Talk:A-level Physics (Advancing Physics)

Some excellent work has been done on this book and I surprised by the lack of contributors, well done! May I suggest a couple of things from a teachers point of view?

The sections that are in place in this book are sensible conceptual topics, however, they do not fully reflect the structure of the course and in some respects follow a more traditional route through education. The best selling point of the IOP advancing physics course is the angle on relevance in each topic. Is there a reason for the structure currently in place? --Smcintosh (talk) 19:18, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your comments. My main motivation in writing this book is to give an alternative approach to the content in the syllabus to the standard materials used to teach the course. A quick search of the internet will reveal the fact that many people are not happy with the course simply because it is so relevant to everything outside of physics that its approach to physics itself suffers. In writing this wikibook, I have tried to provide clear explanations of the facts which will be needed in the exams, providing those studying the course with an easy-to-use resource which does not hide the facts amongst lengthy discourses on the history, philosophy, beauty and sometimes obscure applications of physics. I am not saying these things do not have value - just that a resource is needed which places its emphasis on physics, not on other things which should be subservient to physics in a physics textbook. --Sjlegg (talk) 08:46, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Irrelevant discussion removed. The paragraph was basically a whine about the course and therefore personal oppinion unrelated to this book --Smcintosh (talk) 10:59, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

If the point of your book is to provide a alternative method of teaching I will leave it alone, It would be nice if the title of the book reflected it is an alternate approach. I was looking for a free version of the book to supporting pupils or schools who can not afford to proved pupils with the text at £18 a copy. --Smcintosh (talk) 10:59, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Since this Wikibook is not a copy of any other textbook, it is inevitable that it will do things differently from other textbooks. The only ways I know of to provide an £18 textbook for free are illegal. This Wikibook does try and cover the specification, but it is not endorsed by any official body. Also, there is no substitute for a teacher, who can provide tuition to pupils as individuals, and do practical work and coursework with them. --Sjlegg (talk) 11:44, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

i actually think this textbook is better than the IOP one, which is not great, since it doesn't directly teach the course, meaning to learn from it would take about twice the time needed. I dont really see why there is an issue with the book not being th IOP textbook, which i dont actually think is officially endorsed by OCR anyway, so it isnt really an alternative approach, just different from one of many possible approaches

Copied from Wikibooks talk:Contact us
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A-level_Physics_(Advancing_Physics)/The_Standard_Model/Worked_Solutions 5. The antiparticle of the electron (e-) is the positron. What is the charge and rest mass of a positron?

Charge: +1.6 x 10-19C

Mass: 0.511 MeV = 8.176 x 10-14 kg

=
===================== Is the rest mass actually the same of that of the electron?: 9.10938215(45)×10−31 kg

=
========== as per: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron

Well spotted. That diagram is really bad, I only just noticed: the units are wrong. Where it says "MeV", it should say "MeV/c2". I'll see what I can do about fixing it.--Sjlegg (discuss • contribs) 10:59, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

Unfortunately since some of the sylabus has changed, then this book contains some extra unneeded bits, and a few omissions, it would probably be great for somebody to go through outlining which bits are still relevant to the course

Some of the questions use kibibytes not kilobytes
Yeah, so some of the answers are wrong, I think. 14:23, 17 May 2015 (UTC)Qaisjp (discuss • contribs)