A3PHY

In this unit, students

• develop their understanding of field theories of gravity through investigations of motion,
• develop skills in relating graphical representations of data to quantitative relationships between variables,
• use lines of force to represent vector fields,
• interpreting interactions in two and three dimensions.
• continue to develop skills in planning, conducting and interpreting the results of primary and secondary investigations, and in evaluating the validity of primary and secondary data.

A4PHY

In this unit, students

• students investigate electromagnetic interactions and apply this knowledge to understand the operation of direct current motors, direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) generators, transformers, and AC power distribution systems.
• investigate the production of electromagnetic waves.
• examine observations of light and matter that could not be explained by existing theories and investigate how the shortcomings of existing theories led to the development of the quantum theory of light and matter.
• evaluate the contribution of the quantum theory of light to the development of the quantum theory of the atom and examine the Big Bang theory.
• Through investigation, apply their understanding of black body radiation, wave/particle duality and the quantum theory of the atom to make and/or explain observations of a range of phenomena, such as atomic emission and absorption spectra, the photoelectric effect and lasers