I have my first SAC for physics on next Tuesday, the teacher gave us an article last week (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-08/antarctica-records-temperature-of-18.3c-the-hottest-ever/11946092) but I am not sure how to describe the physics behind this article. Can someone help me with the physics behind this article
Thanks for helping me!
Hi stefa23!
I assume you are doing unit 1/2 physics at the moment, meaning your first SAC will probably be on thermodynamics.
There is actually quite a bit of relevant physics theory within this article - exactly how much depends on what stage you are through all the content.
The best way to check to see what content you need to know about a topic is through looking at your study guide. If you are not sure about what a study design is, thats perfectly OK - I sure didn't use it through year 11. A study design is basically a document which lists out the parameters and content you will be assessed on and there is one for each subject.
Under thermodynamics or as VCAA call it "How can thermal effects be explained?" the things the study design says you need to know in year 11 physics are shown in the spoiler below
For your own reference, you can find the physics study design
hereI assume that this SAC will involve answering questions relating to this scenario (please correct me if i am wrong). In this case, looking at this list, there seems to be quite a lot of different ways in which your teacher can turn/relate this scenario to a question. Since this article basically talks about increasing temperatures and glacial melting almost anything from the above list can be related back to the scenario.
You might have to explain the idea of thermal equilibrium applied to the idea of ice in warmer waters/environments, you might need to calculate the energy required to melt this ice (given a few more details), you might need to talk about different modes of heat transfer (i.e. convection, conduction, and radiation), or talk about the greenhouse effect just to name a few of the concepts that questions could be asked about. As such I would make sure that I was confortable with explaining all these dotpoints in the study design to prepare for the SAC (assuming you will be sitting a SAC consisting of questions relating to this scenario). If there are any dotpoints here that you don't quite understand, then feel free to ask for clarification here.
Hopefully I have unsderstood your question properly and good luck with your upcoming SAC!