A-level Physics/Forces, Fields and Energy/Appendix of Formulae

Formulae by Section

This is the list of required formulae in the order that they appear in the OCR Syllabus for this module.

Dynamics
$P=\,m\cdot v$	Momentum is mass times velocity.
$F={\frac {dP}{dt}}$	Force is the rate of change of momentum with respect to time.
Work and Energy
$W=\,F\cdot s$	Work is force times displacement
$E_{k}={\frac {1}{2}}mv^{2}$	Kinetic energy is half of mass times velocity squared.
$E_{p}=\,mgh$	Potential energy is mass times acceleration due to gravity times height. (For situations near the surface of the earth only)
Circular Motion
$a={\frac {v^{2}}{r}}$	Centripetal acceleration is velocity squared divided by the radius.
$F={\frac {mv^{2}}{r}}$	Centripetal force is mass times velocity squared divided by the radius. (You are expected to be able to derive this from $F=m\cdot a$ and $a={\frac {v^{2}}{r}}$ ).
Oscillations
$T={\frac {1}{f}}$	Period is one over the frequency.
$a=-\left(2\pi f\right)^{2}x$	Acceleration is proportional to the negative displacement from the centre of oscillation.
$x=A\sin \left(2\pi ft\right)$	Displacement from the centre of oscillation is amplitude times position in cycle. (When oscillation started at centre).
$x=A\cos \left(2\pi ft\right)$	Displacement from the centre of oscillation is amplitude times position in cycle. (When oscillation started at one end).
$w={\frac {2\pi }{T}}$	Angular Velocity is 2 times $\pi$ over the time period.
$w=\left(2\pi f\right)$	Angular Velocity is 2 times $\pi$ times the frequency of oscillations.
Gravitational Fields
$F={\frac {Gm_{1}m_{2}}{r^{2}}}$	Force is Gravitational Force Constant ($\mathbf {6.67\times 10^{-11}Nm^{2}kg^{-2}}$) times mass one times mass two over radius squared.