Physics Unit 4 6PH04 January 2010 ER

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Examiners’ Report

January 2010

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GCE Physics 6PH04



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Physics 6PH04

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Physics 6PH04

General Comments

This was the rst o the new style A2 examinations or Physics. The vast majority o candidates hadmade some attempt to answer every part o every question. Most answer spaces were sensibly usedsuggesting the number o answer lines were appropriate or most students. Candidates did not appear to bedisadvantaged or deterred by questions set within a context and these questions were just as well answeredas any others.

Question 4 and 5

Proved the most dicult multiple choice questions with just under hal the candidates getting thesecorrect. The rest o the multiple choice questions had a 65-80% correct response rate.

Question 8

About 30% o candidates scored ull marks. Common errors included not speciying that very ew alphaparticles are refected through large angles and using words such as concentrated, massive, dense within avague statement. Some candidates wasted time discussing the apparatus details.

In this answer the word “nucleus” wasn’t used and “atom” has become particle. This answer would still score4 marks because it has described the observations correctly and stated that this dense object (presumablythe nucleus rather than the atom) is positively charged. Candidates generally seemed better at theobservations and less sure about the conclusions.



Physics 6PH04

Question 9

Many candidates correctly quoted Faraday’s law but didn’t apply it specically to this context. Candidatesreerred to coils producing magnetic elds rather than current. They also oten used incorrect terminologysuch as produced an e.m.. rather than induced an e.m...e.m....

The answer below covers the idea o a change o fux but doesn’t convey the idea o a quick change o fuxor that this instantaneous change induces a high e.m.. larger than 200.This would score � mark.e.m.. larger than 200 . This would score � mark.larger than 200 . This would score � mark.



Physics 6PH04

Question 10

Part (a) was correctly done by the vast majority o candidates – the occasional answer either omitted theunits or quoted an incorrect unit (oten Tesla).

Part (b) Most candidates correctly suggested that the molecules would rotate or align vertically but didn’tspell out the detail eg that the top plate would be the positive plate, that the two orces would act inopposite directions.

A useul tip is look at the number o marks allocated. Three marks in this case meant that there would bethree distinct relevant and worthwhile points to be made. This candidate scores � mark or the “aligningvertically”.

Question 11 (a)

Candidates should use a ruler to draw straight lines. They also need to show equispacing. Most candidatesgave the correct direction or the eld.

Here is an example o all three aults.



Physics 6PH04

(b) Candidates requently used the ormula or eld strength. I they did use the ormula or orce not all othem appreciated the magnitude o charge on a proton is the same as on an electron.

This example shows a candidate has muddled the charge on a proton with its mass.

It is worth noting that the charge on the proton is not explicitly given with the data.



Physics 6PH04

Question 12

Many candidates struggled with circular motion and two orces to consider (R and mg). Many candidatesdrew a diagram (oten not a ree body diagram) with two correctly labelled orces but ailed to use itto answer part (c). Centres should note that equations o motion are or use on rectilinear motion andthereore energy conservation should be used to answer part (d).

Whilst the two orces are correctly labelled a ree-body diagram should show both orces starting at a point.

Many candidates, including this one, had earlier drawn a diagram showing the reaction orce and weight butthen only included the reaction orce as the centripetal orce and ignored the weight.



Physics 6PH04

Question 13 (a)

Candidates generally understood that the capacitor would be charged but did not consider the movemento electrons.

This candidate hasn’t understood that positive charge is an absence o electrons.

(b) The ormula Q = Irt was not understood by candidates. They oten looked to see what numbers could“make” the value in the required cell. They need to appreciate that spreadsheets calculate values in aparticular order so quoting an operation between cells later in the spreadsheet will not work.

Note that this candidate has muddled the use or (or change o).



Physics 6PH04

This candidate has spotted that cell D4 – D3 gives the correct numerical answer. However spreadsheets donot work backwards. Cell C4 has to be calculated rom preceding cells.

(c) Candidates generally recognised the use o = Q/C and answered this well although some did notexplicitly explain that the “micros” or Q and C would cancel out.

(d) This part was generally well answered with candidates regularly able to use time constant = RC and ableto estimate it sensibly rom the graph usually using “37%” within their answer (although a variety o othertechniques were credited).

(e) Many candidates appeared to think that a log-log graph would veriy an exponential orm.



Physics 6PH04

Question 14

The rst two parts were generally well done by candidates as was part (d) provided they recognised thatmomentum conservation was the argument.

Many candidates did not read (c) careully enough and gave general answers rather than specicallyreerring to electric and magnetic elds. The general idea o what the electric elds do to particles is statedbut omitted the act that an electric eld exerts a orce on a charged particle whereas a magnetic eldexerts a orce on a moving charged particle. The candidate also incorrectly implies that the magnetic eldgives the particle more energy.

The answer below nicely illustrates that the missing point is that the ragments shoot out in all directionsbecause the initial momentum is negligible so would obtain 2 out o 3 marks.



Physics 6PH04

Question 15 (a)

Few students considered a sensible method to estimating the radius or instance by drawing twoperpendicular lines and seeing where they crossed to nd the centre. Many thought the photograph wasull size (the lead thickness was actually between 4 and 5mm). However they ollowed this with a correctcalculation o momentum (a ew candidates omitted the units).

This answer shows that the candidate believes the photograph shows a ull semicircle. The candidate hascompletely ignored the inormation about the thickness o lead and assumed the photograph is ull scale.



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(b) Many candidates gave a good account o the reason why the direction o movement was up but sometried to use Fleming’s let hand rule even though the direction o the B eld wasn’t given.

The majority o candidates could use FLHR in part (d).

This answer reveals that this candidate could not visualise Flemings let hand rule as the only two viableanswers were either in or out o the page.

Some candidates appeared to run out o time in the nal two parts o this question which dierentiated theable candidates well and about 20% o candidates gave very good answers.

The lack o observation shown by the answer below was very unusual!



Physics 6PH04

6PH04

Grade Max. Mark A B C D E

Uniorm boundary mark �20 96 84 72 60 48

Raw boundary mark 80 55 49 43 37 32



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Physics Unit 4 6PH04 January 2010 ER

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