Free preview · Senior 1 Physics · Laboratory activities
Senior 1 laboratory activities
9 units · 18 activities. In every unit, activity 1 is improvised (simple local materials) and activity 2 is conventional (school laboratory equipment): two different experiments. Below are 5 free pages; then get the whole level in one PDF.
- Title and aim of every experiment
- Required apparatus and safety notes
- A clear, labelled drawing of the set-up
- Step-by-step procedure and a results table to fill in
- Observation and conclusion
- Three questions per activity, with sample results and answers at the end of the unit
See all 18 activities of this level and what each one is about
- Unit 1: Introduction to Physics and Measurements of Physical Quantities
- 1.1 Improvised · The stone in the bottle: volume and density of an irregular solid. To find the volume of a small stone by displacement of water, using a home-made measuring bottle, and to calculate its density.
- 1.2 Conventional · Measuring small lengths: vernier calipers and micrometer screw gauge. To use vernier calipers and a micrometer screw gauge to measure small lengths accurately, and to compare their precision with that of a metre rule.
- Unit 2: Uniform Rectilinear Motion
- 2.1 Improvised · The school-yard race: measuring average speed. To measure the time taken to walk and to run a measured distance and to calculate the average speed in each case.
- 2.2 Conventional · The ticker-timer: recording uniform motion on a tape. To use a ticker-timer to record the motion of a trolley on a friction-compensated runway and to show that its velocity is uniform.
- Unit 3: Force and Equilibrium of Objects
- 3.1 Improvised · The bottle that will not fall: stability. To show how the position of the centre of gravity and the width of the base affect the stability of an object.
- 3.2 Conventional · Centre of gravity of an irregular lamina. To find the centre of gravity of an irregular flat sheet (lamina) using the plumb-line method.
- Unit 4: Newton's Laws of Motion
- 4.1 Improvised · The balloon rocket: action and reaction. To show that when one body pushes on another, the second pushes back with an equal and opposite force (third law of motion).
- 4.2 Conventional · Force, mass and acceleration: the second law. To investigate how the acceleration of a trolley depends on the resultant force acting on it, keeping the total mass constant.
- Unit 5: Work, Power and Energy
- 5.1 Improvised · How powerful are you? Running up the stairs. To estimate the work done and the power developed by a learner climbing a flight of stairs.
- 5.2 Conventional · Work on an inclined plane. To compare the work done in pulling a trolley up an inclined plane with the gain in its gravitational potential energy.
- Unit 6: Temperature Measurement and Physical Properties of Matter
- 6.1 Improvised · Build your own thermometer. To make a simple liquid thermometer from local materials and show that a liquid expands when heated and contracts when cooled.
- 6.2 Conventional · From ice to boiling water: the fixed points. To measure the temperature of melting ice and of boiling water with a laboratory thermometer and to show that the temperature stays constant during a change of state.
- Unit 7: Electrostatics
- 7.1 Improvised · The comb that picks up paper: charging by rubbing. To charge everyday objects by rubbing and to show that charged bodies attract light objects and that like charges repel.
- 7.2 Conventional · The gold-leaf electroscope: charging by induction. To charge a gold-leaf electroscope by induction and to use it to find the sign of the charge on a rod.
- Unit 8: Electric Current and Ohm's Law
- 8.1 Improvised · Which materials let current pass? Conductors and insulators. To build a simple circuit from local materials and test which materials conduct electricity.
- 8.2 Conventional · Current and voltage: checking Ohm's law. To measure the current through a resistor for different voltages and to show that the voltage is proportional to the current.
- Unit 9: Rectilinear Propagation of Light
- 9.1 Improvised · The pinhole camera. To make a pinhole camera from local materials and show that light travels in straight lines, forming an inverted image.
- 9.2 Conventional · Shadows: umbra, penumbra and the size of the source. To show that light travels in straight lines by measuring the size of a shadow, and to observe the umbra and penumbra formed by an extended source.
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