10. Fields
10. Fields
10.1 – Describing fields
Nature of science:
Paradigm shift: The move from direct, observable actions being responsible for influence on an object to acceptance of a field’s “action at a distance” required a paradigm shift in the world of science.
Understandings:
Gravitational fields
Electrostatic fields
Electric potential and gravitational potential
Field lines
Equipotential surfaces
Applications and skills:
Representing sources of mass and charge, lines of electric and gravitational force, and field patterns using an appropriate symbolism
Mapping fields using potential
Describing the connection between equipotential surfaces and field lines
10.2 – Fields at work
Nature of science:
Communication of scientific explanations: The ability to apply field theory to the unobservable (charges) and the massively scaled (motion of satellites) required scientists to develop new ways to investigate, analyse and report findings to a general public used to scientific discoveries based on tangible and discernible evidence.
Understandings:
Potential and potential energy
Potential gradient
Potential difference
Escape speed
Orbital motion, orbital speed and orbital energy
Forces and inverse-square law behaviour
Applications and skills:
Determining the potential energy of a point mass and the potential energy of a point charge
Solving problems involving potential energy
Determining the potential inside a charged sphere
Solving problems involving the speed required for an object to go into orbit around a planet and for an object to escape the gravitational field of a planet
Solving problems involving orbital energy of charged particles in circular orbital motion and masses in circular orbital motion
Solving problems involving forces on charges and masses in radial and uniform fields
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