Thanks to S Gray, Drummond Community High School, for putting together this book of experiments that you should have covered in your N5 Physics lessons. Any of these could be discussed in your exam as a question.
Tag: Physics
Practice Questions
Thanks to the wonderful Physics teacher who provided these.
| Dynamics & Space | Electricity & Energy | Waves & Radiation |
|---|---|---|
| Notes ver 1.2 doc | Notes ver 3.1 | Notes ver 2.1 |
| Problems 1.2 doc | Problems 3.0 doc | Problems 3.1 doc |
| Problems 1.2 pdf | Problems 3.0 pdf | Problems ver 3.1 pdf |
| Answer File ver 1.4 | Answer File ver 3.0 | Answer File ver 3.1 |
SPACE Resources
Space Notes
Space
Sorry I just couldn’t get this to fit on 2 pages. I am sure someone will send it back to me looking beautiful!
Just heard about this on twitter!
You can read about some of the risks of human spaceflight in the infographic below.
Source Space.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration
Here are a few links and documents. Hope you can get access to them.
www.open.edu/History of Universe Timeline
The EM Spectrum and Space
The EM spectrum gives us loads of important information about the world outside our Earth
http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/HTML5/emission_spectra.html
Launching a Rocket
Want to be a rocket scientist? Can you launch a payload to 400 km in your first go? Don’t forget to have drag on and mass use to be more natural!
https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/389-lift-offRocket
Dock with the ISS
Protected: Revision Answers
Revision Questions
Lots of people are asking me about the answers to these North Ayrshire revision check tests. Can I also recommend you pop across to the Learning Outcome Questions, which have fully worked answer. Click on the links below. No cheating though!
https://mrsphysics.co.uk/n5/category/coursematerials/lo/
Thanks to those in North Ayrshire who provided these excellent questions for you to get your teeth into. I’ll post the answers as password protected to protect those students and staff who are giving these for homework! They’re in the old order, so you’ll have to search through for the right section.
ENJOY!
| Units | Summary Notes | Problems |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamics & Space | Summary Notes D&S | Questions D&S pdf Problems D&S doc |
| Electricity & Energy | Summary Notes E&E | Questions E&E pdf Problems E&E doc |
| Waves & Radiation | Summary Notes W&R | Questions W&R pdf Problems W&R doc |
Revision for..
A great new resource from Mr Spence from George Watson’s College, thanks so much for sharing and I hope you can all find this.
If you don’t know your scalars from your vectors try this….
Space Definitions 1
Space Definitions 2
Thanks to Ms K Ward from Edinburgh Academy for these equation flashcards. If you print them on card double sided you can get two lots to share with a friend
Revision Plan – 2018/9
A revision planner for you to use. 
Revision-plan 2018 19
Someone has pinched my line!
and I had this idea at Science on Stage!
For those doing the UASP -Electricity and Energy
- Revise the type of energy and conversion
- Gravitational potential
- Kinetic
- Work done
- Heat
- Electrical
- Practical electrical and electronic circuits
- Ohmâs law
- Electrical practical circuits
- Electrical power
- Specific Heat Capacity
- Pressure
- Gas Laws
- Kinetic Theory
Try the following questions
Specimen Paper:
Section 1: q6, 10, 11, 12, 13,14,15,16,17, Section 2: Q5, 6, 7, 8
National 5 2017
Section 1: Q1-7, 19, Section 2: Q1,2,3,
National 5 2016
Section 1: Q1-7 Section 2: Q1,2,3,4,5
National 5: 2015
Section 1: Q1-6 Section 2: Q1,2,3,4
National 5: 2014
Section 1: Q1-7 Section 2: Q1,2,3
Learn the formula for
Ew=QV, Ew=Fd, Ep=mgh, Ek=Âœmv2, E=Pt, Ee=ItV, EH=mcÎT, EH = ml, P=F/A, Q=It, R in series, R in parallel, V1 =R1/Rt ÂŽVs, V=IR, P=IV, P=I2R, P=V2/R, pV/T(K)=constant
Make flashcards of
- The Kinetic theory
- Gas Laws
- Rules for series and parallel
- Circuit Symbols
- Rules for charges attracting and repelling
- Definitions of
- Pressure
- Temperature and average speed and kinetic energy
- Electric Fields
- Conservation of Energy
- Specific Heat Capacity
- Specific Latent Heat
- Power
- Current
Learn the units for all the electricity quantities, properties of matter and energy quantities.
I’ll add to this during the week as I have time
If you are doing a PROPERTIES OF MATTER TEST
Look over some OLD Higher papers for the Pressure and Gas Laws as well as the relevant past papers above. I’ll look out the papers with question numbers as soon as I can.
If you’re doing the Waves and Radiation UASP I’ll get some revision plans up soon
Old/ traditional higher……
H 2015 Q7 and 24
H 2014 Q7 and 24
H 2013 Q7 and 24 not part c
H2012 Q7 and 24
H 2011 Q7 and 24
H 2010 Q7 and 23 b
H 2009 Q7 and 23 a,c
H 2008 Q7 and 23
These can be found on the higher part of the website.
Updated July 18
10 week Revision Plan
This is a ten week revision plan, put together by Mr A Riddell from “up North”. It will give you some ideas on how to break up the daunting task of revision. NB I’ll need to change this for the 2024date of 25th April for your exam.
Prelim Dates
Hi Folks these are the dates for the N5 Prelims
Mrs H’s class:       Monday 8th January P3 & 4, extended questions
Tuesday 9th January P6, 25 multiple choice questions
Miss H’s class:  Tuesday 9th January P5, 25 multiple choice questions
Wednesday 10th January P5 & 6, extended questions
Properties of Matter Notes
Not the best fit for a Properties of Matters song, but still lots of important material here.
Hot off the press for 2025 more of Martin Cunningham’s Excellent Resources
The Properties of Matter Booklet in both word and pdf form.
Here are a set of summary notes, I made a few changes and put them into a table rather than boxes to help the flow, not that anyone would know. Thanks to the teacher who produced these- sorry there was no name on them.
Gay-Lussac is incorrectly recognized for the Pressure Law which established that the pressure of an enclosed gas is directly proportional to its temperature and which he was the first to formulate (c. 1809). He is also sometimes credited with being the first to publish convincing evidence that shows the relationship between the pressure and temperature of a fixed mass of gas kept at a constant volume.
Maybe for the deception he should be sent to Pressure Cooker!
These laws are also known variously as the Pressure Law or Amontons’s law and Dalton’s law respectively.
Thanks to other Physics teachers who have provided resources for these notes.
Tips!
Here I will post a few tips and hints to remember when answering SQAÂ N5 Papers. Hopefully they’ll be quick, snappy and memorable. You’ve got the whole of the Scottish Physics Teachers’ Community Wisdom Below!
Tips to Aid Memory
- Neutrons donât carry/have (net) charge so aren’t accelerated/guided/ deflected by magnetic fields.
- I.S.S. (current in series the same). I.P.A (current in parallel adds), USA (voltage in series adds), UPS (voltage in parallel same) OK you need to think of a U as a V but most of you write like that anyway!
- Voltage dividers- think Kendal Mint cake!
- Learn your 7 point plan!
- Transistors act as a SWITCH.
Preparing for the Exam
- Check out the past paper marking instructions for do’s and don’ts- its full of them in that second column!
- Read the Course Reports, they give common mistakes that lots of students made and then you avoid these.
- Make up flashcards, or cue cards and leave them where you go most often, (e.g. biscuit tin, phone, computer, loo). Don’t let yourself have a treat until you’ve set yourself so many questions to get right.
- Check through your compendium that you’ve covered ALL the content and understand it BEFORE you get to the exam and find out you’ve missed something out. (Believe me as someone who missed 5 questions from her 50 questions she needed to learn for her German exam and these were the 5 that came up- it is really upsetting!)
- If you learn nothing else- learn units and symbols. BUT PLEASE learn more than units and symbols. I think this tip is meant to inspire you that these are so important and can get you a long way!
- Learn your prefixes!
During the Exam
-
- Obviously you know- no secs in Physics, just stick to unit symbols and save all the problems of spelling.
- Remember: SIG FIG, your final answer should be rounded up to the same number of significant figures as the LEAST significant measurement.
- Make sure you see the words “end of question paper”. Don’t assume you’ve got to the end and there are no questions on the very last page!
- Actually there are NO questions on the question paper anyway. All have command words, so learn these and what they mean. I’ll add the link in later.
- “Show” questions – means show correct formula, working and numerical answer stated as given in the question. Your final statement should be what you’ve been asked to find.
- Donât leave anything blank! If you really donât know, give it a go – you never know.
- The questions in the exam sections (MC and then extended answers) are in approximately the same order as the Relationships Sheet.
- LIST: given numbers with the correct symbols before doing a calculation. Or as we say IESSUU (information, Equation, Substitution, Solution, Units and Underline)
- Start by writing down what the question has asked you to find. E.g. âEh = ?â. Then write down the other quantities given. Only then choose a formula.
- Substitute then rearrange.
- Read all of the question, especially that bit you skipped over at the start.
- Don’t forget units! It’s now worth at least 33% of a calculation!
- Use common sense regarding âreal lifeâ things i.e. cars are unlikely to be going at 245 ms-1, a tennis player isnât going to be serving the ball from 5m up etc etc
- Sometimes multiple choice questions can be logic-ed through without any knowledge of physics. Physics and common sense are often the same thing.
- If you can’t do part a) but could do part b) if you only knew part a), then make up an answer for part a) and put it in part a of the question and use that in part b).
- This will do for now more to come as they arise……
Some practice notes from Mr Dawson from Wallace Hall Academy.
N5 Revision Pupil Questions pdf version
N5 Revision Pupil Questions word version
ELECTRICITY from 2017
Here is the topic song
Mr Cunningham Workbook for all of the Electricity Topic
Updated November 2019
I can now upload ppp to mrsphysics, so here is one of the first. It is to cover section 9 and 10 of the outcomes. Thanks to the kind person who produced the stuff on A.C and D.C. I’ve been using it for years. Let me know if I’ve nicked it from you and I’ll add my grateful thanks.
Ohm’s Law
Components
resistor network Try this when you think you have got to grips with resistances in series and parallel.
AC_DC[1] This is a powerpoint presentation that someone passed to be in the days of SG. It covers AC and DC traces
Voltage Dividers
VOLTAGE DIVIDER FORMULAE The formula sheet for voltage dividers
VOLTAGE divider Q Practice those horrible voltage divider questions with this pdf version of the document below. The answers are given for you to check. VOLTAGE divider Q
Resistance NetwoRK
Other notes
Mains- Electricity in the home
Here are some additional notes that might help as you go through the materials. Check out the post on using your calculators to measure resistance (I’ll add the link here when I’ve found the post!)
Ring main Based on the SG course notes and not really in the N5 course, but it might give a little background to why when calculating the fuse rating for an appliance you use 240V and not the 230 V as stated.
Older Notes
EE1 – Electricity LOCKERBIE The old electricity notes (based on a colleagues work- thank you and I’ll find out who you are), these will be superceded when the document above is completed.
Elect & elect D&G Prob Book no answers These are some great little questions by Mr Belford formerly from Dumfries Academy, but some of the numbers are a little bit fictional!
Elect & elect D&G Prob Book no answers The above document as a pdf file.
…… to be continued!
WAVES ASSESSMENT
For all Senior N4/N5 classes your assessment for the waves section will be on Tuesday AUGUST 29th 2017. It is expected that you will have completed the Outcome Questions, and marked these REVISE NOW!
N5 Assignment from 2020
TEACHERS: Mosey along to Usefullinks and I’m going to put some teacher points there for you. I’ll add the link when I’ve added the materials.
At the bottom of this post is a comment about describing your graphs. Well worth a read.
A set of PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTAL SHEETS that are in line with the changes brought in for the 2020/21 session.
This table has the worksheets in word form.
| Topic | Sheet | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamics / Space | N5 Hookes Law A | Hookes Law A |
| Dynamics / Space | N5 Hookes Law B | Hookes Law B |
| Dynamics | N5 Acc slope | Acceleration and angle of the slope |
| Dynamics | N5 F=m a A | F=ma changing mass :A |
| Dynamics | N5 F=m a B | F=ma changing mass: B |
| Dynamics | N5 projectiles A | Projectiles changing the launch angle: A |
| Dynamics | N5 projectiles B | Projectiles changing the launch speed: B |
| Dynamics | N5 projectiles C | Projectiles changing the launch height: C |
| Dynamics | N5 Stopping distance A | How the speed affects the stopping distance |
| Dynamics | N5 Stopping distance B | How the speed affects the stopping distance |
| Dynamics | Pendulum and length | |
| Prop. of Matter | ||
| Prop. of Matter | N5 Charles' Law A | Volume and Temperature with constant pressure |
| Prop. of Matter | N5 Boyles Law A | Pressure and volume for constant temperature |
| Prop. of Matter | N5 Boyles Law B | Pressure and volume for constant temperature: A |
| Prop. of Matter | N5 Pressure Law A | Pressure and Temperature for constant volume: B |
| Prop. of Matter | N5 Pressure and depth A | Effects of pressure of a liquid with depth |
| Prop. of Matter | N5 SHC A | Specific Heat Capacity measure V and I |
| Prop. of Matter | N5 SHC B | Specific Heat Capacity using joule meter |
| Prop. of Matter | N5 Cooling Curve A | Cooling curve of water and stearic acid |
| Prop. of Matter | N5 Latent heat of vaporisation A | Determining latent heat of vaporisation A |
| Prop. of Matter | N5 Latent heat of vaporisation B | Determining latent heat of vaporisation B |
| Electricity / Energy | N5 Solar Cell A angle | Solar Cells A Angle |
| Electricity / Energy | N5 Solar Cell B distance | Solar Cells B Distance |
| Electricity / Energy | N5 Solar Cell C translucent | Solar Cells C Translucent |
| Electricity / Energy | N5 Solar Cell D area | Solar Cells D Area |
| Electricity | N5 Ohms Law A | Measuring voltage and current for a ohmic conductor (resistor) |
| Electricity | N5 Ohms Law B | Measuring voltage and current for a non-ohmic conductor |
| Electricity | N5 Thermistors A 2023 | Thermistors |
| Electricity | N5 LED 2023 | LEDs |
| Electricity | N5 LDR A | An LDR -distance from the light source. |
| N5 Assign LDR B | An LDR - light intensity: B | |
| Electricity | N5 Assign LDR C | Calibrating an LDR against a light level meter |
| Space | Orbit period v height |
|
| Waves / Space | Microwave distance v signal strength | |
| Waves | N5 Speed of Sound | Speed of Sound |
| Waves | N5 Refraction A | Refraction |
| Radiation | ||
âThe experiments detailed in the course specification can be used. Centres are obviously free to choose other experiments if they wish, as long as theyâre commensurate with the level. One of the advantages of using the experiments in the course is that you can be sure that the physics is accessible and at the correct level.
In the past, we saw some examples where centres had used rotational motion experiments with N5 candidates, and you could tell that the candidates had no clue what they were doing. Itâs also been obvious at National 5 level that some centres are still using kits they had for Standard Grade investigations, which is fine, but you do need to make sure that the underlying physics is accessible. To give an example, solar cells was always a popular topic for Standard Grade and we see centres using them for National 5, but explaining how a solar cell produces a potential difference is something N5 candidates will probably struggle with.
Your colleagues may wish to have a look at the Physics pages on the Understanding Standards website:
SQA – Understanding Standards: Introduction (Nat 5)
SQA – Understanding Standards: Introduction (Higher)
where they will see several exemplars based on the experiments detailed in the course specification.
If you have things that have worked well in the past, then itâs worth remembering that nothing has changed in any of the coursework requirements, and therefore they should still work in the same way.â
SQA Good Guy
Here is a marking grid, obviously only if you are able to find time for a practice. It is not to be used to tentatively mark the student assignment being sent to the SQA.
This is the info for N5 from August 2020
The material has recently been published on the Understanding Standards Website SQA Physics N5 INFO
Above gives an example of the new Assignment requirements. It is vital that you don’t copy or even attempt to copy this assignment. If you are likely to copy other people’s work it is best to choose another topic.
Initial Task- vital
| Section | Expected response | Max mark |
|---|---|---|
| Title | The report has an informative title. | 1 |
| Aim | A description of the purpose of the investigation. | 1 |
| Underlying physics relevant to the aim | A description of the physics relevant to the aim which shows understanding. | 3 |
| Data collection and handling | A brief description of the experiment. | 1 |
| Sufficient raw data from the experiment. | 1 | |
| Raw data presented in a table with headings and units. | 1 | |
| Values correctly calculated from the raw data. | 1 | |
| Data from an internet/literature source. | 1 | |
| A reference for the internet/literature source. | 1 | |
| Graphical presentation | The correct type of graph used to present the experimental data. | 1 |
| Suitable scales. | 1 | |
| Suitable labels and units on axes. | 1 | |
| All points plotted accurately, with line or curve of best fit if appropriate. | 1 | |
| Analysis | Experimental data compared to data from internet/literature source. | 1 |
| Conclusion | A conclusion related to the aim and supported by data in the report. | 1 |
| Evaluation | A discussion of a factor affecting the reliability, accuracy or precision of the results. | 2 |
| Structure | A report which can be easily followed. | 1 |
| TOTAL MARKS | 20 |
Before Starting on your assignment take time to go over the following, it is vital that you know what you are doing.
Understanding Standards Webinar
To kick you off with your assignment Mr Forwood has supplied the following document.
N5 Assignment instructions (editable in word)
N5 Assignment instructions (pdf file)
The document below is one that I started in the holidays but got distracted. I will get something together a.s.a.p but until then make do with this starter!
You must also correctly reference your work, learn how to do this with the following link.
Exeter.ac.uk/studyskills/harvard_referencing.htm
How to record your relationships!
This is not a discussion about your friendships but how the data can be described.
The best terminology to use for graphs that have
a trend which is a straight line is âa linear relationshipâ.
That avoids issues around whether something is directly proportional or proportional.
Directly proportional only applies when the graph is a straight line through the origin (or close to the origin within the uncertainty in the y-intercept). It is best to avoid âproportionalâ altogether.
A curve, such as that produced when plotting mass against acceleration for a constant force, can never be described as showing an âinversely proportionalâ relationship, since it does not show the actual relationship (it could potentially be any number of different relationships).
Inverse proportionality can only be claimed when the correct graph of, for example, acceleration against 1/m is drawn, and it produces a straight line through the origin.
The type of graph produced for an internal resistance experiment is covered by the term âlinear relationshipâ, as it follows the equation y=mx+c format.
Feb 2025
Int 2/ SG Papers
Workshop 2017 for SQA
National 5 Workshop for Physics- Thursday 3rd May 2018 P1 & 2Â
This is the document that we will be going through. We wont have time to go through all the material, so you might want to use this as part of your revision. Do start your revision early and be sure to look over some of the ways to revise, I’ll get a link when I can locate it! It the Higher Revision section of the site there is a link to type of learner. Try the learning styles it will help you revise.
Click on the link below to go directly to the SQA website where you can make a personalized exam timetable.
https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/1439.html
If you’re less computer savy, or a parent he is the paper copy for this year
Nat 5 open ended questions booklet
Nat 5 Dyn 3 Skills and Open ended
Thanks to Mr Cavers, and Belmont Academy for sorting the N5 past papers into topic order.
Exam Practice Questions DYNAMICS
Exam Practice Questions ELECTRICITY
Exam Practice Questions ENERGY
Exam Practice Questions PROPERTIES OF MATTER
Exam Practice Questions RADIATION