IB DP Physics skill pack: log scales and power laws, SL and HL, first assessment 2025. Take logs of y = kxⁿ, plot log y against log x, read the unknown power off the gradient. 31 answered items, 39 student pages.
What this pack is, and what it is not
The IB asks these techniques to be practised inside the topics that need them, so this is a supplement to integrated teaching, not a taught unit: remedial and reference material for a technique the papers assume.
This pack is worked, not taught: the 265 minutes shown is student working time across the practice bank, not classroom delivery time. Six sittings of about three quarters of an hour.
No acquaintance with logarithms is assumed. The subject throughout is the unknown exponent, so exponential decay and half-life are left to the topics that own them.
What students learn
- A logarithm and an antilogarithm, including in scientific notation.
- The two logarithm laws physics uses: a product becomes a sum, a power becomes a multiplier.
- y = kxⁿ turned into log y = n log x + log k, the power off the gradient, the constant off the intercept.
- Reading a logarithmic axis, where a value falls inside a decade, and which axes to choose.
Five rule cards each with a worked example, then seven fluency drills, ten applied questions and seven exam-style items (four multiple choice, three structured with marks). Seven figures.
IB skills this pack teaches and practises (Tool 3: Mathematics)
- Calculations with logarithmic functions (taught).
- Constructing and interpreting graphs on logarithmic scales (taught).
- Linearizing graphs, only where appropriate (practised).
- Plotting graphs with appropriate scales and axes (practised).
- Drawing lines of best fit (practised).
- Interpreting gradients and intercepts (practised).
- Calculations with exponents and reciprocals (practised).
What’s included
- Student Worksheet, 39 pages, colour and B&W
- Teacher Key, 48 pages, every item answered with marking guidance
- The editable worksheet, a self-contained HTML file
Worksheet and key are two projections of one source, so no answer file can drift. Opens in any browser, nothing to install, worksheet editable. SI units and IB command terms throughout. It declares no topic and no understanding: this belongs to the IB skills in the study of physics. Grades 11-12 (ages 16-19), as homework, reference or revision before Paper 1B and the internal assessment.
Part of the IB DP Physics IA and Paper 1B Skills Bundle, 30% off buying the packs separately.
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£6.00