injected into the body and is then absorbed
by tissue and organs. This substance contains a radioactive nucleus.
107 Luminosity the total radiant energy emitted per unit time. (This is the same as
the total power emitted by a star.)

108 Standard an astronomical object of known luminosity.

candle

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 109 Radiant flux the radiant power passing normally through a surface per unit area.
intensity
110 Wien’s The peak surface temperature of the star is inversely proportional to
displacement the wavelength at peak intensity.
law
111 Stefan- The luminosity of a star is proportional to square of its radius and
Boltzmann law power four of its surface temperature.
112 Big Bang The idea that the early universe began with all matter very close
theory together in a very hot and dense state.
113 Doppler The observed wavelengths of all spectral lines from distant galaxies are
redshift longer than the ones observed in the laboratory.
114 Hubble’s law the recession speed v of a galaxy is directly proportional to its
distance d from the observer.

Talha Ahmed 7 A2 Level Physics