Physics Pocket Notes

Chapter 1 – Introduction To
Physics
No. Terms Definition

1. Physical Quantities that can be measured

quantities

2. Base Physical quantities that cannot be

quantities defined in terms of other
quantities
3. Derived Physical quantity obtained from
quantities the combination of base quantities
through multiplication or division
or both.
4. Vector Physical quantities that have both
quantities magnitude and direction

5. Scaler Physical quantities that have

quantities magnitude only

6. Consistency The ability (of a measuring

instrument) to measure a quantity
with little or no deviation among
the measurements
7. Accuracy The closeness of a measurement
 to the actual value

8. Sensitivity The ability (of a measuring

instrument) to detect a small
change in the quantity to be
measured

9. Systematic Errors in the calibration of

error instruments or the non-zero
reading when the actual reading
should be zero
10. Random Errors due to the mistakes made
error by the observer when taking reading.

11. Parallax Error due to the incorrect

error positioning of the eye when
reading a measurement
12. Zero error The non-zero reading when the
actual reading should be zero that
is the pointer of the instrument
does not return to the zero
position when it is not being used
Chapter 2 – Force And Motion
No. Terms Definition
1. Distance The total path length travelled
from one location to the other
2. Displacement The distance between two
locations measured along the
shortest path connecting them in
a specified direction
3. Speed Rate of change of distance OR
Distance travelled per unit time
4. Velocity Rate of change of displacement

5. Acceleration Rate of change of velocity

6. Average displacement over total time

velocity
7. Average The rate of movement.
speed
8. Inertia The tendency of the object to
remain at rest or if moving to
comtinue its motion
9. Momentum Product of mass and velocity
10. Principle of In a closed system, the total
conservation momentum before collision is
of equal to the total momentum
momentum after collision provided there is
no external force
11. Force Push or pull upon an object
resulting from the
object's interaction with another
object.
12. Impulse Change in momentum

13. Impulsive The rate of change of

force momentum.
14. Free falling The motion in which the object
falls due to gravitational force
only
15. Weight The gravitational force acting on
the object
16. Mass The quantity of matter in an
object
17. Resultant A single force that represents the
force combined effect of two or more
forces with magnitude and
 direction
18. Equilibrium Situation in which forces acting
force on an object produces no net
force. The object is satationary
or moves with a constant
velocity in a straight line.
19. Work done The product of the applied force
and the displacement in the
direction of the applied force
20. Energy The ability to do work
21. Kinetic The energy of an object due to
energy its motion

22. Gravitational The energy of an object due to

potential its higher position in the
energy gravitational field
23. Principle of Energy cannot be created or
Conservation destroyed. Energy can be
of energy transformed from one form to
another.The total energy in a
closed system is constant .
24. Power The rate at which work is done
 OR the amount of work done per
second
25. Efficiency The percentage of the energy
input that is transformed into
useful energy
26. Elasticity The ability of an object to return
to its original size / length /
shape when the force that is
acting on it is removed.
27. Spring Force per unit extension
constant
28. Elastic The energy stored in an object
potential when it is stretched or
energy compressed

29. Gravitational The region around the earth

field which an object experiences a
force towards the centre of earth.

Chapter 3 – Force And Pressure

1. Density Mass per unit volume

2. Pressure Magnitude of force acting

perpendicularly to a surface per
unit area of the surface
3. Pressure in
liquid
4. Atmosphere The pressure due to the weight of
Pressure the air acting per unit area on the
earth’s surface
5. Gas the pressure exerted by a gas.
Pressure
6. Buoyant The upward force exerted by a
Force fluid when an object is wholly or
partially immersed in the fluid
7. Lift Force The upward force produced when
fluid rises over a particle.
 Chapter 4 – Heat

No. Terms Definition

1. Temperature The measure of the degree of
hotness of an object.
2. Heat the forms of energy.

3. Thermal The situation in which two

equilibrium objects which are in thermal
contact have the same rate of heat
transfer and the same temperature
The NET heat flow between the
two objects is zero.
4. Specific heat The amount of heat that must be
capacity supplied to an object of mass 1
kg to increase its temperature by
1°C
5. Melting point The temperature at which a given
solid will melt.
6. Lower fixed The temperature at which pure
point ice melts under the standard
atmospheric pressure.
7. Solidifies Make or become hard or solid.
 8. Boiling point The temperature at which a liquid
boils and turns to vapor.
9. Condensation The process of becoming denser,
in particular.
10. Upper fixed The temperature of steam from
point pure water that is boiling under
standard atmospheric pressure.
11. Latent heat The heat absorbed or released at
constant temperature during a
change of phase.
12. Specific The amount of heat required to
latent heat of change 1 kg of a substance from
fusion solid to liquid without any
change in temperature
13. Specific The amount of heat required to
latent heat of change 1 kg of a substance from
vaporisation liquid to gas without any change
in temperature
14. Absolute The lowest temperature in theory
zero in which the pressure and the
kinetic energy of gas molecules
are zero
Chapter 5 – Light
No. Terms Definition
1. Angle of The angle between the reflected
incidence i ray and the normal.
2. Angle of The angle between the refracted
reflection r ray and the normal.
3. Centre of The centre of the sphere that
curvature C forms the curved mirror
4. Radius of the radius of the circle of
curvature curvature; the absolute value of
the reciprocal of the curvature of
a curve at a given point.
5. Focal length The distance between the center
of a lens or curved mirror and its
focus.
6. Principal axis a line that passes through the
center of curvature of a lens so
that light is neither reflected nor
refracted
7. Focal point A common point on the
principal axis where all the rays
parallel to the axis converge to it
after passing through a convex
lens or appear to diverge from it
after passing through a concave
 lens.
8. Refractive The value of the constant (sin i /
index sin r) for a light ray passing
through a vacuum into a given
medium
9. Real depth The distance of the real object
from the surface of a medium
10. Critical angle The angle of incidence in the
denser medium when the angle
of refraction in the less dense
medium is 90°
11. Total internal The condition in which the light
reflection ray from a denser medium to a
less dense medium is reflected
back into the denser medium
when the angle of incidence is
greater than the critical angle.
12. Focal point A common point on the
of a lens F principal axis where all the rays
parallel to the axis converge to it
after passing through a convex
lens or appear to diverge from it
after passing through a concave
 lens.
13. Apparent The distance of the virtual image
depth from the surface of the medium
14. Power of lens The reciprocal of the focal
length

15. Object The distance between the object

distance and the mirror
16. Real image The image that can be formed /
displayed on a screen
17. Virtual image The image that cannot be formed
on a screen
18. Linear The ratio of the image size to the
magnification object size OR the ratio of the
image distance to object distance
Chapter 6 – Waves
N Terms Definition
o.
1. Longitudinal A wave in which the particles of
wave the medium oscillate in the
direction parallel to the direction
in which the wave moves
2. Transverse A wave in which the particles of
wave the medium oscillate in the
direction perpendicular to the
direction in which the wave
moves
3. wavefront An imaginary line that joins all
identical points on a wave
4. Wave length The horizontal distance between
two successive equivalent points
on a wave
5. Amplitude The maximum displacement from
the mean position of a wave
6. Frequency The number of complete
oscillations made in 1 second

7. Damping Energy loss from an oscillating

system to the surrounding in the
 form of heat energy
8. Period The time taken to complete one
oscillation

9. Wave speed The speed at which the wave form

of a progressive wave travels
10 Angle of The angle between the reflected
. incidence ray and the normal.
11 Angle of The angle between the refracted
. reflector ray and the normal.
12 Refraction The phenomena in which there is
. of wave a change of direction of
propagation due to a change of
speed when water waves travel
one area to another of different
depths.
13 Diffraction The phenomena that refers to the
. of wave spreading out of waves when they
move through a gap or round an
obstacle
14 Principle of Waves which consist of a joint
. superpositio electric and magnetic fields which
 n oscillate perpendicular to each
other
15 Interference The phenomena in which two sets
. of waves of coherent waves meet / combine
16 Constructive the interference of two or more
. interference waves of equal frequency and
phase,
17 Destructive the interference of two waves of e
. interference qual frequency and
opposite phase.
18 Electromagn The range of wavelengths or
. etic frequencies over which
spectrum electromagnetic radiation extends.
19 Infrasound A wave phenomenon sharing the
. physical nature of sound but with
a range of frequencies below that
of human hearing.
20 ultrasound Sound or other vibrations having
. an ultrasonic frequency,
particularly as used in medical
imaging.
Chapter 7 –
Electricity
No. Terms Definition
1. Electric field A region in which an electric
charge experiences an electric
force
2. Electric The rate of charge flow in a
current circuit
3. Potential The work done or the energy that
difference would be required to move 1 C of
charge from one point to another
in a circuit
4. Electrical The enrgy carried by electrical
energy charges which can be transformed
to other forms of energy by the
operation of an electrical device
or appliance.
5. Electrical The rate of electrical energy
power dissipated or transferred
6. Efficiency The percentage of the input
energy that is transformed into
useful energy.
7. Series All the components are connected
circuit one after another in a single path
8. Parallel All the components are connected
circuit with their corresponding ends
joined together at common points
to form separate and parallel
paths

9. Resistance The ratio of potential difference

across a conductor to the electric
current flowing through the
conductor
10. Internal The resistance against the moving
resistance, r charge due to the electrolyte in
the cell / battery
 Chapter 8 –
Electromagnetism
No. Terms Definition
1. Magnetic field A region round a current –
carrying conductor in which a
magnetic force acts
2. Electromagnet A temporary magnet made by
winding a coil of insulated
wire round a soft iron core
3. Catapult field The resultant magnetic field
due to the combination of the
magnetic field due to the
current in the conductor and
the external magnetic field
4. Electromagnetic The setting up of an
induction electromotive force in a
conductor due to a change in
the magnetix flux caused by
the relative motion of the
conductor and a magnetic
field. The induced emf will
cause induced current to flow
5. Induced To produce an electric current
or a magnetic charge
6.
Alternating A current which flows to and
current fro in two opposite directions
in a circuit and it changes its
direction periodically

7. Direct current A current that flows in one

direction only in a circuit and
the magnitude of the current
maybe constant or changes
with time
8. Step-up A transformer where the
transformer number of turns in the
secondary coil is greater than
the number of turns in the
primary coil, the voltage
across the secondary coil is
greater than the voltage across
the primary coil
9. Step-down A transformer where the
transformer number of turns in the
secondary coil is less than the
 number of turns in the primary
coil, the voltage across the
secondary coil is less than the
voltage across the primary coil
10. Renewable An energy resource that is
energy continually replaced and will
not run out.
11. Non-renewable An energy resource cannot be
energy replaced once it has been used.
12. Eddy current The current induced in the soft
iron core due to the changing
magnetic field produced by
the alternating current in the
coils

13. National Grid A network system of cables

Network which connects all the power
stations and substations in the
country to the consumers in a
closed network to transmit
electricity
Chapter 9 –
Electronics
No. Terms Definition
1. Thermionic The process of emission of
emission electrons from the surface of a
heated metal

2. Cathode ray The stream of electrons which

moves from cathode to anode at
high speed across a vacuum

3. Doping A process of adding a certain

amount of specific impurities
called dopants to a
semiconductor to increase its
conductivity

4. n-type Semiconductor obtained when

semiconductor pentavalent atoms which are
doped into the intrinsic
semiconductor contribute extra
electrons. Free electrons
become the majority charge
carrier and the holes become the
minority carrier
5. p-type Semiconductor obtained when
 semiconductor trivalent atoms which are doped
into the intrinsic semiconductor
contribute extra holes. Free
electrons become the minority
charge carrier and the holes
become the majority charge
carrier
6. semiconductor An electronic device made from
diode a p-n junction that allows
current to flow in one direction
only but blocks it in the
opposite direction
7. Forward bias The connection in which the p-
type (anode) of the diode is
connected to the positive
terminal of a battery and the n-
type (cathode) is connected to
the negative terminal of the
battery
8. Reverse bias The connection in which the p-
type (anode) of the diode is
connected to the negative
terminal of a battery and the n-
 type (cathode) is connected to
the positive terminal of the
battery
. 9. Logic gates A switching circuit made up of
a combination of transistor
. switches which has one or more
inputs but only one output
10. Half-wave A process where only half of
rectification every cycle of an alternating
current is made to flow in one
direction only.
11. Full-wave A process where both halves of
rectification every cycle of an alternating
current is made to flow in the
same direction

Chapter 10 – Radioactivity

1 Proton The number of protons in the nucleus

number,Z of an atom
2 Nucleon The total number of protons and
. number, neutrons in the nucleus of an atom
A

3 Isotopes Atoms of an element which have the

. same proton number but different
nucleon number
4 Radioacti The spontaneous disintegration of an
. vity unstable nucleus accompanied by the
emission of an energetic particle or a
photon ( or radioactive emission)
5 Alpha Helium nucleus emitted by an unstable
. particle nucleus.
6 Beta High energy electron emitted by an
. particle unstable nucleus.
7 Gamma Electromagnetic waves with very high
. rays frequency and short wavelength
8 Radioacti Spontaneous disintegration of a
. ve decay radionuclide accompanied by the
emission of ionizing radiation in the
form of alpha or beta particles or
gamma rays.
 9 Half-life The time taken for the number of
. undecayed nuclei in the sample to be
reduced to half of its original number.
10 Radioisot Unstable isotopes which decay and
opes give out radioactive emissions.
.
11 Nuclear Energy released by a nuclear reaction
energy as a result of a mass defect.
.
12 Atomic a unit that is suitable for the mass of
mass unit atoms and the mass of subatomic
. particles.
13 Mass he amount by which the mass of a
defect particular nucleus is less than the total
. mass of its constituent particles
14 Nuclear The splitting of a heavy nucleus into
fission two lighter nuclei.
.
1 Chain The self-sustaining fission reaction
5 reaction spread by neutrons that occurs in
. nuclear reactors and bombs.