Course overview

Content overview

The six modules are each divided into key topics:

Module 1: Development of practical skills in physics

• Practical skills assessed in a written examination
• Practical skills assessed in the practical endorsement

Module 2: Foundations in physics

• Physical quantities and units
• Making measurements and analysing data
• Nature of quantities

Module 3: Forces and motion

• Motion
• Forces in action
• Work, energy and power
• Materials
• Newton’s laws of motion and momentum

Module 4: Electrons, waves and photons

• Charge and current
• Energy, power and resistance
• Electrical circuits
• Waves
• Quantum physics

Module 5: Newtonian world and astrophysics

• Thermal physics
• Circular motion
• Oscillations
• Gravitational fields
• Astrophysics and cosmology

Module 6: Particles and medical physics

• Capacitors
• Electric fields
• Electromagnetism
• Nuclear and particle physics
• Medical imaging

Students gain practical skills throughout the course. These are assessed in the written examinations and in the practical endorsement (component 04). Activities that could count towards the practical endorsement are indicated in the specification.