PHYSICS

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An extended essay in physics should answer a research question in physics through focused, evidence-based argumentation. The evidence may be drawn from the student’s personal experimentation and/or book- and internet-based research. Whichever method of research is adopted, the student must use the principles of physics.

The essay must go beyond simply informing the reader and involve the elements of personal and original thinking.

Methods of approach

Students can choose to answer their research question with an essay based solely on theory or one based on data and theory.

If their essay is data based, students can choose to collect their own primary data or use secondary data that has already been collected elsewhere.

Students should consider the reliability of both primary and secondary sources at the start of the planning stage. Students must critically evaluate secondary data and the design of the experiment(s) by which they were collected with the same care that they would their own.

Importance of theory

Every EE in physics will involve applying relevant theory to the topic selected. Students must ground any experimental work in good background research from existing sources of information.

Before embarking on experimental work, students must first ensure that there is scope to explore and model the physics that underpins it. A purely empirical investigation that relates a number of variables in the absence of any theoretical foundation is never satisfactory.

For example, in an investigation relating the index of refraction of a salt solution to its concentration, the student must model the physics relating the index to the concentration.

Assumptions about the essay’s readers

It should be written for an international peer audience, familiar with the Diploma Programme physics course. The essay can therefore refer to any physics from the course without proof or explanation, eg Newton’s laws.

However, material from outside the physics course should be fully explained and referenced where necessary. Students should explain it freshly as it applies to their research question, thereby convincing the reader that they have a genuine grasp of the physics involved.

Students should also explain any culture-specific matters they refer to in the essay in relation to physics, eg cricket or baseball.