Science Notes

Static Electricity:
● Electrical Charges
○ Definitions:
■ Attraction
● The tendency of particles with opposite
electrical charges to move towards each other
■ Repulsion
● The tendency of particles with the same
electric charge to move away from each other
■ Electric Charge
● The positive or negative property of a particle
■ Electric Shock
● The reflex response to the passing of electricity
through the body
○ Friction can cause the transfer of electrons from one
object to another
○ When electrons move between surfaces/materials, two
things happen:
■ The first material (where the electrons move from)
receives a positive charge
■ The second material (where the electrons move to)
receives a negative charge
■ Remember: only electrons are transferred, not
protons or neutrons.
○ Objects can attract or repel each other:
■ Objects with opposite charges (negative and
positive) attract each other
■ Objects with identical charges (positive and
positive/negative and negative) repel each other
● Static Electricity:
○ Definitions:
■ Static Electricity
● Electricity caused by the build-up of electric
charges on the surface of a non-conductor of
electricity
 ■ Electric Spark
● The flash of light produced by electric
discharge
■ Electric Discharge
● The flow of electric charge through a gas,
liquid or solid
○ It is called static electricity because there is no movement
of charge.
■ This is because the materials aren’t conductors of
electricity.
○ Sparks from static electricity usually can’t hurt you.
■ However, they can do a lot of damage if they
happen near fuel vapour or in dry air e.g. at a petrol
station.
Circuits
● Circuits:
○ Definitions:
■ Circuit
● A path through which electric charge can
move
■ Electric Current
● Flow of electric charge in a circuit
○ A simple circuit contains:
■ A source of energy (e.g. a cell)
■ Conducting wires to connect components
■ Any output (e.g. a bulb, a buzzer etc.)
○ Chemical energy from the cell is transferred to electrical
energy, which is converted to other forms of energy such
as light, heat etc.
○ Circuits can be opened or closed:
■ Opened Circuits
● A circuit where electric current can’t flow.
■ Closed Circuits
● A circuit where electric current is allowed to
flow.
● Closed circuits are required to make electrical
components work.
 ■ Circuits can be converted between these two using
switches.
● When a switch is closed, the circuit is closed
and vice versa.
○ Cells:
■ Cells store electrical potential energy
■ The more cells you have, the more electrical energy
can be stored
● Components in Electrical Circuits:
○ Definitions:
■ Resistors
● Devices that oppose the flow of current.
■ Filament
● Resistant wire inside a light bulb that glows to
produce light, usually made of tungsten.
■ Circuit Diagrams
● Simple diagrams of an electric circuit that use
standard symbols to represent basic
components in a circuit
○ Circuits may have many different components:
■ Conducting Wires
● Materials through which electrons can flow
● Usually made of metal
● Can carry electricity over short and long
distances
■ Switches
● Can break the flow of electric charge
● Switches usually have two different states
○ Open
■ The conducting wires are
separated, creating a gap and not
allowing electricity to flow
○ Closed
■ The conducting wires are joined,
allowing electricity to flow
 ■ Cell/Battery
● Store electrical potential energy
● Has two terminals
○ Positive and Negative
● Electrons move out of the negative terminal
through connecting wires, and back in
through the positive terminal
● Batteries are made up of multiple cells
connected together
■ Resistors
● Influence the amount of current in a circuit
● Oppose the flow of current
○ There are standard symbols for each component in a
circuit:

Closed Switch

Open Switch

Conducting Wire

Cell
(longer line is
positive terminal,
shorter line is
negative
terminal)
Battery

Bulb

Buzzer

Resistor

● Short Circuits:
 ○ Electricity tends to take the easiest path (path of least
resistance) instead of paths with higher resistance.
■ All components in a circuit contribute to the
resistance factor
○ A short circuit is an unintended pathway with very low
resistance in a circuit
■ This can happen if a cable or other conductive
material is left lying over the circuit.
○ An example of a short circuit:
■ The electricity will pass through the wire indicated
by the arrow (skipping the buzzer) as it is the path of
least resistance

● Materials that
Conduct Electricity:
○ Wires in a circuit have to be conductors of electricity for
the circuit to work. Most metals are good conductors.
○ The most common types of metals used for wires are:
■ Copper
■ Steel
■ Silver
■ Gold
○ The opposite of a conductor is an insulator.

○ Examples of insulators include:

 ■ Rubber
■ Plastic
■ Glass
● Output Devices:
○ Output devices are things that transform the electrical
energy in a circuit into another form of energy, e.g. heat,
sound, light etc.
○ Common types of output devices and their outputs:
■ Light bulbs emit light energy
■ Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) emit light energy
■ Beepers emit sound energy
■ Buzzers emit sound energy
■ Motors emit kinetic energy
● Series and Parallel Circuits:
○ These are the two main types of circuit.
○ Series Circuits:
■ A circuit with only one pathway for the charges to
flow.
■ In a series circuit, multiple light bulbs connected in
series will glow less and less bright the further they
are along the circuit.

■ Above is an example of a series circuit. The bulb on

the left will glow dimmer than the one on the right,
as it is further along the circuit.

○ Parallel Circuits:
 ■ A circuit with more than one pathway for the
charges to flow.
■ In a parallel circuit, multiple light bulbs connected in
parallel will glow equally bright, no matter how
many.
■ Cells in parallel are connected with diagonal lines as
opposed to straight lines.
■ Unlike in series circuits, if a bulb breaks in a parallel
circuit then the rest of the circuit is unaffected.
■ Above is an example of a parallel circuit. The bulbs
will both glow equally bright.

Magnetic Fields and Electromagnets:

● Magnetic fields are created when electric currents pass
through wires.
● Magnetic fields are areas of space in which ferromagnetic
metal (metals such as iron, nickel and cobalt) will experience a
force
● Electromagnets:
○ Magnets in which the magnetic field is produced by the
flow of charge.

Light:
● Definitions:
 ○ Visible Light
■ A type of energy that comes from a light source and
can be seen by the human eye
○ Luminous
■ An object that gives off light or glows in the dark is
called luminous
○ Radiation
■ The process in which light moves away from its
origin
○ Illuminated
■ Lit up or provided with light
● Visible light is emitted from luminous objects such as a star or a
light bulb.
● Light travels in straight lines, which is why you can’t see light
from around corners.
● We can show how light is radiated using a ray diagram.
○ Ray diagrams are diagrams that use arrows and lines to
show the path of a ray of light
● The speed of light is approximately 300,000 km/s.
● The Spectrum of Visible Light
○ Definitions:
■ Spectrum of Visible Light
● The full collection of colours that make up
white light
■ Wave
● The pattern created by the repeated up-and-
down or side-to-side movement of a medium
(substance) when energy moves through it
■ Wavelength
● The length of one wave pattern
■ Frequency
● The number of waves that move past a certain
point in one second
○ The sun radiates white light, a combination of all different
colours of light.
○ An acronym for all the different colours of light is
ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet)
○ Some light waves have shorter wavelengths than others:
 ■ The longest wavelength we can see is red light. Just
past the maximum wavelength we can perceive is
infrared.
■ The shortest wavelength we can see is violet light.
Just past the minimum wavelength we can perceive
is ultraviolet.
○ The shorter the wavelength, the higher the frequency and
vice versa.
Opaque, Transparent and Translucent Objects:
● Opaque objects don’t allow light to pass through them.
○ Light is either absorbed or reflected by the object.
○ All black objects absorb light.
● Transparent objects allow all light to pass through them.
● Translucent objects allow some light to travel through them.
Absorption of Light:
● Some materials can absorb light, but some do it differently to
others:
○ Mirrors don’t absorb any light
○ Something very black, like coal, absorbs most light.
○ A red piece of cellophane will absorb all colours except its
own, which is why everything looks red when you look
through it.
● Absorption of light is how materials get their colour:
○ The materials absorb some colours and reflect the rest.
○ The colours that are reflected are the only ones that reach
our eye, thus making us see the object as that colour.

Reflection of Light:
● Most surfaces can reflect light.
● The reason we see some surfaces as black, is because black
can’t reflect light. Our brain interprets these missing areas as
black.
● Here is a ray diagram for the reflection of light:

● There are different factors that make up reflection:

○ Plane
■ A plane is an imaginary flat surface that has length
and width, but no depth or height (2D). The plane is
usually represented by some kind of reflective
surface, in this case a mirror.
○ Normal
■ The normal is an imaginary line that is perpendicular
to the plane. It is the basis for the incident and
reflected rays, as well as the angles of incidence and
reflection.
○ Incident Ray
■ The light ray that travels to the reflective surface.
■ The ‘incoming’ ray.

○ Reflected Ray
■ The light ray that is reflected by the reflective
surface.
 ■ The ‘outgoing’ ray.
○ Point of Incidence
■ The point at which the incident ray connects with
the reflective surface.
○ Angle of Incidence
■ The angle formed by the incident ray and the
normal.
■ The angle of incidence is always equal to the angle
of reflection.
○ Angle of Reflection
■ The angle formed by the reflected ray and the
normal.
■ The angle of reflection is always equal to the angle
of incidence.
Refraction:
● Refraction is the change in direction of light as that light travels
between two optic (transparent) media/materials of different
densities (e.g. water and air)
● Here is a ray diagram of refraction:

● Most of the definitions from before remain the same, however

instead of the light being reflected off the surface, it travels
through the surface.
● Two different things can happen, depending on the two
materials’ densities:
 ○ When the light moves from a less dense to a more dense
medium (e.g. air to water), the light is refracted towards
the normal.
○ When the light moves from a more dense to a less dense
medium (e.g. water to air), the light is refracted away from
the normal.
The Eye and Seeing Light:

● Here is a diagram of the human eye. Each part has its own
unique purpose:
○ Cornea:
■ It serves as a protective layer.
■ It is completely transparent and protects the eye
from dust, germs etc.

○ Pupil:
■ A hole in the centre of the iris.
■ Controls the amount of light that enters the eye.
■ Can dilate (get larger) or contract (get smaller) to let
in more or less light.
 ○ Lens:
■ Focuses the light on the retina.
○ Retina:
■ A sensory layer at the back of the eye.
■ Forms the image we see.
○ Optic Nerve:
■ Transmits information about the formed image
from the retina to the brain.
● The image formed by the retina is upside down.
○ However, when the optic nerve sends the information to
the brain, the shapes and colours are processed and the
image is flipped the right way up.
Lenses:
● There are two types of lens:
○ Convex/converging
■ Lenses with an outward curve
■ Focus the rays of light on a specific point
○ Concave/diverging
■ Lenses with an inward curve
■ Diverges the rays of light outwards