Magnetic fields

To understand electric magnetic fields you need to have all the basic terms as their definitions (flux, flux linkage, flux density etc.) sorted. Produce a nice summary page which you can refer to. Comparing electric and magnetic circuits is a nice place to start.
Here are some resources to help:
http://www.physbot.co.uk/magnetic-fields-and-induction.html
http://www.cyberphysics.co.uk/topics/magnetsm/Magnetic%20Fields%20A2/A2%20Magnetic%20Fields.htm
http://chubbyrevision-a2level.weebly.com/electric-and-magnetic-fields.html

Some good revision notes:
http://www.mathsmadeeasy.myzen.co.uk/a2-physics-ocr/G495%20-%20Field%20and%20Particle%20Pictures%20-%20Revision.pdf

Some videos (I couldn’t view them so do not vouch for their usefulness):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJGRVso9xTo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq-oq1rPw_c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc8Vay7mRss

Fission and fusion questions

Here is a nice summary of the main ideas: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/32699/how-to-explain-e-mc2-mass-defect-in-fission-fusion
http://youtu.be/4N3Srx0xRQc

And some questions:
http://www.chem.tamu.edu/class/fyp/mcquest/ch26.html
http://www.antonine-education.co.uk/Pages/Physics_5/Nuclear_Physics/NUC_07/Nuclear_7.htm
http://www.usna.edu/Users/chemistry/morse/_files/documents/SC112-Chapter23/ws23.4.doc

Fission and fusion

Fusion is the combining of small nuclei; fission is the breaking apart of large ones. This leads to a tiny amount of mass going missing (the mass defect) which is converted into energy and represents the binding energy of the atom.

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Nuclear_Fission_vs_Nuclear_Fusion

http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/32699/how-to-explain-e-mc2-mass-defect-in-fission-fusion

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nucene/nucbin.html

The valley of stability

Some atoms decay; some do not. The balance between electrostatic and strong nuclear force is the key to stability.

We represent this in an N-Z plot. This tells you the type of decay we can expect is an atom has veered off the path.

Here are some resources:
http://www.a-levelphysicstutor.com/nucphys-NZ-curve.php
http://youtu.be/UTOp_2ZVZmM – good summary video
http://www.triumf.ca/sites/default/files/Yen_Nuclear_Binding.pdf

Science in the news

The news seems to have gone a little physics happy today. Firstly possible detection of dark matter (which by definition is difficult to do): http://gu.com/p/42g3e.
More info here: http://m.phys.org/news/2014-10-inexplicable-tantalising-clue-dark.html and the paper can be seen here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.2436. Very cool.

Lockheed Martin also reckon they they’ve got the whole fusion thing nailed and are looking to make it a usable power source in the next ten years: http://gu.com/p/42f5c. There is some scepticism: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/16/experts_skeptical_over_lockheed_martins_claims_to_have_cracked_fusion/. Here’s what the company say: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/compact-fusion.html.

Black holes

Not really on the course but interesting. The are an example if stuff in space where we can determine their mass or distance away by using the ideas we the looked at.
It is an area of ongoing research: http://rt.com/news/194980-black-hole-hungry-p13/
Here is some information for you. Some relevant to the course; others just for interest.
http://hubblesite.org/explore_astronomy/black_holes/encyc_mod3_q14.html
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/black_holes.html
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/astro/blkhol.html
Linked to SR: http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec09.html
http://youtu.be/Z3U0vjSUhOA
And here is Steven Hawkins saying they don’t exists (at least in the traditional sense of it): http://www.nature.com/news/stephen-hawking-there-are-no-black-holes-1.14583

MOOC

Cambridge University have launched a MOOC (Massive open online course) aimed at A level physics and maths students. Lots of things like this out there but defiantly worth having a look. Please let me know if you find anything particularly useful.

https://isaacphysics.org

You can find a list of other MOOC at http://www.mooc-list.com but be careful about the level.

Distance to stars

There are lots of ways of measuing the distance to a star. We will revisit the key ideas as we go through the course but a real focus should be on parallax.

http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/virtualmuseum/ita/06_3.shtml
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~mjp/
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/distance.htm
http://youtu.be/vyiauRjJBNQ
http://youtu.be/_Lsj-Hz-NS4
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/astro/distance.html

Changes to the Earth’s gravitational field

Right I have no idea if this is true or not but the following article is suggesting that the melting of the ice caps ha actually lead to a measurable change in the local gravitational field at the North Pole.
http://www.wired.com/2014/09/melting-antarctic-ice-shifting-gravity/?mbid=social_twitter

Ig Noble prize

His year’s Ig Noble prize has been awarded for the following research: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/trol/7/3/7_147/_pdf
A shows you have a scientific paper can be laid out which may well be useful for the coursework that is you focus for the next two weeks. Having a look at some of the previous Ig Nobel winners may provide some inspiration (or not).