A-level Physics (Advancing Physics)/Finding the Distance of a Remote Object

In the final section (Section C) of the exam, you have to be able to write about how waves are used to find the distance of a remote object. I would recommend that you pick a method, and then answer the following questions about it:

1. What sort of wave does your system use? What is an approximate wavelength of this wave?

2. What sort of distance is it usually used to measure? What sort of length would you expect the distance to be?

3. Why is measuring this distance useful to society?

4. Draw a labelled diagram of your system.

5. Explain how the system works, and what data is collected.

6. Explain how the distance to the object is calculated using the data collected.

7. What limitations does your system have? (e.g. accuracy, consistency)

8. What percentage error would you expect these limitations to cause?

9. How might these problems be solved?

Examples
Some example answers to these questions are given in the following pages:


 * /Radar/
 * /Sonar/