Daniel turned to the stack of 2024 Paper 4. Question 6(b): A satellite in geostationary orbit experiences a small drag force due to solar wind. Explain, using energy considerations, why its orbital radius decreases. He scribbled an answer: Drag does work against satellite, reduces total energy, so it spirals inward. Two lines. The mark scheme, which he’d printed from the examiner’s report, wanted four distinct points: recognition of negative work, loss of total mechanical energy, conversion to internal energy, and the specific relationship between orbital radius and total energy (E = -GMm/2r). Two marks lost. Again.
It was the 48th hour of Daniel’s self-imposed lockdown. Empty energy drink cans formed a small metallic army around his desk, and the only light in the room came from his laptop screen and the single desk lamp aimed like a spotlight at the stack of papers before him. past papers a level physics
Daniel glanced at the 2022 Paper 5. Question 2: Design an experiment to determine the Young modulus of a wire made of an unknown alloy, using only a laser, a screen, a ruler, and a mass hanger. No standard apparatus. No micrometer for the wire’s diameter. The laser was a red herring—or was it? He’d spent forty minutes on that question before realizing you could measure the wire’s extension via diffraction pattern from a hair-thin wire, turning a materials problem into a wave problem. The examiner’s note: “Candidates who recognized the diffraction method scored highly. Most did not.” Daniel turned to the stack of 2024 Paper 4