A2 Course
Aims and design of the A2 course
The A2 component completing the Advanced Level course deepens understanding of crucial ideas to prepare students for further study, and provides further opportunities for personal involvement and individual initiative. It includes introductions to:- mathematical modeling in physics: for deterministic and random phenomena
- modern ideas, including cosmology, relativity, and quantum and particle physics;
- the field concept: gravitational, electric and magnetic
- important applications, including electromagnetic machines and risks of ionizing radiations
A2 Course Content
Rise and Fall of the Clockwork Universe
Models and rules
10. Creating ModelsSimple computational models, radioactive decay, RC circuit, energy stored, harmonic oscillator, resonance
11. Out into Space
Orbits, circular motion, gravitational field and potential, inverse square law, conservation of momentum
12. Our Place in the Universe
Evidence of origin and evolution of Universe, distance and velocity measurement, relativistic time dilation, cosmic red shift, microwave background
Matter in Extremes
13. Matter: Very SimpleIdeal gases, kinetic theory of gases, random walk, thermal capacity, conservation of energy, energy kT
14. Matter: Very Hot and Cold
Behaviour of matter at high and low temperatures, Boltzmann factor, meaning of temperature
Field and Particle Pictures
Fields
15. Electromagnetic MachinesTransformer, dynamo, motor, power generation and transmission. Flux density and induced emf
16. Charge and Field
Accelerators: Relativistic rest energy and mass. Electric field and potential, force on a moving charge
Fundamental Particles of Matter
17. Probing Deep into MatterScattering, nuclear atom, discrete energy levels, quantum ideas about atoms, particle physics
18. Ionising Radiation and Risk
Radioactive decay processes, nuclear stability, fission and fusion, risks from ionising radiations, use of Erest = mc2