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Grade 11 Physics

The ideas, unit by unit

Every idea a topic leans on, on its own page in plain language: a question, a picture, an answer. Find your unit, then your topic. Nothing here is marked or recorded.

Unit 1

Kinematics

6 topics · 46 ideas

Topic 1Where are you, exactly?

How can you walk twelve metres and end up nowhere?

12 ideas

12 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. A start line
  2. Where she is
  3. Every metre counts
  4. Start to finish
  5. Which way
  6. Two kinds of number
  7. How fast, on the path
  8. How fast, and which way
  9. The whole trip, or one moment
  10. The walk as a line
  11. Not a hill
  12. Steep means fast
Topic 2Solving motion, both ways

How do you find a number the problem never gave you?

11 ideas

11 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. Which way is plus
  2. A minus sign is a direction
  3. How fast the speed changes
  4. Steady change, straight line
  5. The average sits halfway
  6. The area under the line
  7. Area below the line
  8. One picture, three equations
  9. Which equation
  10. The same speed, two units
  11. Two pictures, one join
Topic 3Graphs don’t lie

How can one line tell you where something was, how fast it went, and how far?

6 ideas

6 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. Two readings of any graph
  2. Curved means changing
  3. Same motion, two graphs
  4. Area of any shape
  5. Two pings
  6. Higher, or steeper
Topic 4Two motions, one clock

Which lands first: the ball you drop, or the one you throw sideways?

5 ideas

5 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. Two motions at once
  2. Across is steady
  3. Down is free fall
  4. One clock
  5. Speed sets the range
Topic 5Two directions at once

A swimmer aims straight across a river. Where does she land?

6 ideas

6 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. Two arrows, one path
  2. North part, east part
  3. Naming a direction
  4. Measured, not calculated
  5. Whose velocity is it
  6. Across the current
Topic 6How physicists actually work

How do you find something out so that it stays found out?

6 ideas

6 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. A question that can lose
  2. The one you change
  3. Match the instrument
  4. Hold the rest still
  5. Close, or consistent
  6. A verdict no bigger than the evidence

Unit 2

Forces

3 topics · 21 ideas

Topic 1Why things move (or don’t)

A book just sits on a table. What is pushing and pulling on it?

8 ideas

8 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. A push or a pull
  2. The touching test
  3. The pull along a rope
  4. How much stuff
  5. Earth pulls everything
  6. A perfect draw
  7. Draw every force
  8. The net arrow
Topic 2Newton’s three, applied

You push a wall and nothing moves. So who is pushing whom?

6 ideas

6 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. Nothing needs a push to keep going
  2. Change needs a net force
  3. Which way it changes
  4. Mass fights back
  5. Every push is a pair
  6. Pairs act on different things
Topic 3Friction, and the fall

Why does a heavy ball not fall faster than a light one?

7 ideas

7 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. The drag against the slide
  2. The squeeze sets the price
  3. It holds, then it slides
  4. The leftover force
  5. Heavy and light fall together
  6. Why the feather lags
  7. When the air wins

Unit 3

Energy

5 topics · 30 ideas

Topic 1Work, power, and where energy hides

Sprint the stairs or stroll them. Why is the energy bill the same?

6 ideas

6 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. The ability to make change
  2. Paying with a push
  3. Only along the push
  4. How fast you pay
  5. Warmth is where it went
  6. The thermal tax
Topic 2Nothing is ever lost

A pendulum swings back toward your nose. Will it hit you?

5 ideas

5 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. Banked by height
  2. Carried by motion
  3. The total never changes
  4. Draw the box first
  5. Where the missing joules go
Topic 3Heat, counted honestly

Ice is melting with the burner on. Why does the thermometer not move?

9 ideas

9 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. How hot
  2. Energy on the move
  3. Through the metal
  4. The warm air rises
  5. Across empty space
  6. The price per degree
  7. What one loses, the other gains
  8. The thermometer stops
  9. Two bills, one graph
Topic 4The nucleus pays the bills

A tracer reads 800, then 400 six hours later. Then what?

7 ideas

7 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. Same element, different nucleus
  2. Mass is the fuel
  3. Split the heavy
  4. Join the light
  5. Three kinds of leak
  6. The halving clock
  7. Never quite zero
Topic 5Sources, bias, and the people who do physics

Two polished websites contradict each other. Which do you believe?

3 ideas

3 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. No single source settles it
  2. Record as you go
  3. True fact, broken inference

Unit 4

Waves & Sound

3 topics · 20 ideas

Topic 1Two waves walk into each other

Two waves meet on a rope. Do they crash, bounce, or something else?

9 ideas

9 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. The pattern moves, the stuff stays
  2. How tall
  3. How long
  4. How often
  5. The medium sets the speed
  6. Across or along
  7. They add, point by point
  8. Crest meets trough
  9. The end sends it back
Topic 2The notes that fit

Why does a plucked string play a note, and not noise?

6 ideas

6 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. The wave that stands still
  2. Still points, widest points
  3. Only the fits survive
  4. One end open
  5. Everything has a beat
  6. Pushing on time
Topic 3The stretched siren

An ambulance passes and the note drops. What actually changed?

5 ideas

5 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. High, or loud
  2. The medium owns the speed
  3. Born closer together
  4. Whose speed is it
  5. Sound needs stuff

Unit 5

Electricity & Magnetism

4 topics · 24 ideas

Topic 1The circuit always balances

Two bulbs in a row share a battery. Which one is brighter?

9 ideas

9 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. A loop that closes
  2. The push
  3. The flow
  4. Nothing is used up
  5. The toll
  6. Push, flow, fight
  7. One loop
  8. Side by side
  9. Watts in the wire
Topic 2The field around the wire

A switch closes and a compass twitches. What reached it?

7 ideas

7 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. Two ends, never one
  2. The invisible map
  3. Where the lines crowd
  4. Every current wraps a field
  5. Coil it up
  6. The right hand reads it
  7. A current in a field feels a push
Topic 3Spin a magnet, light a city

A strong magnet sits inside a coil. Why does the meter read zero?

4 ideas

4 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. Only change induces
  2. Faster change, bigger swing
  3. Spin it
  4. The bill for free energy
Topic 4The grid’s clever trick

Twenty times the volts out of a transformer. Twenty times the power?

4 ideas

4 ideas, in order. Each one stands on the ones before it.

Open the topic
  1. Turns set the volts
  2. The lever, not the amplifier
  3. The squared term
  4. Why only AC