Analysis

What Analysis covers

Analysis is examined in all three written papers — the specification states that Components 01, 02 and 03 each assess content from across all the teaching modules, so nothing is confined to one paper. It covers processing results and reaching conclusions, significant figures and mathematical processing and graphs, gradients and intercepts.

The 3 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Processing results and reaching conclusionsRecall questions on averaging repeats, choosing a plot that straightens a relationship, what a gradient or unexpected intercept yields, correlation against cause, and wording a conclusion within its uncertainty.Open →
• Significant figures and mathematical processingRecall questions on significant figures in measurements and calculated results, decimal places for a mean, standard form and calculator entry, percentage change, scaling R = ρL/A, rearranging E = mc² and T = 2π√(L/g), order of magnitude calculations, and the symbols ∝, Δ, ≈, ≪ and ≫.Open →
• Graphs, gradients and interceptsRecall questions on scales and axis labels, false origins, best-fit lines, gradients and their units, tangents to curves, intercepts, and what the area under a line represents.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Analysis further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Reading within the measured range vs Extrapolating beyond the measured range

  Reading within the measured range: a value taken from inside the span of values actually tested, so the results themselves support it. Extrapolating beyond the measured range: A value taken from outside the span of values tested, which assumes the relationship still holds where nothing was ever measured.

• Correlation vs Causal claim

  Correlation: two measured quantities are found to change together, which on its own establishes only a trend. Causal claim: One quantity is asserted to produce the change in the other, which requires a physical mechanism and every other quantity kept constant.

• Decimal places vs Significant figures

  Decimal places: how many digits are written after the point, so 0.0040 has four of them. Significant figures: How many measured digits a number states, leading zeros excluded, so 0.0040 has two.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Why is the mean of several readings used rather than a single reading?

   Model answer

   Averaging reduces the effect of random scatter, so the mean is closer to the true value than any one reading is likely to be.

2. 2

   A student expects the period of a pendulum to be proportional to the square root of its length. What should be plotted to test this?

   Model answer

   T² should be plotted against L, or T against √L, since either gives a straight line through the origin if the relationship holds.

3. 3

   A student expects one quantity to be inversely proportional to another. What plot tests this?

   Model answer

   The first quantity should be plotted against the reciprocal of the second, which gives a straight line through the origin if the relationship holds.

4. 4

   Give an example of a qualitative experimental result in physics and say what it tells the experimenter.

   Model answer

   The colour of a lamp filament shifting from dull red to yellow-white as the current is raised shows that the peak of its emitted spectrum moves to shorter wavelengths as it gets hotter.

5. 5

   What makes a conclusion valid?

   Model answer

   It follows directly from the data collected, is restricted to the range that was actually tested, and is consistent with the uncertainties in the results.

6. 6

   Why is extrapolating a long way beyond the measured range unsafe?

   Model answer

   There is no evidence that the relationship continues to hold outside the range tested, and a different physical behaviour may take over.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Analysis revision questions

What does Analysis cover in OCR A-Level Physics B?

3 subtopics: processing results and reaching conclusions, significant figures and mathematical processing and graphs, gradients and intercepts. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Analysis organised?

By the OCR H557 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.