Grade 11 · Physics (SPH3U)

Grade 11 Physics · SPH3U

The whole course, put together

What the finished course adds up to: five worlds, one connected model of how things move, why, and where the energy goes.

Core mental models, world by world

Kinematics: How do we describe motion?

Position comes first, because every other quantity is a change in it. Velocity is how position changes; acceleration is how velocity changes; the graphs draw both changes as one line. A projectile is two of these motions at once. The method topic is how any of it gets measured honestly.

18 mental models, 0 of ? topics done
  • Position needs a start line
  • The path adds up; start-to-finish is one arrow
  • How fast, with or without a direction
  • A sign is a direction
  • Acceleration is how fast the velocity changes
  • The area under a velocity line is a displacement
  • A graph is not a picture of the path
  • Slope is a rate; area is a total
  • A curve means the rate is changing
  • Two motions share one clock
  • Across is steady; down is free fall
  • The fall sets the time; the sideways speed spends it
  • Arrows add tail to head; the resultant runs first tail to last head
  • Any arrow is a north part and an east part
  • A velocity is relative to something; a current adds its own
  • A question that can lose
  • Hold the rest still
  • A verdict no bigger than the evidence

Forces: Why does motion change?

Kinematics described change; this world finds its cause. Forces are found first, so that nothing is missed. Newton's laws then say what the net force does. Friction and free fall are the two forces every real problem meets.

9 mental models, 0 of ? topics done
  • A force is a push or a pull between two things
  • The touching test, then add Earth
  • Balanced forces change nothing; the net force is what is left
  • Motion needs no maintainer; only change needs a cause
  • a = F ÷ m: force on top, mass underneath
  • Every push is one half of a pair, on two different objects
  • Friction is priced off the squeeze, not the speed
  • Squeeze, drag, then the leftover to the second law
  • Without air, every mass falls alike

Energy: Where does the ability to make change go?

Work is the bridge from forces: a force along a motion hands energy over. Conservation is the rule above every store. Heat is energy counted inside matter; the nucleus is the steepest exchange rate there is. The research topic is how claims about energy get judged.

15 mental models, 0 of ? topics done
  • Work is force times distance, only along the motion
  • Power is how fast the bill is paid
  • Every machine pays a thermal tax
  • Height banks energy; motion carries it
  • Energy changes stores; the total never changes
  • Missing energy is thermal energy
  • Temperature is a reading; heat is energy moving
  • Each degree has a price per kilogram
  • A change of state costs energy with no rise
  • Same protons, different neutrons: isotopes
  • Every half-life halves what is left
  • Halving never reaches zero
  • No single source settles it
  • Record as you read
  • Check the fact and the logic separately

Waves & Sound: How can a pattern carry energy and information?

Energy moved from store to store in the last world; here it moves without the stuff moving. Superposition is the one rule for two waves; standing waves and resonance are that rule between boundaries; the Doppler shift is what motion does to the spacing of a pattern.

9 mental models, 0 of ? topics done
  • The pattern travels; the medium stays
  • Four numbers for any wave; the medium sets the speed
  • Overlapping waves add, point by point
  • A standing wave: nodes still, antinodes widest
  • Only whole half-wavelengths fit a length
  • A push on time compounds: resonance
  • The medium owns the speed; the source owns the birthplaces
  • Motion squeezes the crests ahead and stretches those behind
  • Sound is a squeeze passed particle to particle

Electricity & Magnetism: How do charges, fields and changing fields make circuits and machines work?

A circuit is energy conservation with wires: the volts a loop spends are the volts it was given. A current makes a field; a changing field makes a current; a transformer is the second fact used on purpose, and the squared term in the loss formula is why.

12 mental models, 0 of ? topics done
  • Voltage is the push; current is the flow
  • The current is the same all round; voltage gets spent
  • Series shares the push; parallel shares the flow
  • A magnetic field fills the space; field lines map it
  • Every current wraps itself in a field
  • The right hand reads the field's direction
  • Only change induces
  • The induced voltage follows how fast the field changes
  • The induced current opposes its cause
  • A transformer trades volts for amps; power is unchanged
  • Line loss is I²R, so the grid runs high volts and low amps
  • Only change induces, so the grid alternates

Reason across the worlds

Every question you met in a topic told you which topic it came from. These sets take that away: a mixed set spans worlds, a ladder climbs one world rung by rung, and the cumulative paper is the closest thing here to a final.

A mixed set across worlds The cumulative paperChoose a world to climb

The ideas that ran through everything

What to do next