Visitors since this site started in September 2000. Sign the guestbook
if you like.
K Parker - Links for Physics/Science teachers
Visitors since this site started in September 2000. Sign the guestbook
if you like.
This site started out collaboratively as the 'spidercox' site, and has had a few changes as I have moved from Downend to Hanham and now to The Grange - all secondary schools in South Gloucestershire.
These links are all included in good faith and hopefully they still work okay.
Higher Faster Stronger Sound of Music Technology in Space
Digging up the Past Spare Part Surgery Good Enough to Eat
Probing the Heart of Matter Transport on Track
Build or Bust The Medium is the Message
Practical ideas including 'The Visit'
Booster kit download (teacher stuff!)
Food and Digestion:
Click on the body part and find out what role it plays
Energy:
energychest: Joules the robot takes you around some modules on energy in buildings, the environment and energy sources. Sponsored by oil companies, and the CREATE project.
Electricity and magnetism:
Energy - links page for lesson on generating electricity methods
'Power generation - what are the costs?': Oneworld site; and Nuclear issues briefing page
Some information of relative costs of power generation
Costs of some power stations in dollars per kW
Electricity
Animation to show how an inkjet printer works
Waves and Radiation -
Forces
Your weight on other planets - calculator
Videos of astronaut activities on the Moon
Explaining the seasons - applet
Site that looks at the possibilities of life elsewhere in the Solar System
Maintenance of Life
Drugs: ASH factsheet on smoking and disease
A couple of pictures of smoker's lungs - not nice but smoke, and that's what yours will look like.
ABPI site - what are drugs and how do they affect the body .There are a couple of questions on each page to test yourself.
Fact or fiction quiz on alcohol (low science content, high PSHE)
Earth materials - a set of questions on the Atmosphere & Rock cycle section. Excellent revision!
On-line rock cycle 'experiments' - BBC
GCSE Bitesize for 'geology' - most of this is applicable to the Earth Materials module for AQA
List of sites that are useful for this module
Very detailed and informative site on fractional distillation
Environment
A lecture on predator/prey relationships
There are many animations/demos at 'Computer animations of Physical Processes' (Siltech)
Excellent videos of many processes - the waves section is particularly useful.
Applets for many topics: oscillations, optics, kinematics, maths.....
Common misconceptions and misused terms.
Higher, Faster, Stronger module AS
Experimental determination of g: what is it ? - an intro; pendulum method; gravity lab (results from an experiment in which an object is dropped); acceleration and freefall - very detailed but excellent background info (you should be able to work out how to find g by freefall from this)
New Scientist article on how world records have been changing
Pole vaulting - use java applet that allows you to work out how high, in theory, you could vault. Excellent links from here too.
Speed skiing - the definitive site - 0 to 154mph in 10 seconds! But some say it's not dangerous - an interview with a top skier. And the mechanics of it. Phew.
Dick Fosbury talks about his flop in a newspaper interview; High Jump physics with some background about how the centre of gravity bit works. For background, Britannica's page on the high jump. A set of stills from a video sequence for a high jumper (sehr gut - auf Deutsch!)
International Amateur Athletics Federation Lots of photos of recent athletic achievements, and world rankings and another athletics site with all the world record data you might want
Sports records from just about everywhere
Olympic federation home page
Biomechanics link page to many of the world's top organisations - academic related
Sports Science link page including to Skateboard science and a Sport Science FAQ and a page compiled by the UK athletics team senior sports coach with extensive information for a training program.
The Tyrolean Traverse explained - by climbers and another more technical guide and a practical example - Old Man of Stoer
Newton - did that apple really fall ?
Animation to test your ideas about freefall and terminal velocity - excellent
Hooke's Law:
A sample practical method sheet (school) and one that's more advanced
Applications within orthapaedic biomechanics, including a very good graph and explanation (does get complicated).
An article on Hooke the scientist - apparently he was not a very handsome chap and had many run-ins with Newton; exactly who stood on the shoulders of giants?
Bungee jumping links (find out what the very first bungee cords were made from, and where the first 'official' jump took place). Physics of bungee jumping - does include some maths beyond physics A/Level but worth looking at for what it says about materials.
Some training shoe ads and specifications: skyflex meridiansports newbalance find your perfect shoe sneakers - all types (not much science)
Funfair Physics
g-forces and pilots - lots of detail about what you feel and when
How to avoid g-loc (loss of consciousness) - look at the trendy flying suit!
A weak connection to the topic, but.....
How geckos can walk on the ceiling and the sticky pads on their feet
Site from Surrey university to support space aspects of Salters - Messages from Space
Read this first: How Stuff Works - satellites - typical chatty and informative HSW site. Excellent to give you the background for the topic.
Sites recommended for info by the exam board:
Small satellites:
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) - commercial designer and builder of both civil and military micro- and mini-satellites, and now nano-satellites (<10kg). Some excellent info here.
Small satellite homepage - maintained by Surrey University; contains data on power- systems for many satellites.
Oscar 11 Satellite (UoSAT-2) - a page from which to access loads of raw satellite data
Built in only 6 months, UoSAT-2 carries the first modern digital store and forward (S&F) communications payload and a prototype CCD camera. this page has been set up by amateur radio and satellite enthusiasts and has loads of files that UoSAT-2 transmits back to earth. Software is also available to decode it!
Other UK space projects:
Education Guide to Space (Leicester University) - good introduction
Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC), Space Science Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
European Space Agency
ESA is the organisation responsible for European space projects
National Aeronautics and Space Administration - NASA
International Space Station:
International Space Station - you cannot get more current than this! Track the Space Station from here. Graphic of the design of the ISS and an artist's impression of the complete station
How stuff works - general background article on the ISS
Some facts - how large it is etc.
Technical data - article from Glenn industries
Other useful sites the exam board did not find!
How do astronauts go to the toilet ?
Were the moon landings a hoax ? Moon fakers
Voyager Space Mission - interplanetary mission, and beyond!
Meteosat images - fantastic updated images from Nottingham University for weather forecasting, also a link to an excellent sequence of the 1999 Eclipse
Keep clicking on the map to get a satellite image of the area: MSN terraserver (includes a download of an image viewer) - and the picture of Bristol is grey
More maps and satellite images
LANDSAT images
Satellite image of Katherine Lady Berkeley School, Wootton-under-Edge, Glos.
Some declassified US images of weapons plants and conflicts including images like those from the Bosnian conflict that indicated mass graves and ethnic cleansing (too sad to comprehend).
Images of Chernobyl showing how habitation has changed since the explosion.
Project Starshine - project to polish mirrors to go on a satellite, that will be used for observations of the atmosphere.
Solar cells
Animation of how one works - incident photons causing electrons to move
Technical information on solar cells
High efficiency solar cells
Cost and economic details
Background information - some figures
Structure of cells - good diagrams
Applet to show longitudinal and transverse waves (stationary and travelling); this applet can be slowed so you can track particles
Pipes etc: Applet that clearly shows wave particle motion (pulsed option available), and particles in closed and open pipes; can be stopped to freeze movement.
Chladni figures and how to make your own
Chladni plate modes for violins and for a guitar great pictures of the modes of vibration
Normal modes of vibration of a stadium using a model plate
Modes of vibration of drum skin
Setting up sound systems in a church
Superposition - a useful little demo program
Modes of vibration on a string - fundamental and then with some overtones superposed
Oscillations - resonant modes in beams, bridges etc. Very clear website with good explanations and some demos to download.
Resonance - Tacoma Narrows Bridge (still photos) and video and the Millennium Bridge
Cds - their construction and images of them under a microscope and How they Work
How digital recording differs from analogue
Spectra - excellent site that allows you to click on an element and view its spectra
Applets for thin lenses - converging; diverging
Short article on nuclear techniques in archaeology
An old Aztec weapon that used some great physics (allegedly)
Archaeological methods - excellent site with links for dating techniques, imaging, searching etc.
eg using CT scans to read cuneiform tablets (newspaper article)
English heritage website - link to the Archaeology section for some useful background on techniques used in the field
Timeteam website - many excellent, accessible links here
British Archaeology magazine - this one has an article on an Iron Age Shetland toilet, a Viking falling down a rabbit hole, and a Bronze age warrior found buried with a spear in his hand; the gossipy side of archaeology.
Jarlshof - a site in Shetland that has been continually inhabited since 3200BC - check out the skulls at the Sumburgh cist that were discovered near there (not much physics here but the place is amazing and gives me an excuse to go on about how wonderful Shetland is...)
Archaeosurvey site for nondestructive techniques - click on geoelectric for a real life resistivity survey.
Archaeology Consortium - source of several demos, including a geophysical simulation (needs shockwave installed)
Bradford University - again extensive links from here
Forensic Archaeology - what is it, how can it be useful ? (Geophysics can be great for burial sites)
Online text book, courtesy of Kevin Greene including chapter on Dating Techniques (technical but thorough - loads of stuff on thermoluminescence amongst other things)
Project on Animal Mummies with an excellent link on how the X-rays were taken (methodology)
High resolution X ray diffraction - everything you'd ever want to know
Crystallography website - again a load of info for an enthusiast
X-ray diffraction; Rosalind Franklin used it to determine the structure of DNA
Basic article on thermoluminescence
TLS - picture of fluorite glowing
Fairly detailed page on TLS - good spectra illustrated
Tracers and use of radioisotopes , particularly in agriculture and PET scans and some general uses
Photoelectric effect simulation
The Cadbury website - this has loads of information about chocolate and the specific products the company makes - try to concentrate on the science of the production of it! (History of chocolate, then the production link)
Nestle (if your conscience permits)
Useful food resource index - University of Oregon
Basic background to viscosity; and a glossary. And another more detailed background article with some maths
Bostock consistometer - details - and another example
Redwood viscometer and the Saybolt second
Cambridge Applied Systems Viscometer
Instrumentation for food testing - Oregon State University
More food testing - huge variety of equipment here.
A set of lab investigations on food properties - Purdue University
Article on electrorheology and chocolate
Useful notes on material properties, with definitions and explanations of behaviour
Background to Mohs' scale - geological - and a few standards on it
Brinell's hardness test and background on hardness; article that describes many hardness scales and has a useful comparison table
Optical properties of solutions - introduction - chirality means 'handedness'
Another introduction with a more practical bias (A/Level standard from schoolscom)
Refractive index of water (temperature)
Historical article on the Pulfrich refractometer
UK government site for food standards - this has all the government legislation and requirements for food hygiene; search the archive under packaging and you'll find even the teabag gets tested and that hydrocarbons can be found in chocolate
Food irradiation - facts from IAEA (International Atomic Energy Authority) - check in particular the link on packaging, and some work based on a SATIS 16-18 exercise from Independent Learning network Website.
Problems with cement in hip replacements
Online guide to prepare you for your hip replacement op - some good info on materials used
More technical article, but much more informative about materials used - Queen Mary University of London
Some values for bulk elastic properties
Useful notes on material properties, with definitions and explanations of behaviour
Considerations in choice of material for heart valve replacement
All about ear implants
UHMWPE - why it is so wonderful
Laser treatments for eye diseases such as retinopathy - ie not for eyesight 'corrections'
Corrective laser surgery for nearsight
Is laser eye surgery worth looking into ? - US article on the pros and cons
Doppler ultrasound - a few extra formulae than are needed in this article but it puts it into a good medical context
More how stuff works sites: artificial hearts artificial vision real hearts organ transplants
Probing the Heart of Matter module A2
Theories and ideas about the creation of the universe (based on Hawking's universe tv series)
This site is a lecture course outline with links to more detail on the evolution of the universe
Strange stuff explained - useful if you want to know what quarks and antimatter are
Ned Wright's Tutorial on Cosmology and astrophysics - top of A2/undergraduate standard
Interactive timeline for the history of the universe (pbs).
Text timeline from a different source (St Vincent)
Powers of 10 - java display of this famous sequence - it'll help you visualise what logs actually mean !
Coulomb's Law- animation/game to get charged particles move in certain shapes.
Link for tutorials on antimatter and classifications of particles and interactions.
Extensive page of links for particle physics.
Excellent slideshow and presentation on particle physics from the Royal Holloway College
The particle adventure - interactive tour of the basics of particle physics - needs shockwave.
A historical list of particle detectors/tubes etc used in the search for subatomic particles
Fantastic Lin Acc demonstration - very easy to see how the period changes
Magnetic fields - how turtles use them to navigate
Electric fields and how a platypus uses them; electro reception in fish
Interim report of Ladbroke Grove rail accident (5 October 1999) - caused by a SPAD - Signal Passed at Danger; press report on the accident and some of the safety recommendations in brief;.
Railway signalling - how it works - incomplete but it has some good basics on signalling; written by an enthusiast - includes junction signalling and signalling on the London Underground's Central Line
Basic guide to signal warning sysytems
A list of excuses from 'British Rail' - but leaves on the line does have an explanation now in this unit. An idea as to how to remove these using lasers can be found from this page (articles link) And a more serious article on the effects of weather on rail operation. (Royal Metereological Society Conference).
Channel Tunnel fire 18 November 1996
A TGV enthusiast has set up this page including signalling and environmental noise reduction and general technical research
Pantographs - many thanks to Craig Standen, Boston Grammar School for this.
BNFL crash test - British Nuclear Fuels deliberately crashed a train at 100mph into a nuclear flask (minus the nuclear stuff) . The flask remained intact apparently - the train didn't.
Fleming's Left Hand Rule - video demo and an animation
Motors - tutorial sheet
Tesla coils and the like - some pretty pictures and explanation/technical details. The Mad Coiler's Web Page.
Eddy current braking - video showing a plate swinging between the poles of a magnet.
The Medium is the Message module AS
Understanding flight controls - excellent introductory/background article
Fly by wire fact sheet from NASA for the F-8
Fly by light - some conference notes but not detailed - I couldn't find much on this subject to which I could gain access!
Airbus cockpit - click on the link on this page for 'cockpit'
Boeing vs Airbus (Boeing let pilots override fly-by-wire)
Ariane rocket explosion - what went wrong
Unmanned planes - how they work
Air crash website - don't visit if you are flying! This is a huge site with details of many crashes by airline, plane, region etc.
Article on am, fm and modulation etc - good background and links for more info.
Waveform coding - good basic background; provides a bit more than the textbook
Detailed article on companding - gets extremely mathematical but does go through the process thoroughly (for the enthusiast!)
Lecture slide to show companding
Sound file encoding text article
Selecting the right cable - co-ax and optical fibre compared. Very informative
Charge coupled devices - construction and lots of background information (including X-ray operation); use in satellites
Capacitors - this site is apparently 'a gold mine of information' on them
excellent site for A/level notes; you will not need it all for this syllabus (ignore the 'Connection of capacitors section and anything to do with ac and inductors)
An online test on capacitors - again you don't need all of this but it's useful
'White' LEDS - the future of electric light ?
Article on LEDs - how they work, why they only produce light etc. More technical article on this (bands, doping etc.)
Liquid crystal displays: how they work
Article on their history, uses etc - lots of information here
Beautiful pictures of liquid crystals
Smectic, nematic - what's the difference ?
Thermionic emission - what it is
Cathode rays and the history of discovery of the electron. Who did what and when.
This site contains a picture of Perrin's 'Paddle Wheel tube'
How cathode ray tubes work - cylindrical tubes; click on them to find out how they work
Background reading on the Structure of the Earth (US Government Science)
Activity 5 - site from which the simulation can be downloaded (seiswave.exe)
Seismograms - from last 24 hours for some locations, and many for past earthquakes (and even one of when the largest eucalyptus tree in the US fell over)
Tutorial on earthquakes - easy to understand guide to the waves involved, and elasticity
Activity 9 - Virtual earthquake - excellent and straightforward activity to estimate delay times in arrivals of the waves, so that these can be converted to distances and you can find the epicentre of your earthquake.
A Bristol site - earthshakers
Who were Rayleigh and Love ? Biographies of all the famous earthquake dudes
Recent British earthquakes - updated by British Geological survey
Millennium Bridge project - some questions answered as to why it wobbled (by the designers!) Includes an excellent comparison to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
Resonance - Tacoma Narrows Bridge (still photos) and video- and the Millennium Bridge and the engineering company's report on what went wrong
This article on the Narrows Bridge explains its vibrational modes and failure
Oscillations - resonant modes in beams, bridges, towers etc. Very clear website with good explanations and some demos to download.
Some simulations:
Simple pendulum - can show displacement, velocity, acceleration, force, energies - very clear.
Resonance - adjust the angular frequency to show how the amplitude alters
Weird resonance - this is a rather dubious list of frequencies that do strange things. Included for amusement only
Vibration
effects on human body
The Giant Jump - September 9 2001 - start of Science year, @ Bristol
Article on the physics behind the collapse of the Twin Towers
'An eye for an eye - what results is that we will all be blind' Mahatma Gandhi
Active Noise Control information
Noisy restaurants - question from New Scientist
Smart structures designed to control vibration - not the link in the book, but this has excellent info
History of astronomy - good on the more ancient stuff
History of light - includes how Romer was the first to measure its speed
Astronomical distance measurements: detailed article and more accessible article
Thorough introduction to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
Life cycles of stars - includes an Activity to sequence several stars; start with this page if you want to do the activity
What are pulsars and neutron stars ? Jocelyn Bell-Burnell - the woman who discovered pulsars
Newton's Law of Universal gravitation - clear explanation and background
How G is measured - Cavendish's method and using a Scottish mountain
Kepler's Laws - some explanation
Kepler was one of a bunch of 15 th century astronomers who helped change our understanding of the world. One of his peers was Tycho Brahe - a character with an amazing biography. What pet did he keep ? What was his nose made from ? How did he die? How did his pet die? Thanks to ex-student James Pedley for this one.
Using gravity as a slingshot - get Kevin the Space Penguin back to safety!
Light curves from eclipsing binaries - article and simulation
NASA info on light curves
Some gas law applets - there are some very detailed explanations too of the theory involved
Simulation of an ideal gas designed to show speed distribution. Biography of Robert Boyle
Real gases vs ideal gases
Hubble's Law and the age of the universe
There are many websites which deal with the future of the universe and nature of space. The BBC site is particularly good for background reading.
This site is a lecture course outline with links to more detail on the evolution of the universe
And for the Trekkies - The
Science of Star Trek
Practical Project - suggestions/ideas list
A list of practical projects - from SHAP, AEB and Nuffield
Beer froth - why does it lose its head ?
Froth and Bubble - pouring beer can be a serious science (?)
Finally this excellent practical, modelling exponential decay, has been honoured with an Ig-Nobel Prize . Okay, the maths is way beyond AS level (and you don't have to use logs at this standard!), but just have a look at the paper (IOP, European Journal of Physics)
The Visit: Alton Towers and a website that was created by S.Peters collegiate school on 'White Knuckle Physics'
You can download the syllabus from Edexcel - as a pdf file
Salters Horners official website
What is 'the worshipful company of Horners' and who are 'Salters' ?
