Talk:A-level Physics/Electrons, Waves and Photons/Quantum physics

Specification
From the OCR GCE Physics A specification. Tick with &#10004; when you feel each part of the specification has been covered. Try not to add much more than what is in this list as it would not appear in the exam anyway. Use links to wikipedia for more depth in a topic.


 * 1) Describe the photoelectric effect.
 * 2) Appreciate that the photoelectric effect provides evidence for a particulate nature of electromagnetic radiation while phenomena such as interference and diffraction provide evidence for a wave nature.
 * 3) Show an appreciation of the particulate nature of electromagnetic radiation, i.e. a photon model.
 * 4) Recall and use E=hf.
 * 5) Explain why the maximum kinetic energy of photoelectrons is independent of intensity, and why the photoelectric current is proportional to intensity of the incident radiation.
 * 6) Explain photoelectric phenomena in terms of photon energy and work function energy.
 * 7) Recall, use and explain the significance of hf = Φ + ½mvmax2
 * 8) Explain the significance of threshold frequency.
 * 9) Define, understand and use the electronvolt (eV) as a unit of energy.
 * 10) Describe and interpret qualitatively the experimental evidence provided by electron diffraction for the wave nature of particles.
 * 11) Recall and use the de Broglie equation λ = h/mv

Stuff removed from the page
This does not appear in the specification:

Uncertainty Principle
When one uses energy to determine the location of a particle, the energy used alters the location, direction and velocity vector such that the location of the particle becomes uncertain. Imagine a marble under a table with a table cloth that reaches the floor. To locate the marble, you are using canned air. When you hear the canned air blowing against something, you safely assume that the something is the marble. However, you have blown the marble away from where you found it.

"just give them what they need"
is a perfectly acceptable approach for a book that is designed to teach up to A level standard. It's not like we have to give students the entire human knowedgebase of physics, thats the purpose of wikipedia. remember that the purpose of wikibooks is textbooks that can actually be used by students, so there is no point of information that will never be of any use to them.

Also, the text that was erased was very trollish, opinionated and rude about the current state of physics education. I dont think many physics students will appreciate being told that they are learning stuff that is wrong and then being blinded by concepts that they cannot grasp because the basics have been skipped. Basically, the deleted text that was by the anonymous author didnt really contribute much to the page as a whole, it was just a rant thinly disguised as instruction. Quote: "this is total crap"(referring to the text above it). not very useful to throw students around like that. also check out my talk page for someone who agrees with me on the rude tone of the text. Thanks. --Krackpipe 23:38, 14 November 2005 (UTC)