Physics

Course summary

Monitoring climate change and finding sustainable ways of generating electricity are needed more than ever before. Engineers are needed to develop ways of saving water, improving the world’s food supply, making travel more environmentally friendly and recycling waste on a large scale. These specialist roles share a core foundation in physics. Our well-equipped department and highly experienced teachers bring theories to life. A great emphasis is placed on practical work and learning through doing. Topics are always related back to the real world and these come to life through our many prospective trips, including a trip to CERN, and attendance at inspiring lectures and workshops at leading universities. In Year 12 you will build on your GCSE knowledge, looking at important underlying topics such as forces, waves, electricity and quantum phenomena. You will then connect these content areas together in Year 13 and study resonance, particle physics, gravitational and electric fields and electromagnetism. To conclude the course, you will discover practical applications for what you have learnt and apply them to medical physics. Applying mathematics to real-world problems will develop skills that enable you to make quick but fascinating estimations about the universe, such as how fast an electron moves in a wire? How many atoms make up a human being? What would happen if you sat on a neutron star or approached a black hole? What is the probability of life existing outside of our solar system?