Motion beyond a straight line at constant acceleration: projectiles, circular paths and orbits, all governed by Newton's laws and gravitation.
These are the statements the Physics syllabus makes about Module 5: Advanced Mechanics. Dux records each one against the questions you answer, so you can see which of them you have actually been tested on and which have never been asked.
Resolve a launch into independent horizontal and vertical components: horizontal velocity is constant while vertical motion is uniformly accelerated by g. Most marks are lost by treating the path as one motion instead of two.
An object moving in a circle at constant speed is accelerating, because its direction changes. The centripetal force is always provided by something real — tension, gravity, friction or a normal force — never by a separate outward push.
Newton's law of universal gravitation and the field concept behind it. Includes orbital motion, where gravitational force supplies the centripetal force, and the difference between weight and apparent weight in a lift or a spacecraft.
Work done by a force transfers energy. Recognising when mechanical energy is conserved and when it is dissipated is what decides whether a problem is one line or three pages.
Momentum is conserved in every isolated collision, kinetic energy only in elastic ones. Being able to test which applies, from the data rather than the wording, is the discriminating skill.
Designing and evaluating an investigation into how launch angle affects range, including identifying which variable is actually being changed and which is being held constant.
Using a rotating system to relate centripetal force to mass, radius and speed, and judging which measurements dominate the uncertainty.
Applying mechanics to real systems: sporting projectiles, satellite orbits, banked roads and roller-coaster loops, where more than one principle acts at once.
HSC Physics - Trial Paper Shape is 100 marks in 180 minutes. Questions on Module 5: Advanced Mechanics are not one shape repeated: the command word decides what the marker is looking for, and the mark value decides how much of it. These are the ones Physics uses.
Dux writes practice for this module in exactly these shapes, so the drill is the same task the paper sets — not a general knowledge quiz with the module name on it.
Module 5: Advanced Mechanics opens the Physics course. Students routinely lose marks because a question spans two modules, so the neighbouring modules are worth reading next to this one.
Dux diagnoses Physics dot point by dot point, then writes questions in the shape this course marks. Written answers come back marked against the bands.