RE: [Fhsst-physics] Assignments and guidelines

[Andy Higginbotham]

Hey,

For those of us using LaTeX do you have defined environment code for
interesting facts, important equations, definitions etc?

Andy

-----Original Message-----
From:
address@hidden
rg
[mailto:fhsst-physics-bounces+andrew.higginbotham=hertford.oxford.ac.uk@
nongnu.org]On Behalf Of Mark Horner
Sent: 05 June 2005 09:01
To: address@hidden
Subject: [Fhsst-physics] Assignments and guidelines


Hi everyone

This is a long email (sorry) but it couldn't be helped. Everyone's
assignment, as well as some
guidelines, can be found below. If you are expecting an assignment
please read all the way to
the bottom.

Syllabus document (I don't think much of the way this
is written but I am not used to syllabus documents):

http://education.pwv.gov.za/content/documents/116.pdf

Electromagnetic radiation (Andrew's assignment):

• dual (particle/wave) nature of EM radiation;
• nature of an EM-wave as mutual induction
of oscillating magnetic/electric fields;
• EM spectrum;
• nature of EM as particle – energy of a
photon related to frequency and wavelength;
• penetrating ability.

For the first two they need to know the information but no
calculation is required. For the spectrum they should know
the different ranges of the spectrum and the properties of
the ranges - x-rays vs. radio waves etc.
E=hf and the work functions of materials. They should be
able to calculate the kinetic energy (non-relativistically)
of electrons given a certain work function and a certain frequency
of radiation.


Temperature (Andy's assignment):
• Thermal equilibrium
• Temperature scales
• Practical Thermometers

They must know that thermal energy goes from areas
of higher to lower temperature. They must know what
thermal equilibrium is and that areas of equal temperature
are in thermal equilibrium. Must know that a physical
property which varies with temperature can be used to
determine temperature and they must know some examples of such
properties. They must know that there is an absolute temperature
scale which does not depend on the property of any particular
substance - thermodynamic scale and the concept of absolute zero.
Convert between Celsius and Kelvin.


Thermal Properties of Materials (Edwin's assignment):

• Specific heat capacity
• Specific latent heat
• Internal energy
• First law of thermodynamics

explain with a simple kinetic model:
- why melting and boiling take place without a change in temp.
- latent heat of evaporation is higher than latent heat of fusion
for the same substance
- a cooling effect accompanies evaporation

Define and use the concepts of specific heat capacity and specific latent
heat. Relate a rise in temperature of a body to an increase in its internal
energy. Explain that internal energy is determined by the state of the
system and that it can be expressed as the sum of a random distribution of
kinetic and potential energies of the particles of the system.

Use the first law of thermodynamics expressed in the form relating the
change in internal energy to the heating of the system and the work done
by the system.


Magnetism (Michael's assignment):
• magnetic field of permanent magnets;
• poles of permanent magnets, attraction and
repulsion;
• Earth’s magnetic field, compass.

Thats all quite simple stuff. When thats done we can integrate it
and then I'd like to start editing the Electromagnetism chapter because
its way too wordy - I know its a small start but its missing and we
need it.

For completeness:

Ideal gases - Gerald
Optics - me

If everyone could get through their section as above we'd actually be at
a stage (electronics chapter still a mess) to start editing the book and
working on consistency and coherence across chapters.


Guidelines:
- write it in whatever editor/language/format you choose but if you know
LaTeX this would help
a ton to make things easier.

- please look at the chapters Forces through Collisions and Explosions
in the current book:
http://www.nongnu.org/fhsst/fhsstphy.pdf

- write for a second language English speaker, this means keeping sentences
short! Introducing each new concept or term very clearly and simply - err on
the side of caution and risk repeating explanations. Repetition is an
important part of the learning process.

- for each new equation (see chapters Forces through Momentum) as clearly as
possible and include a trivial worked example. We try to very slowly build
complexity into the worked examples but always introduce each concept with a
plug and play type worked example with a step by step solution. We
explain each
step to try to teach problem solving method as well as physics principles.

- try to have a diagram for each worked example - this isn't always
possible.

- your target audience is not the strongest kid in the class but (16/17yr)
kids who may not have a strong teacher or English as their first
language (in
the rural areas you can bank on both a large fraction of the time).

- we must still prepare them for a potential university career so we end
when they know everything they need to go to university. If you think
something
important has been left out that should be in - please put it in. I would
rather teachers have content to skip than we jeopardise careers by leaving
out the important details.

I'll stop there for now. Everyone has an assignment which I hope is clear
enough for them to get started. Please don't hesitate to ask questions or
voice your opinions - I work on this project because I think the goal is
worthy but I don't have all the answers (by any stretch) so if you see
something thats wrong speak up.

Thanks again for signing up and I really hope we can push through and finish
this book now. I believe it will be the first free book written by
volunteers
(not a single individual) that has actually reached fruition.

Cheers,

Mark







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