This document contains the full notes on the topic of space physics endorsed by cambridge for the 2023/2024 syllabus with in-depth knowledge required by cambridge examinations for CAIE IGCSE 0625.
Class notes Physics Cambridge IGCSETM Physics 4th edition
Magnetism Notes
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SPACE PHYSICS
MOTION OF THE EARTH AND THE MOON
The rotation of the earth on its axis causes day and night.
A day is one complete rotation about the earths axis that takes 24 hours.
The moon orbits the earth in 28 days (Approx. 1 month )
It does not glow on its own but reflects light from the sun. The side facing the sun is light up while the side
away from the sun is dark
When the moon orbits the earth, we see different amount of the moon lit up and dark surfaces - This is called
phases of the moon.
Daytime is when you can see the sun from where you are, and its light and heat can reach you.
Nighttime is when the sun is on the other side of the Earth from you, and its light and heat don’t get to you.
We get day and night because the Earth spins (or rotates) on an imaginary line called its axis and different parts
of the planet are facing towards the Sun or away from it.
Every day, the sun rises on the east, travels across the sky and settles on west.
This is what causes day and night. As the Earth rotates, it also moves, or revolves, around the Sun.
The Earth’s path around the Sun is called its orbit.
Earth's path around the Sun is not circular, nor is the Sun situated at the center of this path. Instead, Earth's orbit
is elliptical, with the Sun closer to one end of the orbital path than the other. This means that Earth’s distance
from the Sun varies throughout the year.
The earth orbits the sun once in about 365 days ( Approx. 1 year).
Each year has four seasons caused by the tilt in the earths axis.
When it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere.
NOTE
The sun appears to move across the sky during the day, from east to west.
This happens because the earth is turning from west to east.
DAY AND NIGHT
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The Earth's rotation around its axis creates day and night
, Day is experienced by the half of the Earth's surface that is facing the Sun
Night is the other half of the Earth's surface, facing away.
THE SEASONS
The seasons are caused by :
The tilt of the earths axis.
The motion of the earth around the sun.
The equinoxes is when night and day are equal in both hemispheres and when the sun rises exactly in the east
and sets exactly in the west.
For northern hemisphere,
Spring equinox is on 21st march
Autum equinox is on 22nd September
Summer solstice is on the 21st June
Winter Solstice on the 21st December.
In the summer solstice, Northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun. Days are longer than nights. The suns
rays rays covers a small area of land so it gets warm and experiences summer.
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, In winter Solstice, the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, so days are shorter than nights. The
suns rays covers a large area of the land so heat is more spread out thus the area experinces winter.
Tilt Causes Seasons
Because Earth orbits the Sun at an angle, the solar energy reaching different parts of our planet is not
constant, but varies during the course of a year.
This is the reason we have different seasons and why the seasons are opposite in the Northern and Southern
Hemispheres.
THE SOLAR SYSTEM
The solar system is located in an outer spiral arm of the milky way galaxy.
The Solar System consists of:
1. The Sun
2. Eight planets
3. Natural and artificial satellites
4. Dwarf planets
5. Asteroids and comets
THE SUN & THE PLANETS
The Sun lies at the centre of the Solar System. The Sun is a star that makes up over 99% of the mass of the
solar system
There are eight planets and an unknown number of dwarf planets which orbit the Sun. The gravitational
3field g e planets is strong enough to have pulled in all nearby objects with the exception of natural satellites.
| P aaround
The gravitational field around a dwarf planet is not strong enough to have pulled in nearby objects
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