Look inside the OCR GCSE Combined Science Physics, Higher tier guide (J250)

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Look inside the OCR GCSE Combined Science Physics, Higher tier guide

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OCR · GCSE · J250
Combined Physics Higher
Active Recall Guide
1,222 questions
Combined Physics HigherContents
Contents
8 topics, 74 subtopics
  1. Electricity161
  2. Energy101
  3. Forces320
  4. Global Challenges145
  5. Magnetism and Magnetic Fields89
  6. Matter146
  7. Radioactivity105
  8. Waves in Matter155
ii
EnergyQuestions
Energy
Conservation of energy, and energy stores
  1. What does the law of conservation of energy state?
  2. What is meant by a closed system when energy transfers are being considered?
  3. Energy is transferred between several stores inside a closed system. What has happened to the total energy of that system?
  4. A rubber ball is dropped and each bounce reaches a lower height than the last. Has energy been destroyed?
  5. Why is it more accurate to say that energy has been dissipated than to say it has been lost?
  6. A toy car is given a push along a bench and eventually stops. Account for its energy as a closed system.
  7. If the total energy of a system increases, what must be true about that system?
  8. Why can no machine keep running for ever without an energy supply?
  9. A stone is thrown straight upwards. Describe how its energy stores change as it rises.
12
EnergyAnswers
Answers
Conservation of energy, and energy stores
  1. Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transferred from one store to another or dissipated to the surroundings.
  2. A system that exchanges no energy with anything outside it, so its total energy stays the same.
  3. There is no net change, so the total energy afterwards is equal to the total energy before.
  4. No, energy has been transferred to the thermal stores of the ball, the floor and the air, so the total energy is unchanged.
  5. The energy still exists, but it has spread out into the surroundings where it is no longer useful.
  6. The energy in its kinetic store has been transferred to the thermal stores of the car, the bench and the air, so the total is unchanged.
  7. It is not closed, because energy has been transferred into it from outside.
  8. It would have to produce more energy than is transferred into it, and energy cannot be created.
  9. Its kinetic store empties while its gravitational potential store fills, and a small amount is transferred to the thermal store of the air.
13
Global ChallengesQuestions
Global Challenges
Reaction time, stopping distance and the dangers of large decelerations
  1. What is the typical range of human reaction times?
  2. Describe the ruler drop method of measuring reaction time.
  3. In the ruler drop method, how is the measured distance turned into a reaction time?
  4. Why must the person catching the ruler not be told when it will be released?
  5. Why is the ruler drop test repeated several times and a mean taken?
  6. Describe a computer-based method of measuring reaction time.
  7. Why does a computer-based test usually give a more precise reaction time than a falling ruler?
  8. Name three things that make a person's reaction time longer.
  9. What two distances add together to give the stopping distance of a vehicle?
34
Global ChallengesAnswers
Answers
Reaction time, stopping distance and the dangers of large decelerations
  1. Between about 0.2 s and 0.9 s.
  2. One person holds a ruler vertically between the open finger and thumb of another and releases it without warning; the second person catches it as quickly as possible and the distance the ruler fell is read off.
  3. The distance fallen is converted using a prepared table or graph, because a longer fall corresponds to a longer time.
  4. If they can anticipate the release they respond early, so the measurement is shorter than their true reaction time.
  5. Individual results vary a lot, so a mean of repeats reduces the effect of random variation and gives a more reliable value.
  6. The screen changes or a sound is made at a random moment and the person presses a key as fast as they can, with the computer timing the gap between the signal and the press.
  7. The computer times the response directly to a small fraction of a second, so there is no conversion from a distance measured by eye.
  8. Tiredness, alcohol or other drugs, and distractions such as a phone or conversation.
  9. The thinking distance and the braking distance.
35
RadioactivityQuestions
Radioactivity
Protons, neutrons and isotopes
  1. Which two kinds of particle make up the nucleus of an atom?
  2. What is the relative charge of a proton and what is the relative charge of a neutron?
  3. Why does the nucleus of every atom carry a positive charge?
  4. Which count of particles in the nucleus gives an element its characteristic positive charge?
  5. The nucleus of a boron atom carries a charge of +5. How many protons does it contain?
  6. What name is given to the protons and neutrons of a nucleus taken together?
  7. How do the masses of a proton and a neutron compare?
  8. What is an isotope?
  9. Two atoms of the same element have different nuclear masses. Which particle must they have in different numbers?
56
RadioactivityAnswers
Answers
Protons, neutrons and isotopes
  1. The nucleus is made of protons and neutrons.
  2. A proton has a relative charge of +1 and a neutron has no charge at all.
  3. It contains positively charged protons, and the neutrons alongside them are neutral, so the overall nuclear charge is positive.
  4. The number of protons, because each proton contributes a charge of +1.
  5. It contains five protons.
  6. They are called nucleons.
  7. They are almost the same, each having a relative mass of about 1.
  8. An isotope is an atom of an element that has the usual number of protons but a different number of neutrons.
  9. They must contain different numbers of neutrons.
57
Keep going
1,222
questions
74 subtopics

Scroll sideways to turn through the pages.

1,222 questions
Across 74 subtopics, every one of them from specification J250.
One PDF
Print it, or work from a screen with a notebook beside you.
Answers after, not beside
Covering the answers is a matter of not turning the page, which is what makes the closed-book pass possible.

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

  1. Step 1 · Closed book

    Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.

  2. Step 2 · Open book

    Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.

  3. Step 3 · Closed book again

    Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.

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OCR GCSE Combined Science Physics, Higher tier Active Recall Guide

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