Physics Required Practical P1 to P7

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  • Created by: Dene3
  • Created on: 22-05-18 21:36

Measuring Specific Heat Capacity

  • Measure the mass of the block and wrap it with an insulating material to reduce the energy transferred to the surroundings. Insert the thermometer into the heater
  • Measure the initial temperature of the block and set the p.d. to 10. Turn on the power supply and start a stopwatch
  • The current in the circuit does work on the heater and transfers energy electrically from the power supply to the heater's thermal energy store. This energy is transferred to the material's thermal energy store by heating, causing the material's temp. to increase
  • As the block heats up, take readings from the thermometer and current every 10 minutes- the current should not change 
  • When many readings are collected, turn the power supply off. Use P=IV and E=Pt to calculate how much energy is transferred to the heater
  • A graph can be plotted wit thermal energy against temperature
  • Different materials can be used and compared 
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The effectiveness of Materials as Thermal Insulato

  • Boil water in a kettle and pour some into a beaker with a lid. Measure the mass of the water
  • Use a thermometer to measure the initial temperature
  • Seal the container and leave it for 5 minutes
  • Remove the lid and measure the final temperature 
  • Repeat the experiment but wrap the container with a material each time after sealing. Alternate it everytime. 
  • The lower the temperature difference, the better the insulator 
  • Thickness also could be investigated by adding different layers of the same material- thicker the better
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Finding a component's I-V characteristics

  • Set up a test circuit
  • Begin to vary the variable resistor. This alters the current flowing through circuit and changes the p.d as well
  • Take several pairs of readings from the ammeter and voltmeter- repeat each reading twice
  • Swap over the wires connected to the cell so the direction is reversed
  • Plot a graph with current vs voltage for the component
  • Resistance is calculated by V=IRImage result for i v characteristics circuit (http://practicalphysics.org/images/IV%20characteristic%20of%20a%20carbon%20resistor1_1750.jpg)
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Investigating Resistance in Series

  • Build a circuit using one of four identical resistors. Make a note of the p.d of the battery
  • Measure the current on the ammeter. And use V=IR to find the resistance
  • Add another resistor in series. 
  • Measure the current and p.d. to calculate the resistance
  • Repeat steps 4 and 5 until four resistors are added
  • Plot a graph of the number of resistors against the total resistance
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Investigating Resistance in Parallel

  • Build a circuit using one of four identical resistors. Make a note of the p.d of the battery
  • Measure the current on the ammeter. And use V=IR to find the resistance
  • Add another resistor in parallel. 
  • Measure the current and p.d. to calculate the resistance
  • Repeat steps 3 and 4 until four resistors are added
  • Plot a graph of the number of resistors against the total resistance
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Measuring Density of a solid object

  • Use a balance to measure its mass
  • If it is a regular solid, start by measuring its length, width and height using a ruler and calculate its volume
  • For an irregular solid, submerge the object in a eureka can filled with water with a measuring cylinder under its beak. The water displaced is equivalent to the volume of the object
  • Substitute into the formula m=ρv
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Measuring Density of a liquid

  • Place a measuring cylinder on a balance and zero the balance 
  • Pour 10 ml of the liquid into a measuring cylinder and record the mass
  • Pour another 10 ml and repeat the process until the cylinder is full and recording the total mass and volume each time
  • For each measurement, use the formula to find the density (1 ml=1 cm3)
  • Finally, take an average of the calculated densities
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