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Revision sheets in English

A revision sheet is not a summary of the course. You already have the course. It answers one question: what loses marks on this chapter, and which gesture avoids each loss. Every sheet carries the traps I correct most often in session, the method to pick, a worked problem taken apart step by step, and what to learn by heart.

12 sheets, free, no account and no payment. The French bank has 447 more, at fiches de révision.

Introductory Physics - Mechanics, PHYS 101 (McGill)

12 revision sheets

Units, measurement and vectors, PHYS 101

What actually loses marks on the first chapter of PHYS 101 at McGill, and the gesture that avoids each loss: the conversion factor that has to be cubed, the calculator display copied out instead of the digits the data earned, the order of magnitude read off the wrong exponent, the cosine used for the horizontal component when the angle was measured from the vertical, the calculator left in radian mode, and above all the arctangent trusted for a direction it cannot know. Eight traps with their cost in marks, a decision tree, a worked resultant step by step, and the five second checks to run before handing the paper in. No calculus, as the course demands.

8 mistakes taken apart • 12 topics

Waves and sound, PHYS 101

What costs marks in the waves and sound chapter of PHYS 101 at McGill, and the gesture that avoids each loss: reading a period off a snapshot graph, doubling a tension expecting to double a frequency, letting the frequency change at a boundary, giving a closed pipe the even harmonics it does not have, adding decibel levels instead of intensities, using the moving source formula when it is the listener who moves, and forgetting to halve the round trip time of an echo. Eight traps with their cost, a decision tree that picks the formula from the shape of the question, a method written in four steps, a full sonometer example and three figures. Algebra only, no calculus, as the course requires.

8 mistakes taken apart • 12 topics

Geometric optics, mirrors and lenses, PHYS 101

What actually costs marks on the optics chapter of PHYS 101, and the gesture that avoids each loss. The angle measured from the surface instead of the normal, the minus sign erased from an image distance because a distance cannot be negative, the critical angle hunted in the direction where it does not exist, the outgoing side of a mirror confused with that of a lens, and the focal length left in centimetres inside a power in diopters. One decision tree for the surface, one for the object position, a worked example written the way a marker wants it, and the five second checks to run before handing in.

7 mistakes taken apart • 12 topics

Wave optics, interference and diffraction, PHYS 101

Not a summary of the lecture, a list of what costs marks on this chapter and the exact gesture that avoids each loss. Nine traps with the wrong line and the line to write instead, a grid that counts the reflection flips of a thin film before any formula is chosen, two decision trees, the wording a marker expects on a double slit answer and on a film answer, four five second checks, and a full worked example that puts the two slit fringes inside the single slit envelope. No calculus anywhere, as PHYS 101 requires.

9 mistakes taken apart • 12 topics

Motion in a straight line, PHYS 101

What actually costs marks in the first mechanics chapter of PHYS 101, and the gesture that avoids each loss: the axis written on the first line, the four equations chosen by the quantity that is missing, a negative acceleration that speeds an object up, a velocity of zero at the top of a throw with an acceleration that is not zero, the area under a velocity-time graph read as a displacement and not as a distance, and an instantaneous velocity obtained as the slope of a tangent, never as a position divided by a time.

8 mistakes taken apart • 10 topics

Projectile motion and relative velocity, PHYS 101

What actually costs marks on the projectile chapter of PHYS 101: calling the velocity zero at the top of the flight, using the symmetric time of flight when the landing height differs from the launch height, reading the parabolic path as a graph against time, dividing a river width by the ground speed, and reversing the subscripts of a relative velocity. Nine traps written as a student writes them, two decision trees, a fully annotated example and the five second checks to run before handing in the paper. No calculus, exactly as the course requires.

9 mistakes taken apart • 12 topics

Newton's laws and free-body diagrams, PHYS 101

What costs marks on the dynamics question of a PHYS 101 midterm, and the gesture that avoids each loss: the arrow with no source, the normal force copied as the weight on a tilted surface, the two members of an action and reaction pair added in the same equation, the tension taken as the hanging weight while the system accelerates, and the sine and cosine swapped on an incline. Seven traps with their cost, a table of the normal force case by case, two decision trees on the choice of axes, and one worked problem with a cord over a pulley.

7 mistakes taken apart • 12 topics

Friction, circular motion and gravitation, PHYS 101

What actually costs marks on the hardest chapter of PHYS 101, and the gesture that avoids each loss. Eight traps written as a student writes them, with the correct line to copy and the price of the error: static friction set equal to its ceiling on a block that is merely at rest, an invented centripetal arrow added to a diagram that was already complete, the incline formula for the normal force carried over to a banked curve where the acceleration is horizontal, an altitude fed into the law of gravitation in place of a distance from the centre, a square root taken where Kepler's third law calls for a cube root, and weightlessness in orbit blamed on an absence of gravity that is not there. Two decision trees, a table of the three friction cases, a full worked curve problem step by step, and four five-second checks to run before handing the paper in.

8 mistakes taken apart • 12 topics

Work, energy and power, PHYS 101

What actually costs marks on the energy chapter of PHYS 101 at McGill: the cosine that disappears, the slope length used as a height, the reference level nobody writes down, friction added instead of subtracted, kinetic energy treated as proportional to the speed, and minutes left inside a power calculation. Every trap is written as a wrong line from a real paper, next to the line to copy instead, with the mark it costs. No calculus anywhere, as the course requires.

8 mistakes taken apart • 12 topics

Momentum, impulse and collisions, PHYS 101

The sheet for the chapter where one equation is always true and the other one has to be earned. The signed components that make a recoil visible, the impulse read as an area of triangles and rectangles, the airbag that divides the force by five without touching the impulse, the grid of the four collision types with a worked number under every row, the two stage ballistic pendulum, and the five second checks to run before handing in the paper.

8 mistakes taken apart • 12 topics

Torque, rotation and equilibrium, PHYS 101

The chapter where marks are lost on a geometry question dressed as a physics one: the lever arm measured to the point of application instead of to the line of the force, torques taken about the pivot because nobody said you could take them anywhere else, a rolling body given only half of its kinetic energy, a cord over a pulley given a tension equal to the weight, and kinetic energy conserved in a collision where only angular momentum survives. With the decision tree that names the right equation from the shape of the question, the five lines a marker expects to see written before any number, and a hinged sign beam taken apart step by step.

10 mistakes taken apart • 12 topics

Oscillations and simple harmonic motion, PHYS 101

What actually loses marks on the oscillations chapter of PHYS 101, and the exact gesture that avoids each loss. Nine traps taken from real scripts, two decision trees that pick the right period formula from the shape of the question, the write-up a marker expects on a qualitative period question, four five-second checks, and a full vertical-spring laboratory worked through step by step. No calculus anywhere, as in the course itself.

9 mistakes taken apart • 12 topics

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