Free preview · Senior 2 Physics · Laboratory activities
Senior 2 laboratory activities
10 units · 20 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 20 activities of this level and what each one is about
- Unit 1: Errors in Measurement of Physical Quantities
- 1.1 Improvised · Catch the ruler: reaction time and random errors. To measure your reaction time with a falling ruler, to see how repeated readings spread out (random errors) and to use the mean to reduce them.
- 1.2 Conventional · Timing a pendulum: reducing the percentage error. To measure the period of a simple pendulum and show that timing many oscillations reduces the percentage error.
- Unit 2: Uniformly Accelerated Rectilinear Motion
- 2.1 Improvised · The marble in the gutter: distance and time for accelerated motion. To show that a marble rolling down a slope covers distances proportional to the square of the time, and to find its acceleration.
- 2.2 Conventional · The ticker-timer: measuring acceleration on a runway. To measure the acceleration of a trolley running down an inclined runway using ticker tape.
- Unit 3: Friction Force
- 3.1 Improvised · Tilt until it slides: the coefficient of static friction. To find the coefficient of static friction between an object and a board by tilting the board until the object starts to slide.
- 3.2 Conventional · Limiting friction and the normal reaction. To investigate how the limiting friction between a block and the bench depends on the normal reaction, and to find the coefficient of friction.
- Unit 4: Pressure in Solids and Liquids
- 4.1 Improvised · The bottle with three holes: pressure and depth. To show that the pressure in a liquid increases with depth.
- 4.2 Conventional · Measuring liquid pressure with a manometer. To use a U-tube manometer to show that liquid pressure is proportional to depth and is the same in all directions at one depth.
- Unit 5: Simple Machines
- 5.1 Improvised · The ruler lever: mechanical advantage and velocity ratio. To make a lever from a ruler and coins and to find its mechanical advantage and velocity ratio.
- 5.2 Conventional · The pulley system: efficiency of a machine. To find the mechanical advantage, velocity ratio and efficiency of a pulley system for different loads.
- Unit 6: Conservation of Mechanical Energy
- 6.1 Improvised · The interrupted pendulum. To show that a swinging stone rises back to the same height even when its path is changed, because mechanical energy is conserved.
- 6.2 Conventional · Potential energy into kinetic energy: the trolley on a ramp. To compare the potential energy lost by a trolley running down a ramp with the kinetic energy it gains.
- Unit 7: Ideal Gas Laws
- 7.1 Improvised · Books on a syringe: Boyle's law. To show that the volume of a fixed mass of air decreases as the pressure on it increases, at constant temperature.
- 7.2 Conventional · Heating trapped air: Charles's law. To investigate how the volume of a fixed mass of air changes with temperature at constant pressure, and to estimate absolute zero.
- Unit 8: Magnetism
- 8.1 Improvised · A floating compass: making a magnet by stroking. To magnetise a needle by the single-touch method and use it as a compass.
- 8.2 Conventional · Mapping the magnetic field of a bar magnet. To map the magnetic field lines around a bar magnet and around two magnets using plotting compasses.
- Unit 9: Electric Field and Applications of Electrostatics
- 9.1 Improvised · The electrostatic pendulum: feeling an electric field. To use a small foil ball on a thread to detect the electric field around a charged object and show that it is stronger closer to the charge.
- 9.2 Conventional · The Van de Graaff generator: charge and fields (teacher demonstration). To use a Van de Graaff generator to show that charge collects on the outside of a conductor, that charge escapes from sharp points, and how a spark discharges a high voltage.
- Unit 10: Reflection of Light in Curved Mirrors
- 10.1 Improvised · Spoon mirrors: images in concave and convex surfaces. To observe the images formed by the concave and convex surfaces of a shiny spoon and relate them to curved mirrors.
- 10.2 Conventional · Focal length of a concave mirror. To find the focal length of a concave mirror by the distant-object method and by the object–image method using 1/f = 1/u + 1/v.
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