United Kingdom Physics Syllabus

This syllabus outlines the topics covered in the Cambridge International AS & A Level Physics (9702) for the 2025-2027 examinations. It is designed to provide a foundation for further study in physics or related fields, as well as contribute to general scientific literacy. Students are encouraged to develop practical skills, analytical thinking, and an appreciation for the social, economic, environmental, and technological implications of physics.

AS Level Content

1. Physical Quantities and Units: This section covers the fundamental aspects of measurement, including the nature of physical quantities, SI units, prefixes, errors, uncertainties, scalars, and vectors.

2. Kinematics: This topic explores motion, including distance, displacement, speed, velocity, acceleration, graphical representation of motion, equations of motion, and projectile motion. An experiment to determine the acceleration of free fall is also included.

3. Dynamics: Building on prior knowledge of forces, this section covers momentum, Newton's laws of motion, weight, frictional forces, viscous/drag forces, air resistance, terminal velocity, and the principle of conservation of momentum in elastic and inelastic collisions.

4. Forces, Density and Pressure: This topic expands on the concept of forces, including the center of gravity, moments, couples, torque, equilibrium, density, pressure, hydrostatic pressure, upthrust, and Archimedes' principle.

5. Work, Energy and Power: This section covers work done, the principle of conservation of energy, efficiency, power, gravitational potential energy, and kinetic energy.

6. Deformation of Solids: This topic explores the behavior of materials under stress, including load, extension, compression, limit of proportionality, Hooke's law, stress, strain, Young modulus, elastic and plastic deformation, elastic limit, and elastic potential energy.

7. Waves: This section introduces wave motion, including displacement, amplitude, phase difference, period, frequency, wavelength, speed, the wave equation, intensity, transverse and longitudinal waves, the Doppler effect for sound waves, the electromagnetic spectrum, and polarization.

8. Superposition: This topic covers the principle of superposition, stationary waves, nodes, antinodes, diffraction, interference, coherence, double-slit interference, and diffraction gratings.

9. Electricity: This section explores electric current, charge carriers, charge quantization, potential difference, power, resistance, resistivity, Ohm's law, and the I-V characteristics of various components.

10. D.C. Circuits: This topic covers circuit symbols, circuit diagrams, electromotive force (e.m.f.), internal resistance, Kirchhoff's laws, combined resistance, potential dividers, potentiometers, and galvanometers.

11. Particle Physics: This section introduces the structure of the atom, including the nucleus, protons, neutrons, electrons, isotopes, nuclide notation, radioactive decay, alpha, beta, and gamma radiation, antiparticles, neutrinos, and the unified atomic mass unit. It also covers fundamental particles, quarks, hadrons, baryons, mesons, leptons, and changes in quark composition during decay.

A Level Content (in addition to AS Level content)

12. Motion in a Circle: This topic covers radians, angular displacement, angular speed, centripetal acceleration, and the forces involved in circular motion.

13. Gravitational Fields: This section explores gravitational fields, field lines, Newton's law of gravitation, circular orbits, geostationary orbits, gravitational field strength, and gravitational potential.

14. Temperature: This topic covers thermal equilibrium, temperature scales, specific heat capacity, and specific latent heat.

15. Ideal Gases: This section explores the mole, Avogadro constant, the ideal gas equation, the kinetic theory of gases, mean-square speed, and root-mean-square speed.

16. Thermodynamics: This topic covers internal energy, the first law of thermodynamics, work done by a gas, and heating of a system.

17. Oscillations: This section explores simple harmonic motion, including displacement, amplitude, period, frequency, angular frequency, phase difference, energy interchanges, damped oscillations, forced oscillations, and resonance.

18. Electric Fields: This topic covers electric fields, field lines, Coulomb's law, electric field strength, electric potential, and electric potential energy.

19. Capacitance: This section explores capacitance, capacitors, energy stored in capacitors, discharging capacitors, and time constants.

20. Magnetic Fields: This topic covers magnetic fields, field lines, forces on current-carrying conductors and moving charges, magnetic flux density, Hall voltage, electromagnetic induction, Faraday's law, and Lenz's law.

21. Alternating Currents: This section explores alternating currents and voltages, including period, frequency, peak value, mean power, root-mean-square (r.m.s.) values, rectification, and smoothing.

22. Quantum Physics: This topic covers photons, photoelectric effect, threshold frequency, work function energy, wave-particle duality, de Broglie wavelength, energy levels in atoms, and line spectra.

23. Nuclear Physics: This section explores mass defect, binding energy, nuclear reactions (fusion and fission), radioactive decay, activity, decay constant, and half-life.

24. Medical Physics: This topic covers the production and use of ultrasound and X-rays, specific acoustic impedance, attenuation, computed tomography (CT) scanning, positron emission tomography (PET scanning), tracers, annihilation, and gamma-ray photons.

25. Astronomy and Cosmology: This section explores luminosity, the inverse square law for radiant flux intensity, standard candles, Wien's displacement law, the Stefan-Boltzmann law, stellar radii, redshift, Hubble's law, and the Big Bang theory.