Level 5 · Science S5.11

Quanta, nuclei and particles

Light comes in packets, matter acts like waves, and the nucleus holds huge amounts of energy.

Planned. This book is not written yet. Below is its plan, which a teacher can already use.

You are ready for this book if

You can write a nuclear equation for alpha decay.

The plan

  1. S5.11.1 Photons
    • Calculate photon energy from frequency or wavelength
    • Convert energies between joules and electronvolts
  2. S5.11.2 The photoelectric effect
    • Explain why the photoelectric effect needs a particle model of light
    • Use Einstein's photoelectric equation with the work function
  3. S5.11.3 Energy levels and spectra
    • Explain line spectra using electron energy levels
    • Calculate the wavelength of light from an energy level change
    • Make a spectroscope from an old CD and a box
  4. S5.11.4 Waves and particles
    • Calculate the de Broglie wavelength of a moving particle
    • Explain how electron diffraction shows that matter acts as a wave
  5. S5.11.5 The nucleus and binding energy
    • Calculate mass defect and binding energy using E equals mc squared
    • Use the binding energy curve to explain fission and fusion
  6. S5.11.6 The maths of decay
    • Use the decay constant in exponential decay equations
    • Find the half-life from a log graph of activity
  7. S5.11.7 Particles and antiparticles
    • Classify particles as hadrons or leptons, and hadrons as baryons or mesons
    • Give the quark content of protons and neutrons
  8. S5.11.8 Fundamental forces and conservation laws
    • Name the four fundamental forces and their exchange particles
    • Use conservation of charge, baryon number and lepton number to check reactions

For parents and teachers

Level 5 fits learners who can already: read a textbook. use functions and graphs. In many schools that is about 17 to 20, but start wherever the learner is.

Strand: Matter. Written and drawn by attnom. Free to read, print and share.