Introduction to Physics and Measurement of Physical Quantities

What physics studies and how scientists investigate; SI units and prefixes; measuring length, mass, weight, volume, density and time with the right instrument; and the difference between scalar and vector quantities.

2

Uniform Rectilinear Motion

Describing motion from a reference point: trajectory, distance and displacement, speed, velocity and acceleration; the equations and graphs of uniform rectilinear motion; and how they are used on Rwanda's roads and in everyday life.

3

Force and Equilibrium of Objects

What forces are and what they do; contact and non-contact forces; adding parallel and non-parallel forces; moments and the principle of moments; and the centre of gravity and stability of objects, from see-saws to loads carried on the head.

4

Newton's Laws of Motion

Why a body stays at rest or keeps moving until a resultant force acts on it; how mass resists changes in motion; how force, mass and acceleration are linked by F = ma; the difference between mass and weight; why forces always come in equal and opposite pairs; how every mass attracts every other mass; and how these laws explain seat belts, sport, lorries and rockets.

5

Work, Power and Energy

What physicists mean by work and how to calculate it; power as the rate of doing work; the forms energy takes and the sources Rwanda uses; kinetic and gravitational potential energy; how a pendulum, a falling stone or a hydroelectric plant turns one form of energy into another; and how work, power and energy are linked.

6

Temperature Measurement and Physical Properties of Matter

The difference between heat and temperature; the Celsius, Kelvin, Fahrenheit and Réaumur scales and how to convert between them; how thermometric liquids, laboratory, clinical and maximum–minimum thermometers work, and why a thermometer must reach thermal equilibrium; what matter is made of and the evidence for moving particles; and the physical properties of solids, liquids and gases.

7

Electrostatics

Electric charge and its SI unit, the coulomb; charging by friction, contact and induction; the laws of electrostatic charges and the gold-leaf electroscope; Coulomb's law; and conductors, insulators, earthing and lightning.

8

Electric Current and Ohm's Law

Electric current and potential difference; simple circuits, their components and symbols; safety with electrical appliances; measuring current and voltage with ammeters, voltmeters, multimeters and galvanometers; resistance, resistivity and Ohm's law; and the magnetic, heating and chemical effects of a current.

9

Rectilinear Propagation of Light

Luminous and non-luminous sources; rays and beams; transparent, translucent and opaque materials; shadows, eclipses and the pinhole camera; reflection at a plane surface, regular and irregular; the images formed by plane mirrors and the number of images formed by two inclined mirrors.

Units