Leaving Cert Physics at 100: Mechanics....

Given the release of sample papers for the upcoming Leaving Cert Physics exams a few months ago, and how this coincides with the centenary of the leaving cert exam, I thought I'd continue my occasional review of how Physics papers have evolved over the years, with a look at mechanics questions.

I previously look at optics questions here: Dumbing down...or Smartening up: the Leaving Cert at 100! (and in that post, I also looked at how questions choice has changed over the decades). And we had an overview here: Dumbing Down....or Smartening Up.

And all of this draws on the wonderful resource put together by NUIM, where we can see all 'mathsy' papers right back to the first year of the leaving cert, in 1925.

I had to look up Atwood's machine and Fletcher's trolley to make sense of the 1925 question and even then it takes me out of my comfort zone. Into the realm of what would now be considered applied maths.

But question 4 seems much more approachable - but it must have been a nightmare to correct, with such a loose, open task being set for students.

1935 had another very applied maths question - though other parts of the paper were again quite familiar:

Atwood featured again in 1945, but alongside more familiar material. I like q3 in particular, and think it wouldn't look out of place in a modern paper. q.1 strikes me as formulaic, the sort of thing likely to be managed by rote learning.

Similarly, in 1955 - despite an enduring fondness for Atwood and a reliance on units a modern student would find baffling, I think q.3 is both challenging and reasonable. Though its focus on the maths relating to friction would take it outside the more recent syllabus and upcoming specification.

1965 brought another question that would be considered challenging now - but that I think I could imagine featuring today - albeit with a few enticing diagrams and a little guidance along the way.

1975 didn't seem to have one question that would be considered purely mechanics, which I thought surprising. Though this - with a dash of modern physics - comes close.

1985 was the first paper to offer a diagram - but I'm not sure how useful it was. As I read this now, with my feet up and a cup of coffee to hand, I find it a bit confusing. Not sure how I would have responded in exam conditions.

1995 (above) is probably quite familiar to a few of us here. I remember using this question in class a few times, and students did find it challenging. The focus on a mathematical analysis of friction would place it outside the 2002 syllabus. And the distinction between static and dynamic friction would be entirely foreign to a physics student today.

2005 was the first to feature a decent photograph - which might make the question superficially more appealing, but doesn't offer any real help to somebody trying to figure out the material.

The layout of the recent sample papers makes it very hard to take a screenshot of any more than a fragment of a question. But I think the evolution of question style continues.

Mechanics in the past often featured questions that required very strong technical maths skills - that I think would often have been beyond any ordinary level maths students.

Over time, the focus moved to an understanding of the underlying physics principles (though the maths can still be challenging).

This sample question is notable in the way it ties in experimental design and analysis with those underlying principles. That's an approach that didn't seem to feature at all in the early years of the leaving cert. And - compared with recent Section A questions - it forces students to engage with a strikingly imperfect set of experimental results. That aspect of the question, in particular, would challenge any student trying to get by with a rote response to predicable questions.