Required Practicals for Physics

GCSE/IGCSE Physics
Required Practicals	Physics Past Papers & Lessons

Physics Experiments (Required Practicals)

Specific Heat Capacity
Investigating the specific heat capacity of different metals.

Thermal Insulation
Investigate the preparation of pure, dry hydrated copper sulfate crystals starting from copper oxide including the use of a water bath.

Resistance & Length of Wire
Investigate how the resistance of electrical circuits is affected by the length of a wire at constant temperature.

Resistance: Series and Parallel
Investigate how the arrangement of resistors in series and in parallel affect resistance.

I-V Characteristics
Investigating the I-V characteristics of circuit components: resistor, filament, diode.

Density Experiments
Investigating density of regularly and irregularly shaped solids and liquids.

Hooke’s Law Experiments
Investigate the relationship between force and extension of a spring. Hooke’s Law

Newton’s Second Law
How are force, mass and acceleration related? F = ma
Measuring the effect of force on acceleration at constant mass
Measuring the effect of mass on acceleration with a constant force.

Measure Wave Speed
Observing the properties of waves in liquids and solids.

Reflection & Refraction of Light
Describe how to investigate the reflection of light by different types of surface and the refraction of light by different substances. How to measure the angles of incidence and refraction to calculate refractive index, and how to find the critical angle for Total Internal Reflection?

Infrared Radiation & Absorption
Investigating the amount of infrared radiation radiated from different surfaces using a Leslie cube.

Properties of Water
Investigate the properties of water by determining the specific heat capacity of water and obtaining a temperature-time graph for melting ice.

Errors in Experiments
Variables in a experiment: independent, dependent, controls
Types of errors: random errors, uncertainty, parallax error, systematic error, zero error

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