Area of maths |
Style |
Question |
Description |
General |
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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 |
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Speedo |
Track the motion of this dangerous driver. |
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Dangerous Driver |
Analyse the dynamics to determine if this speeding ticket was issued in error. |
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The Not-so-simple Pendulum 1 |
See how the motion of the simple pendulum is not-so-simple after all. |
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The Not-so-simple Pendulum 2 |
Friction is now added to the approximate simple pendulum, leading to a more realistic solution. |
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Motorbike Momentum |
Look at the dynamics of the sphere of death and see the results in action on the video. |
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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 |
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Cannon Balls |
How high will a ball taking a million seconds to fall travel? |
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Gravity Paths |
Where will the spaceman go when he falls through these strange planetary systems? |
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Escape from Planet Earth |
How fast would you have to throw a ball upwards so that it would never land? |
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Earth Orbit |
Follow in the steps of Newton and find the path that the earth follows around the sun. |
Units in physics |
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Universal Time, Length, Mass |
Can you work out the natural time scale for the universe? |
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New Units for Old |
Give yourself an in-depth units workout by matching up these physical phenomena with their dimensions and standard units. |
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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 |
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Lunar Leaper |
How high could you pole-vault on the moon? |
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Go, Spaceship, Go! |
Show that even this powerful spaceship will eventually run out of overtaking power. |
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Sweeping Satellite |
Look at kinetic and potential energies of a planet to find out about the moment of momentum. |
Atoms and particles |
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Explore the energy of this incredibly energetic particle. |
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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. |
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Cobalt Decay |
Investigate the effects of the half-lives of the isotopes of cobalt on the mass of a mystery lump of the element. |
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Pack Man |
Work out the best packing structure to maximise the density of a metal. |
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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 |
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Resistance |
How would the resistance build up in an infinite network of resistors? |
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Pumping the Power |
Look at how the power in a lightbulb varies over time. |
 |
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Can you arrange a set of charged particles so that none of them starts to move when released from rest? |
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Explore the Lorentz force law for charges moving in different ways. |
Fluids |
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Keep Your Momentum Going |
Find out about the steady flow momentum equation of fluid dynamics. |
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Moving Stonehenge |
Explore the transportation by river of the blocks used to make Stonehenge |
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Poiseuille's Equation |
Look at the flow of fluids down circular pipes. |
Gas laws |
See also the Gases problems on the chemNRICH pages |
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Various problems which make you think about the kinetic ideas underlying the ideal gas laws. |
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Explore how changing the axes for a plot of the gas law equations can lead to different shaped graphs emerging. |
Waves and oscillations |
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Mach Attack |
Look at the wavefronts produced by aricraft as they approach and go beyond Mach 1. |
Advanced mathematics in physics |
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The Real Hydrogen Atom |
Dip your toe into the world of quantum mechanics by looking at the Schrodinger equation for hydrogen atoms. |
Articles |
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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. |
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The Power of Dimensional Analysis |
Read about this very useful concept and view physical equations in a different light. |
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Electromagnetism |
Find out how Ohm's law develops and find a fundamental link to complex numbers along the way. |
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Which Twin is Older? |
A simplified account of special relativity and the twin paradox. |