VCE Physics flashcards
VCE Physics · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Specific heat capacity
- The energy needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of a substance by one kelvin, measured in joules per kilogram per kelvin.
- Latent heat of fusion
- The energy required to change one kilogram of a solid into liquid at its melting point without any change in temperature.
- Thermal equilibrium
- The state reached when two objects in thermal contact have the same temperature, so there is no net transfer of heat between them.
- Refractive index
- The ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to its speed in a medium, so a larger value means light travels slower.
- Critical angle
- The angle of incidence above which light travelling toward a less dense medium is totally internally reflected instead of refracted out.
- Inverse-square law
- The rule that a quantity spread uniformly in three dimensions, such as light intensity, decreases in proportion to the square of distance.
- Superposition principle
- The rule that when two waves meet, the resultant displacement at each point equals the algebraic sum of the individual displacements.
- Standing wave
- A pattern formed when two identical waves travelling in opposite directions interfere, producing fixed nodes and antinodes.
- Newton's second law
- The net force on an object equals its mass multiplied by its acceleration, with the force and acceleration pointing in the same direction.
- Conservation of momentum
- In a system with no external net force, the total momentum before an interaction equals the total momentum afterward.
- Centripetal acceleration
- The acceleration of an object moving in a circle at constant speed, directed toward the centre and equal to speed squared divided by radius.
- Work done
- The product of force and displacement in the direction of that force, measured in joules and equal to energy transferred.
- Resistors in parallel
- Components connected across the same potential difference, where the reciprocal of total resistance equals the sum of reciprocals of individual resistances.
- Electrical power
- The rate at which electrical energy is transferred, equal to voltage multiplied by current, or current squared multiplied by resistance.
- Magnetic flux
- The product of magnetic field strength and the area perpendicular to it, measured in webers and changed to induce an emf.
- Lenz's law
- The induced current flows in a direction whose magnetic field opposes the change in flux that produced it, consistent with energy conservation.
- Projectile motion
- Motion under gravity alone, analysed as constant horizontal velocity combined with constant downward acceleration vertically.
- Gravitational field strength
- The gravitational force per unit mass at a point, equal to the local acceleration due to gravity and decreasing with distance squared.
- Orbital speed
- The speed needed for a circular orbit, found by equating gravitational force to centripetal force, giving the square root of GM over r.
- Kepler's third law
- For orbits around the same central body, the square of the orbital period is proportional to the cube of the orbital radius.
- Uniform electric field
- A region between charged parallel plates where field strength equals voltage divided by separation and the force on a charge is qE.
- Ideal transformer
- A device changing alternating voltage in proportion to turns ratio while conserving power, so voltage times current is the same on both sides.
- Charged particle in magnetic field
- A charge moving perpendicular to a magnetic field experiences a force qvB, causing circular motion with radius equal to momentum divided by qB.
- Gravitational potential energy
- The energy an object possesses due to its position in a gravitational field, equal to mgh near Earth's surface.
- Photoelectric effect
- The emission of electrons from a metal surface when light of sufficient frequency strikes it, with maximum kinetic energy depending on frequency.
- Work function
- The minimum energy needed to remove an electron from the surface of a particular metal, related to threshold frequency by W equals hf zero.
- Stopping voltage
- The reverse potential difference just large enough to prevent the fastest emitted photoelectrons from reaching the collector, measuring their maximum kinetic energy.
- de Broglie wavelength
- The wavelength associated with a moving particle, equal to Planck's constant divided by the particle's momentum.
- Energy level transition
- A change of an electron between discrete energy levels, absorbing or emitting a photon whose energy equals the difference between the levels.
- Line emission spectrum
- A pattern of discrete bright wavelengths produced when excited atoms emit photons of specific energies determined by their energy level differences.
- Double-slit fringe spacing
- The separation between adjacent bright fringes, equal to wavelength times screen distance divided by slit separation for small angles.
- Wave-particle duality
- The principle that light and matter show both wave behaviour, such as interference, and particle behaviour, such as discrete photon or electron detection.