15 of the Physics glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
In relativity, a reference frame with clocks at every position that records where and when each event happens, after allowing for the time light takes to arrive.
The current in a conductor is directly proportional to the pd across it, provided its temperature and other physical conditions stay constant.
A component that obeys Ohm's law, so its resistance is constant at every pd; a metal at constant temperature is ohmic.
A pipe open at both ends; each end is a displacement antinode, the first harmonic has and all harmonics are present.
A thin strand of glass with a core surrounded by cladding of lower refractive index, which guides light along it by repeated total internal reflection.
Describes the medium with the higher refractive index of two, in which light travels more slowly.
The total (kinetic plus gravitational potential) energy of a body in a circular orbit, ; it is negative because the body is bound.
The time for one complete orbit; for a circular orbit .
The speed of a body in a circular orbit of radius around a mass ,
The whole number of wavelengths in the path difference between light from neighbouring slits at a grating or double-slit maximum.
The power of ten closest to a quantity; two quantities differ by one order of magnitude when their ratio is about ten.
The fixed reference point from which positions are measured.
A repeated back-and-forth motion of a body about a fixed equilibrium position.
The idealised cycle of a petrol engine: adiabatic compression, heating at constant volume, adiabatic expansion and cooling at constant volume.
A reading that lies far from the pattern of the others, usually because of an identifiable mistake; it is checked and may be excluded, with the reason stated.