AS level Physics - AQA A Verified Questions And Answers

AS level Physics - AQA A Verified Questions And Answers Acceleration - The rate of change of velocity Accurate result - A result that is close to the true answer Apha decay - A type of decay in which an unstable nucleus of an atom emits an alpha particle Alternating current - A current that changes with time in a regular cycle Ammeter - A component used to measure the current flowing through a circuit Amplitude - The maximum displacement of a wave Angle of incidence - The angle that incoming light makes to the normal or a boundry Angle of refraction - The angle that incoming light makes to the normal of a boundary Annihilation - The process by which a particle and its antiparticle meet and their mass gets converted to energy in the form of a pair of gamma ray photons Anomalous result - A result that doesn't fit in with the pattern of the other results in a set of data Antimatter - The name given to all antiparticles Antineutrino - The antiparticle of a neutrino Antiparticle - A particle with the same rest mass and energy as its corresponding particle but equal and opposite charge Atom - A particle made up of protons and neutrons in a central nucleus and electrons orbiting the nucleus Atomic number - The number of protons in an atom of an element Baryon - A type of hardon made up of three quarks Baryon number - The number of baryons in a particle Beta-minus decay - A type of decay in which an unstable nucleus of an atom emits a beta-minus particle (an electron) and an antineutrino Breaking stress - The lowest stress that is big enough to break a material Brittle - A brittle material doesn't deform plastically but snaps when the stress on it reaches a certain point ` Brittle fracture - When a stress app;lied to a brittle material causes tiny cracks at the materials surface to get bigger until the material breaks completely Categoric data - Data that can be sorted into categories Center of mass - The point which you can consider all of an object's weight to act through Circuit symbol - A pictorial representation of an electrical component Coherent - Sources that have the same wavelength and frequency and a fixed phase difference between them are coherent Compressive force - A force which squashes something Constructive interface - When two waves interfere to make a wave with a larger displacement Coulomb - A unit of charge. One coulomb is the amount of charge that passes in one second when the current is one ampere Couple - A pair of forces of equal size which act parallel to each other but in opposite directions Critical angle - The angle of incidence at which the angle of refraction in 90 degrees Current - The rate of flow of charge in a circuit, measures in amperes Continuous data - Data that can have any value on a scale Density - The mass per unit volume of a material or object Dependent variable - The cariable that you measure in an experiment Destructive interference - When two waves interfere to make a wave with a reduced displacement Diffraction - When waves spread out as they pass through a narrow gap or go round obstacles Diffraction grating - A slide or other thin object that contains lots of equally spaced slits very close together, used to show diffraction patterns of waves Diode - A component designed to allow current flow in one direction only. Directly proportional - A change in ove variable results in a change in the other variable, the changes are always related by the same constant Discrete data - Data that can only take certain values Displacement - How far an object has traveled from its starting point in a given direction in the case of a wave, it is the distance a point on a wave has moved from its undisturbed position Drag - Friction caused by a fluid (gas or liquid) Efficiency - The ratio of useful energy given out by a machine to the amount of energy put into the machine Elastic - An elastic material returns to its original shape/length once the forces acting on it are removed Elastic limit - The force beyond which a material will be permanently stretched Elastic strain energy - The energy stored in a stretched material Electromagnetic force - A fundamental force that causes interactions between charged particles. Virtual photons are the exchange particle Electromagnetic spectrum - A continuous spectrum of all the possible frequencies of electromagnetic radiation Electromotive force (E.M.F) - The amount of electrical energy a power supply transfers to each coulomb of charge Electron - A lepton with a relative charge of -1 and a relative mass of 0.0005. Electron capture - The process of a proton rich nucleus capturing an electron to turn a proton into a neutron, emitting a neutrino Electron proton collision - The process of an electron colliding with a proton and producing a neutron and a neutrino Electron volt - The kinetic energy carried by an electron after it has been accelerated through a potential difference of one volt Equilibrium - An object is in equilibrium if all the forces acting on it cancel each other out Exchange particle - A virtual particle which allows forces to act in a particle interaction Excitation - The movement of an electron to a higher energy level in an atom Fernman diagram - A diagram used to represent particle ineraction