Past Papers for National 5 Physics

Please read the course report after completing the paper and marking it according to the General Marking Principles.

N5 PapersYearMarking
Exam
Reports
Digital QP
tagging xls2014-
2022
tagging pdfSkills Tagging
2023S1QP
2023S2QP

20232023 MI
Relations
2023S1DQP

2023S2QP
2022S1QP
2022S2QP
20222022 MI2022Report2022S1DQP
2022S2DQP
2021S1QP
2021S2QP
20212021 MI2021 QP evidence
2019QP20192019 MI2019Report2019DQP
2018QP

20182018 MI2018Report2018 DQP
Specimen
QP & MI
New
Model
Specimen
QP & MI
Assignment
Assessment

S1DQP

S2DQP
RelationS
2017QP20172017 MI2017Report2017 DQP
2016QP20162016 MI2016Report2016 DQP
2015QP20152015 MI2015Report2015 S1 DQP
2015 S2 DQP
2014QP20142014 MI2014Report2014 DQP
QP & MISpecimenQP & MI
READ THIS
FIRSTMARK GUIDE

This is the legendary file from Mr Davie, with all the past paper questions matched to the topics.

I’ve just found this file, to give you some additional access to other questions to practice. Here some of the topics have got questions from SG, Int 2 and H questions.

Dynamics 2021

A couple of songs to start this unit. I think we should start all topics with a song.

I can’t condone where this guy is putting his hands!

Most up-to-date notes,

covering all outcomes

This is the updated version of the Dynamics booklet, updated to match the 2017 SQA changes.

The latest version February 2020

Dynamics Summary Notes

Now these appear to be called “Knowledge Organisers!” Who thinks up these fancy names?

This one is a joint effort by Miss Horn and Mrs Physics with formatting help from Mr Risbridger.

These are perfect Mind Maps by Ms Milner, thanks these are the best out!

From A Milner, these are so comprehensive

Other mind maps by Melanie Ehsan, with thanks to eSgoil (who provide lots of online materials), the first of a collection of mindmaps.

Scalars and Vectors

Speed, Velocity, Acceleration

Velocity time graphs

Newton’s Laws of Motion

With a little help from the IoP here is my updated Newton’s 3 Laws. I hope you can understand it. I’m quite scared to share it with you! The pdf will miss some detail as I’ve overlapped some images.

ENERGY

Projectiles

OTHER RESOURCES

A mixture of some notes not yet tidied up!

Here are some practice questions with worked answers and 6 to a page diagram of the sky diving graph

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29th December 2021

Mrs Physics

29th December 2021

Waves Resources

Let’s start with a song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIU69nmktm8

and I’ve downloaded the lyrics and made them into a songsheet for you. Hope Jonny doesn’t charge me for copyright!

and if you like that one, then this is Physics legend

this has got lots more information on the EM Spectrum

2018 Wave Notes as produced by Miss Horn

Wave notes pdf

Wave notes word

Waves Summary Notes

These are waves summary notes I’ve produced. Hope you like them. I’d appreciate someone telling me if a photodiode can detect gamma radiation!

https://mrsphysics.co.uk/n5/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Waves-Summary-Notes-all.pdf

Revision Mind Map

This is part of a series of brilliant Mind Maps made by Miss Milner for the N5 Physics Course. I’ve broken it up into sections so here are the waves mind maps!

Here are a list of current wave resources. I will add more as I go through them. Thanks to other schools if you have kindly supplied material. I really appreciate it as do my students.

Reflection is not in the N5 Course, but it is good to know about reflection!

This is a pdf of the power point that I a using

waves-summary-notes-gairloch1 Some of these notes are for National 4, use with the content statements so you don’t spend too long learning the National 4 work.

vflambda-vdt This starts with a practical model that you can complete in class using the Virtual Physics/ Flash Learning. It then shows how v=fλ is equivalent to v=d/t. Finally some questions will let you practise what you know.

WAVES questions word WAVES questions pdf

I2_Waves&Optics

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Januarty 2021

Virtual Flash Video

The audio can be turned off it is annoys. Here is the Virtual converted to an mp4 if I can get it to work. If people comment and find them useful I can do the rest.

PLEASE NOTE: I KNOW I HAVE A FEW BLOOPERS IN HERE. I’VE GOT TO FIND AN EDITING PACKAGE AND FIND TIME TO USE IT.

Radiation

This is the main Radiation post. Start here!

Here’s the video

Thanks to Miss Horn for the Radiation Notes. Worked Answers to follow.

Thanks to Miss Horn who started these off

click on the image for the pdf Summary Sheet for Radiation

Radiation Mind Map- only print page 1 and 2. If anyone knows how to delete p3 I’d be grateful for a helping hand.

From Helpmyphysics

Fusion

Fusion is the process when two SMALL NUCLEI join to form a LARGER NUCLEI with the production of ENERGY

Fission

Fission is the process when two large nuclei split to form two smaller nuclei with the production of energy. This can occur spontaneously or due to a collision with a neutron. Often extra neutrons are produced.

Chain Reaction

When neutrons split nuclei by fission and extra neutrons are produced which can split further nuclei. Large quantities of energy are produced.

Reducing exposure to ionising radiation.

There are 3 groups of category to reduce harm caused by radiation:

  1. MONITOR
  2. SHIELD
  3. DISTANCE

Monitor includes things like wearing radiation badges or EPUs, timing how long you are exposed to radiation, checking with radiation counters any contamination on clothes.

Shielding is placing layers of absorbers between you and the source, BEWARE, goggles and a lab coat are great at protecting against alpha but have no effect on gamma. Only thick layers of lead would offer protection against gamma.

Distance. Radiation obeys the inverse square law, as you double the distance from a source the level you are exposed to decreases by ¼ . Using tongs is an effective method of keeping your distance from a source.

To give you an idea of the radiation dose that would occur with radiotherapy, here is my mum’s dose. I know that she’d have been happy to share this with you as a learning experience. I really miss you mum x

When it goes wrong

Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster 1986- Effects and Summary

Chernobyl Surviving Disaster (BBC Drama Documentary)

Chernobyl Questions
  1. What date was the Chernobyl Disaster?
  2. What was the name of the man who hanged himself at the start, who was narrating the story?
  3. Which reactor blew?
  4. What was the cause of the accident?
  5. How many people went to see what had happened?
  6. What happened to the people who saw the hole in the reactor?
  7. What day of the week was the disaster?
  8. What town was evacuated?
  9. How did they drain the water from the reactor?
  10. How did they put out the fire?
  11. What was the reading on the counter when they measured the radiation levels?
  12. Why was this reading misleading and wrong?
  13. What was the real count when it was measured correctly?
  14. What were some of the symptoms of radiation poisoning?
  15. Who was sent to prison for crimes to do with the disaster? (or record how many people went to jail)
  16. Who was president of the USSR when the disaster occurred?
  17. What was the trigger that caused the man to hang himself?
  18. What is the “elephant’s foot?” in the reactor?
  19. Have there been any other nuclear disasters? Can you find out about them and name them?
  20. What other things did you learn about nuclear power stations and radioactivity?
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updated October 2020

Radiation 2

Here are some videos and powerpoint shows that I’ve made for the NPA but the outcomes are the same as those in N5 Physics. Thanks to John Sharkey for the use of the Virtual Flash Physics (Int 2) and to Julian Hamm of furryelephant for the animations of ionising an atom.

Videos

If you haven’t done much Chemistry and you don’t know the process of how chemical elements are described, I suggest you check out the video below.

With thanks to Julian Hamm www.furryelephant.com
After watching the video can you mix and match the effects of the radiation.
There are a few booboo’s such as given below and I say we put a beta particle instead of a beta source in the cloud chamber! But as I’ve already spent a day on this I had better move on!

NB In the video above I know totally that photographs were taken well before 1896, the first being taken in 1826. Henri Becquerel discovered that Uranium, a naturally radioactive element fogs photographic film.

June 2020
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Protactinium Half Life Experiment

Using John Sharkey’s Virtual Animations I complete the Half Life of Protactinium 234. The sound needs to be turned down after the first 60 s

This is the draft copy of the Half Life Experiment until I can take out all the noise. I might redo it a third time!

The first one is from the Flash Animations

Using John Sharkey’s Physics Animations
Using John Sharkey’s Flash Learning Virtual Int 2

This one below is from the Int 2 Virtual Physics. No sound, but a few notifications for Teams!

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June 2020

Indium-116 half life experiment

I hope that I am not breaking any rules, but these great resources no longer appear to be online. Can’t believe they are 20 years old!

The first photos show the background count rate, a reading of counts taken over a 1 minute period. The source is then taken out at 9:00 am and a count taken between 9:00 and 9:01, readings are then taken every 15 mins.

Time & CounterClose up ratemeter
Photo missing
count rate= 570

Background count   
Time Time from startCount ratecorrected count
(hours)(mins)(cpm)(cpm)
09:000  
09:1515  
09:3030  
09:4545  
10:0060  
10:1575  
10:3090  
10:45105  
11:00120  
11:15135  
11:30150  
11:45165  
12:00180  

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June 2020

1 kilometre ball drop

Someone has just twitted about this brilliant animation. I hope it makes you realise the consequences of different gravitational field strengths.

Thanks to Dr James O’Donoghue, we’ll forgive the American spelling of kilometre!

Explain this!

Here is an experiment

Various materials of the same mass (500g) are crushed, placed in a boil in the bag bag and placed in boiling water until they have reached equilibrium. They are they removed rapidly and placed into a beaker with a known volume of water and a known temperature. The highest temperature they reach is recorded.

Describe what will happen to the temperature of the beakers when the bags are placed in them.

Why are the bags left in the boiling water for a long time?

Why must you be quick moving the bags into the beakers of water at room temperature?

What would happen if water got trapped in the top of the bag when moving them?

Why are the materials crushed and not a solid lump?

Could this be used to find a value for the specific heat capacity? If so, how.

Here is the video on SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY based on John Sharkey’s Virtual National 5 Physics

Learning Outcome Questions.

At last I’ve completed the LOQ. There are a few mistakes in the answers but really not many.

When completing these questions there is no point in just going straight to the answers, it wont teach you anything. Use the answers after you’ve completed what you can do and had a good guess at what you can’t. Mark in green anything you’ve had to look up.

Enjoy!

Complete book of outcome questions

Final version of the Learning Outcome Questions that are matched to the compendium

Individual Sections

ALL UNITS

Dynamics

Space

ELECTRICITY

Properties of Matter

Waves

Radiation

This also contains some bonus material on problem solving questions. You’ll find these in every paper.

December 2019
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Learning Outcome Answers

This contains the N5 Physics Self Assessment Answers for each unit. Revise with these or use as homework

There is absolutely no point in just copying out the answers. There is an important requirement in checking your answers carefully to ensure you haven’t made a mistake and that you’ve understood the course specifications and the learning outcomes.

Only check over the answer when you’ve completed a section and mark them in green pen.

Advice from the SQA

From the Understanding Standards Meeting I went to Physics teachers were advised to tell their students NOT to add in the rearranging line for their calculations. Just do the formula, substitution and final line. For some of you this will involve too many steps so you might want to cross out any middle lines. I’ve shown mine in these answers to give you more help as to how to get to the answer.

All Units (the maths bit)

Dynamics

Finally finished, but I’ll need to edit out the duplicates but I’ll do that with the updated booklet so the numbers match. (updated 22nd June 2020) Not sure when they will get done, it might be a 2021 version

Space

Waves

Electricity

Properties of Matter

20/12/19 finished, thanks to Callum, some corrections made 25/0222

Radioactivity & Variables Questions

Finished 27/07/20

Please if you find mistakes in my answers please add a comment below.

I will now need to go through and make a 2021 booklet of questions and answers with the corrections. This is a long slow process! I hope you find them useful, then it will have all been worthwhile…… Now I need to start the Higher ones!

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July 2020

Space Learning Outcome Questions

Final Space Learning Outcomes.

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Sept 2020

Waves Learning Outcome Questions

Here are the Waves Learning outcome questions which will help you through your revision. They can also be found in the Learning outcome section in the Course Material drop down menu. Answers are on here too, but copying from the answers is a pointless activity. Hopefully by completing all of these questions you will have produced an excellent set of revision notes from which to revise.

You can always use these in electronic version to answer the questions but DON’T think you’ll produce one set between you and copy!

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Updated Jan 2021

More on Waves

Electromagnetic Wave Practicals

Inductiveload, NASA [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

One of the uses of UV radiation is a security feature of bank notes. Shining UV radiation on to the bank note causes them to fluoresce (the atoms in the material take in the UV radiation and re-emits it as light which we can see)

Look at how advanced the fluorescing shapes and colours are.

Experiments- Uses of UV to check the authenticity of bank notes

IR cameras are used by the police to track for criminals at night but they are also really useful to the fire brigade at finding people in smoked filled buildings, you can’t hide behind a bin bag and even a hand print can leave a “heat print”.

You can’t hide in a bin bag if someone has the IR camera on you!

Did you know you can be on the radio? Not very musical but it can drown out Radio Scotland.

Do try this at home, use cheese marshmallows or chocolate but you need to take the turntable out and DON’T put things on a metal tray!

The electromagnetic (em) spectrum is a collection of transverse waves that all travel at the same speed in air, the speed of light, 300 000 000 m/s. (equivalent to 7.5 times round the Earth every second)

One of the waves is VISIBLE LIGHT

A=amplitude λ = wavelength

Others are RADIO & TV, MICROWAVE.

The others are INFRA-RED, ULTRA VIOLET, X-RAYS, GAMMA WAVES.

The only difference between each of these waves is their wavelength or frequency. They all fit the formula

Speed= frequency × wavelength

v=f λ

The order is important and to remember it use the following rhyme!

Randy                  Radio & TV

Monkeys              Microwaves

Invade                 Infrared

Venezuela           Visible

Using                   Ultraviolet

Xylophone           X-rays

Gunships             Gamma

Period, T, is the time for one wave to pass a point and is measured in seconds.

Frequency, f is the number of waves being produced or passing a point per second. Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz)

Here are lots of resources for you to check and practice. My utmost apologies if I have not credited people for sending this material. As soon as I know who you are I will thank you personally.

REVISION GAMES FOR WAVES

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