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Forces and Motion

GCSE: Forces and Motion

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I'm determined to use my AS year well. What should I do for A level Physics?

Set aside a few hours every week to re-read old notes, play revision games, make mind maps etc. Find what works for you.

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723 GCSE Forces and Motion essays

Marked by Teachers essays 5
Peer Reviewed essays 15

Physics of Rollercoasters

4 star(s)

4: This is a generally well written piece of work. The physics content is clear - and the author seems to have a good understanding of the topic in general.…
- Essay length: 2587 words
- Submitted: 01/04/2012
- Marked by teacher: Helen Forbes 01/12/2012
Do Elastic Bands Obey Hooke Law

3 star(s)

This is a 3 star piece of work. There is a base to build on. The practical method would give valid results. The evaluation could be improved upon by talking…
- Essay length: 551 words
- Submitted: 18/08/2010
- Marked by teacher: Kate Gardiner 01/12/2012
Biology Investigation What affects the crawling speed of maggots?

3 star(s)

*** An interesting report but there are some concerns over the validity of the results.
Planning. There needed to have been much more thought put in regarding the control of…
- Essay length: 1643 words
- Submitted: 24/12/2006
- Marked by teacher: Stevie Fleming 03/01/2013
Pendulum experiment

This is a 3 star piece of work. The procedure followed would give valid evidence for the question asked. There is little scientific information within the writing. The prediction should…
- Essay length: 704 words
- Submitted: 18/10/2005
- Marked by teacher: Kate Gardiner 13/03/2013
To investigate elastic bands, whether they follow Hookes Law.

Overall a 3 star piece of work. The practical procedure should yield some valid data. It is a method that could be followed by other people. The conclusion could be…
- Essay length: 547 words
- Submitted: 28/08/2003
- Marked by teacher: Brady Smith 13/03/2013
Investigating factors that affect the bounce height of a squash ball

5 star(s)

The writer has gone into great detail in order to answer the question, and as a result produced a brilliant and well written report. It was good for the writer…
- Essay length: 3683 words
- Submitted: 26/06/2009
- Reviewed by: cpdavis 01/03/2012
Physics Practical

4 star(s)

This is a good example of coursework, however it makes a few minor mistakes. The student has answered the question of how the mass of an object affects its acceleration…
- Essay length: 823 words
- Submitted: 22/08/2009
- Reviewed by: jackhli 28/02/2012
wind power

4 star(s)

The response to the question in this piece is very good Ã¢â‚¬â€œ the candidate addresses wind power well, examining it extensively. It is hard to determine what the Ã¢â‚¬ËœquestionÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ is…
- Essay length: 1499 words
- Submitted: 06/05/2009
- Reviewed by: davo11 18/03/2012
length of a simple pendulum affects the time

4 star(s)

The student answers the question well, he at first explains the theory then makes predictions based on theory. I would recommend this as you get your marks for explaining why…
- Essay length: 2341 words
- Submitted: 27/10/2007
- Reviewed by: jackhli 28/02/2012
Aim To investigate the effect of different masses suspended from a spring on the time period of the spring.

3 star(s)

A topic which is beyond the scope of the GCSE syllabus was experimented by the author. It most definitely answered the question to a certain extent, however lack of further…
- Essay length: 862 words
- Submitted: 22/11/2009
- Reviewed by: 01/07/2012

Balanced and unbalanced forces

1 There are many words which mean force. E.g. push, pull, friction, weight, air resistance, tension, thrust. All are measured in newtons (N).
2 When a body is acted on by more than one force at the same time, the overall force is called the resultant force. E.g. if a car is pushed to the right with a force of 500 N and to the left with a force of 200 N, the resultant force is 300 N.
3 When the resultant force is greater than zero, the forces are unbalanced and this will cause a change in speed or direction, or both. For the example of the car, the 200 N resultant force would cause the car’s speed to increase so the car is accelerating.
4 What if the brakes are applied to the car? The braking force acts in the opposite way to the direction in which the car is moving. This time the speed decreases and the car is decelerating.
5 When the resultant force is zero, the forces are balanced. The body will continue to move with a constant speed in the same direction. This is true for a skydiver falling with a constant speed called the terminal speed. The air resistance is equal to the weight.

Acceleration

1 When the forces on a body are unbalanced, the resultant force, F causes an acceleration, a. We can calculate the acceleration using an equation F = ma.
2 In this equation m is the mass of the body measured in kilograms (kg). F is the force measured in newtons (N) and a is the acceleration measured in m/s2.
3 You should practice how to write the equation in three different ways by rearranging it:

1) F = ma
2) m = F/a
3) a = F/m
4 Suppose a resultant force of 20 N acts on a body giving it an acceleration of 4 m/s2. What is the mass of the body? Choose an equation for m, so we use m=F/a = 20/4 = 5N.
5 A car of mass 2000 kg is acted on by a force of 500 N. What is the acceleration? Choose the equation for a, so we use a = F/m = 500/2000 = 0.25 m/s2.

Motion under gravity

1 The weight of a body, W is a force and it can be calculated from the equation W=mg. g is the gravitational field strength. On Earth, g has a value of 9.81 N/kg.
2 What is the weight of a mass of 20 kg? W = mg = 20 x 9.81 = 196.2 N
3 On the Moon, the value of g is much smaller than on Earth , so the same body will have a smaller weight . The value of g on the Moon is about one sixth of g on Earth so the weight will be ⅙ of the weight on Earth. So the mass of a body doesn’t change when the body is moved from the Earth to the Moon but its weight changes.
4 If weight is the only force acting on a body, then we can use the weight to calculate the acceleration when a body is released. What is the acceleration of an apple of mass 0.1 kg which falls from a tree? W = mg = 0.1 x 9.81 = 0.981 N. Now we can calculate the acceleration using a = F/m. (Remember that F=W) so a = 0.981/0.1 = 9.81 m/s2.
5 Even if we had changed the mass of the apple to 0.2 kg, the acceleration would still be the same! The apples would hit the ground at the same time.

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GCSE: Forces and Motion

723 GCSE Forces and Motion essays

Physics of Rollercoasters

Do Elastic Bands Obey Hooke Law

Biology Investigation What affects the crawling speed of maggots?

Pendulum experiment

To investigate elastic bands, whether they follow Hookes Law.

Investigating factors that affect the bounce height of a squash ball

Physics Practical

wind power

length of a simple pendulum affects the time

Aim To investigate the effect of different masses suspended from a spring on the time period of the spring.