Practical questions
During the GCSE Physics course you will complete practical activities from eight Practical Activity Groups (PAGs).
The exams will include questions about the apparatus, methods, safety precautions, results, analysis and evaluation of some of these experiments. You may also be asked to apply your knowledge to unfamiliar practical contexts, which will draw on your practical knowledge and understanding.
Practical questions will appear throughout both exam papers (Breadth and Depth), and at both Foundation tier and Higher tier.
Remember to look at your lab book or your notes from the practical activities you have done when you鈥檙e revising for the exams.
The practical questions also test your knowledge of 'Ideas about Science'.
There are four main aspects to 'Ideas about Science'. These are:
- Planning practical experiments and investigations (including writing hypotheses and predictions, selecting apparatus, describing methods, controlling factors, and how to work safely).
- Processing and analysing data (including doing calculations, presenting data graphically, identifying patterns and trends, evaluating results and experiments, and interpreting data to draw appropriate conclusions).
- Developing scientific explanations (including ideas about correlation and cause, peer review, and the use of models in science).
- The impacts of applications of science (including positive and negative impacts on people, other organisms and the environment, and ideas about risk and ethics).
Learn about practicals with Dr Alex Lathbridge
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Dr Alex Lathbridge answers questions about practicals.
Sample question 1 - Higher
Question
A group of students are designing an experiment to investigate the relationship between stopping distance and speed.
The apparatus:
- the trolley has a mass of 200 g and is placed on a gently sloping ramp
- thick carpet is used to slow down the trolley
- the metre ruler is needed to measure the stopping distance
a) How could the student calculate the speed of the trolley at the bottom of the ramp, just before it reaches the carpet?
Name the apparatus and how it should be used. [3 marks]
The procedure:
- the trolley is released and allowed to run freely down the slope
- the distance it takes for the trolley to come to rest is measured
- the experiment is repeated by releasing the trolley from different positions up the ramp in order to change the 'top speed'
This table shows the results:
| Speed (m/s) | Stopping distance (m) |
| 0.52 | 0.18 |
| 0.39 | 0.11 |
| 0.66 | 0.28 |
| 0.79 | 0.40 |
| 0.82 | 0.44 |
| 0.94 | 0.62 |
| Speed (m/s) | 0.52 |
|---|---|
| Stopping distance (m) | 0.18 |
| Speed (m/s) | 0.39 |
|---|---|
| Stopping distance (m) | 0.11 |
| Speed (m/s) | 0.66 |
|---|---|
| Stopping distance (m) | 0.28 |
| Speed (m/s) | 0.79 |
|---|---|
| Stopping distance (m) | 0.40 |
| Speed (m/s) | 0.82 |
|---|---|
| Stopping distance (m) | 0.44 |
| Speed (m/s) | 0.94 |
|---|---|
| Stopping distance (m) | 0.62 |
b) Complete the plotting of points on the grid above and draw a smooth curve of best fit. [2 marks]
c) Describe the pattern shown on the graph. [2 marks]
OCR 21st Century Science, GCE Physics, Paper J259, 2016 - Higher.
a)
Equipment needed: light gate/electronic timer/data logger. [1]
Measure the time for trolley to travel a (known) distance. [1]
Use: speed = distance 梅 time, to calculate the speed. [1]
The trick with this question is to not get overwhelmed by all the information. The question is basically: 'How do you practically calculate the speed of a trolley down a ramp?'. Think back to what equipment you used, measurements you took and calculations you made and write it down.
b)
Last two points plotted correctly. [1]
Smooth curve drawn going through 0,0. [1]
When plotting points on a graph be sure to be accurate with your positioning. Next you should draw the curve of best fit - this should be drawn freehand and smoothly. Do not join the dots or try to force a straight line as this will only lose you marks.
c) As the speed of the trolley increases, the stopping distance increases. [1]
The stopping distance increases more quickly at higher speeds. [1]
As this is not a straight line graph, just saying there is a positive correlation is not enough for the full two marks. You need to describe what the curve shows. In this instance, the curve gets steeper as the speed increases showing that the stopping distance increases more quickly at higher speeds.