Topic Menu

Cyber-chess a chess instruction site

GCSE level questions on light

Q3. Light is usually described as a wave. Light can also be described as a stream of particles. These are two different scientific models of light.

(a) Which of the statements in the table below best describes a scientific model? Tick one box.

Statement Tick here
A small scale version of a real object.  
A way of guessing what will happen.  
An idea used to explain observations and data.  

 

[1 mark]

(b) Explain why scientists sometimes have different models to describe a phenomenon - like the wave and particle models of light.

[1 mark]

(c) Sometimes an old scientific model is replaced by a new model. Explain why scientists replace an old scientific model with a new model. Include an example from Physics in your answer.

[4 marks]

(Total 6 marks)