physNRICH

stemNRICH : Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics enriched
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Welcome to physNRICH: the physics section of stemNRICH. This contains mathematical activities for students aged 14 - 19 designed to complement and enhance the study of physics.

Area of maths	Style	Question	Description
General	Image $\physNRICH$	Big and Small Numbers in Physics	Work out estimates of the numerical values for these physical quantities.
Dynamics	See also the Dynamics problems on the engNRICH pages
	Image $\physNRICH$	Speedo	Track the motion of this dangerous driver.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Dangerous Driver	Analyse the dynamics to determine if this speeding ticket was issued in error.
	Image $\physNRICH$	The Not-so-simple Pendulum 1	See how the motion of the simple pendulum is not-so-simple after all.
	Image $\physNRICH$	The Not-so-simple Pendulum 2	Friction is now added to the approximate simple pendulum, leading to a more realistic solution.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Motorbike Momentum	Look at the dynamics of the sphere of death and see the results in action on the video.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Whoosh	A ball whooshes down a slide and hits another ball which flies off the slide horizontally as a projectile. How far does it go?
Gravitation	Image $\physNRICH$	Cannon Balls	How high will a ball taking a million seconds to fall travel?
	Image $\physNRICH$	Gravity Paths	Where will the spaceman go when he falls through these strange planetary systems?
	Image $\physNRICH$	Escape from Planet Earth	How fast would you have to throw a ball upwards so that it would never land?
	Image $\physNRICH$	Earth Orbit	Follow in the steps of Newton and find the path that the earth follows around the sun.
Units in physics	Image $\physNRICH$	Universal Time, Length, Mass	Can you work out the natural time scale for the universe?
	Image $\physNRICH$	New Units for Old	Give yourself an in-depth units workout by matching up these physical phenomena with their dimensions and standard units.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Levels of Bohr	Look at the units in the expression for the energy levels of the electrons in a hydrogen atom according to the Bohr model.
Power, work and energy in physics	See also the Power, Work and Energy problems on the engNRICH pages
	Image $\physNRICH$	Lunar Leaper	How high could you pole-vault on the moon?
	Image $\physNRICH$	Go, Spaceship, Go!	Show that even this powerful spaceship will eventually run out of overtaking power.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Sweeping Satellite	Look at kinetic and potential energies of a planet to find out about the moment of momentum.
Atoms and particles	Image $\physNRICH$	The Ultra Particle	Explore the energy of this incredibly energetic particle.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Striking Gold	Investigate some of the issues raised by Geiger and Marsden's famous scattering experiment in which they fired alpha particles at a sheet of gold.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Cobalt Decay	Investigate the effects of the half-lives of the isotopes of cobalt on the mass of a mystery lump of the element.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Pack Man	Work out the best packing structure to maximise the density of a metal.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Lennard Jones Potential	Investigate why the Lennard-Jones potential gives a good approximate explanation for the behaviour of atoms at close ranges.
Electricity	See also the Electrical Engineering problems on the engNRICH pages
	Image $\physNRICH$	Resistance	How would the resistance build up in an infinite network of resistors?
	Image $\physNRICH$	Pumping the Power	Look at how the power in a lightbulb varies over time.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Hold Still Please	Can you arrange a set of charged particles so that none of them starts to move when released from rest?
	Image $\physNRICH$	The Lorentz Force Law	Explore the Lorentz force law for charges moving in different ways.
Fluids	Image $\physNRICH$	Keep Your Momentum Going	Find out about the steady flow momentum equation of fluid dynamics.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Moving Stonehenge	Explore the transportation by river of the blocks used to make Stonehenge
	Image $\physNRICH$	Poiseuille's Equation	Look at the flow of fluids down circular pipes.
Gas laws	See also the Gases problems on the chemNRICH pages
	Image $\physNRICH$	Ideal Gases	Various problems which make you think about the kinetic ideas underlying the ideal gas laws.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Ideal Axes	Explore how changing the axes for a plot of the gas law equations can lead to different shaped graphs emerging.
Waves and oscillations
Waves and oscillations	Image $\physNRICH$	Mach Attack	Look at the wavefronts produced by aricraft as they approach and go beyond Mach 1.
Advanced mathematics in physics	Image $\physNRICH$	The Real Hydrogen Atom	Dip your toe into the world of quantum mechanics by looking at the Schrodinger equation for hydrogen atoms.
Articles	Image $\physNRICH$	Modelling Assumptions in Mechanics	This advanced article demonstrates mathematically how various physical modelling assumptions affect the solution to the seemingly simple problem of the projectile.
	Image $\physNRICH$	The Power of Dimensional Analysis	Read about this very useful concept and view physical equations in a different light.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Electromagnetism	Find out how Ohm's law develops and find a fundamental link to complex numbers along the way.
	Image $\physNRICH$	Which Twin is Older?	A simplified account of special relativity and the twin paradox.

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