Hi, I’m David. This site hosts comprehensive IB physics revision notes I’ve made for the post-2016 examinations syllabus. I got a 7 and here’s how you can too!
Important note: Please take note that although succinct notes are essential towards your revision, they should not be the only materials you cover – working through practice problems from your textbook and past papers are just as important.
App: For revision on the go, download our Android app. If you like our app, don’t forget to give it 5 stars and send in a review!
Offline access: For offline access, download offline browser and type in ibphysics.org for the url.
Happy revising! 🧠
Syllabus
Changes in syllabus content
Data booklet (original)
Data booklet (annotated)
Internal Assessment
Core
Topic 1: Measurement and uncertainties
Topic 2: Mechanics
Topic 3: Thermal physics
Topic 4: Waves
Topic 5: Electricity and magnetism
Topic 6: Circular motion and gravitation
Topic 7: Atomic, nuclear and particle physics
Topic 8: Energy production
Higher Level
Topic 9: Wave phenomena (HL)
Topic 10: Fields (HL)
Topic 11: Electromagnetic induction (HL)
Topic 12: Quantum and nuclear physics (HL)
Options
Option B: Engineering Physics
Option B: Engineering Physics (HL)
Option D: Astrophysics
Option D: Astrophysics (HL)
Hi, David. I used your site to review my exam, and it is very good. I actually take notes from your notes on this site, even. However, it seems like the version of the formula booklet you have here is outdated. As the Physics Exam is coming in a few days, I advise that you update it to this one >>> https://www.ibrepository.com/IB%20DOCUMENTS/Data%20%26%20Formula%20Booklets/Physics/Data%20Booklet%20-%20English.pdf, so that other students taking IB Physics this year like me can use the formula booklet that is the current version. Apart from that, loved your site, and your notes!
The link doesn’t seem to be working. :/ Glad you found my notes helpful though!
Try this link: http://ibdocuments.com/IB%20DOCUMENTS/Data%20&%20Formula%20Booklets/Physics/Data%20Booklet%20-%20English.pdf
Ah doesn’t seem to work either.
David, you are magic. I am going to be going to Grade 11 in September, and I already feel ready to tackle this subject: your notes are very nicely organized and super helpful: thank you for taking the time to do this!
Glad you found my notes helpful! Ace the exam! 🙂
Hi David, do you know if your EE on physics can be theoretical or must it be experimental? Btw, are PDEs in HL too? Thx
Hi David
This Notsi Mokhasu from Machabeng College Lesotho
I’m currently in my first year of IBDP
You notes are really helping
I’m aware that my teacher is also using them at times
Hey ! Thanks for this app ..
I’m starring my first year soon and I’m planning to take Physics , Maths and GloPo as HLs and Visual Art , German and English L & L as SLs ..
Which of these classes you took ?
What tips would you give me as I’m about to start my IB ..
I would appreciate if you make similar apps for other subjects like Maths .
Thanks
I look Maths, Physics, Chem, Econ, English, Mandarin. For maths, I suggest you work through past paper problems. 🙂
David this Site is just awesome , thanx for your contribution i was able to revise my entire syllabus within one Day you have done a really wonderful job here.
Just one more question do you maintain any sites for chemistry or maths , for my chem and Maths HL Exams are near and i really dont have much time left and thanx in advance.
Hi Zotac, glad that you’ve found my notes helpful. For Chemistry, I would recommend https://ibalchemy.com.
I love you
🤔
That’s exactly the same as my subjects, except for Mandarin though! What were your other two HLs?
Math and Physics 🤔.
Hello, do you have the same thing for maths???
There is an error in Option D:Astrophysics.
Wavelength of cosmic background ratiation increases overtime, it does not decrease.
Fixed. 🙂
Hey David, thanks a lot for all the physics content. Really helped me throughout IB. Keep up the good work.
Glad you found my notes helpful! Ace the exam! 🙂
Hey David! First of all, thank you so much. My teacher is *horrible* and these notes are extremely helpful! I did find one mistake though i think, in the graphs describing motion in the topic 2 notes, it says that a straight line in a velocity-time graph represents constant acceleration, isn’t it constant velocity?
Glad that you found the notes useful and yes you are right. I’ve corrected that part to make it more clear – thanks for pointing it out!
i can relate to the teacher issue.
Great stuff, using these to prepare for my upcoming physics test.
Found a minor formatting error: under ”Graphs describing motion” in Topic 2, the graph header isn’t made to be in the same format as the rest of the graph headers.
I believe it is meant to be in header 2 format, but it is just regular text sizing at the moment.
Glad you found the notes helpful – ah yes, I fixed it, thanks for pointing it out!
Hi! This is really helpful. Is it possible for you to cover option C (imaging) as well?
Thanks 🙂
Hi Shruti, glad you’ve found it helpful! As I’ve graduated, I don’t think I’ll be covering Option C unfortunately.
Hi David, I’ve been using your notes alot, and I wanted to know whether there is a way for me to download the whole website for offline access? I can’t seem to download it with any kind of software, I’d be very grateful if you posted some kind of .zip file that contains the whole website (if that is possible). Thank you very much!
Hi Chris, glad that you’re using my notes. Perhaps you can give http://web2zip.com a try.
Hi,
Great website. Does anyone have any past exam papers for IB Physics?
Hi omar, unfortunately, past exam papers are copyrighted so I can’t post them on here.
Great work!
I am a college student but loved to revise these.
I just wanted to know that for which specific standards or grades this app is made for.
Hi Meet, glad you’ve found my notes useful, even as a college student. The app is made mostly for IB Physics HL/SL students since these are the notes I made when doing my own revision.
Hey David,
I am in the process of making IB ZNotes for znotes.org. I would love if you could give us written permission to use your content in our guides directly from all your websites. To be clear znotes.org is a non profit organization and you will be listed as a contributor on our website in exchange.
Thanks
Vuryb
Hi Zubair, I’d be happy for you to use my notes, as long as a clear disclaimer and contribution is noted.
Awesome notes, really helpful! I noticed a mistake on topic 2 regarding Newton’s second law where it says that Force is inversely proportional to mass. I believe that’s wrong hehe. Glad I can help, Thank you!
Hi Victor, good catch. It should be correct now.
Hey man! I really appreciate this website! I was wondering if you could post the raw data for your Mpemba effect IA as I found it very interesting and I’d like to see how you manipulated the graphs on Excel! Thanks in advance.
Hi Manny, glad you’ve found the website helpful. I believe all the data I used for the IA are on the PDF document.
Hey, your notes are really helpful and finals is in a month.. I’m unsure of this, but under stellar evolution on HR diagrams second paragraph, I think the first sentence is supposed to be when star runs out of ‘hydrogen’ instead of ‘helium’… correct me if i’m wrong.. Thank you in advance
Hi Dad(?), glad you’ve found my notes helpful. You’re right. It should be corrected now, thanks.
hello David,
When do you think your option A: relativity will be done ? That would be very helpful since it is the only option i studied with my class and I am kind of lost aaaa the exam is in two weeks …. not panicking haha
thank you
Hi Julia, hope you passed your exams lol. I don’t think I’ll be doing any additional topics since I’ve graduated quite a while ago.
In Astrophysics Part D.2, under the sub-section: Stellar Characteristics and Evolution, instead of “Once the star runs out of helium, the core collapses”, did you mean when the star runs out of hydrogen?
Good catch. It should be corrected now, thanks.
Hi there ! Thank you for sharing your IA, it is extremely useful to read. If i may ask, how many marks were you awarded for it ?
I got a 7 fortunately. It is not perfect is any way though.
Hey David, I take another curriculum along with the IB curriculum so at this point in the year I have already done one set of state-wide final exams for all of my subjects and frankly am exhausted of test after test! While I usually study my butt off and shoot for a perfect score, I have been accepted into university, finished my other curriculum, and just need my IB diploma at this point. Without your site, I don’t think my last minute revising would’ve been nearly as effective or even possible — THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS SITE — it seriously has gotten my through one of the toughest exam periods yet when I felt so tired of trying to scour the internet for resources. You rock! 🙂
So glad that my notes have been helpful to you. All the best to your university studies.
My physics exam is coming up, and I am wondering how to study for it. I am a weak physics hl student and I would like to ask a question. Can this be enough to be the sole study for topics and I then can immediately jump into solving questions from past papers and workbooks? does it have all the things required to answer all questions? please answer.
Thanks for reading.
Hi Zaid, I’d recommend thoroughly studying the exam materials before jumping to past papers. All the best.
Hi David, I’m just asking if you upload lessons for the curriculum of grade 9 pre-ib (chemistry and physics)?
Hi Mohamad, I don’t have pre-IB materials unfortunately since these are simply notes I wrote during my IB revision. All the best.
Hi, David!
I think I have found an error.
“Newton’s Second Law states that net force is directly proportional to acceleration and inversely proportional to mass. (F=ma)”
Shouldn’t it be “directly proportional to mass”?
Good catch!
Hi David!
Would you recommend to use your notes only as a review, or are they detailed enough to study directly from these? Also, I was wondering if you know where I can find past paper problems and answers.
Let me know, thanks!
Hi G, I guess you can use the notes both for studying and review. However, doing past papers is necessary too imo. Due to copyright concerns, I can’t upload past papers here, unfortunately. All the best.
very helpful ressource to study, only if there was a pdf doc where you could have printed it out for self reference would have been great.
Hi Choji, perhaps you can try out https://webpagetopdf.com.
Very good
Hi Oscar, glad you’ve found my notes helpful.
Hi, David, do you have an app on apple store? Or only Android yet? Thanks!
Hi Johnson, it is Android only unfortunately. All the best.
thanks a lot for all of this,
I was wondering if there are another subjects too like biology.
Hi osi, glad you’ve found my notes helpful. For Biology, perhaps you can try out https://ib.bioninja.com.au.
Hi David!
This looks like an amazing app, and I’m sure I’ll use it a lot in the future, one small thing: in the second table in “Measurements and Uncertainties”, pico and femta have 10^12 and 10^15 assigned to them instead of 10^-12 and 10^-15.
Also, this app is amazingly stylished congrats!
Hi Anton, good catch! It should be fixed now. 🙂
Hi David! Thank you for sharing these notes! I refer to them a lot and find it very useful.
I was revising topic one checked my course book (Tsokos – 6th edition) to add anything i have underlined there, so I have some suggestion on what you can add to your notes:
1. For random error’s explanation: “Repeated measurements show a *spread of values*, some too large and some too small, and it is *unbiased*”. For systematic error’s explanation: “*Biased* in the same direction, the results are *always too large or too small*.”
2. Diagrams on precision and accuracy for random and systematic errors.
3. A diagram on the difference of distance and displacement. My peers and even I on some occasions, mix up distance and displacement and I’m sure there are other students that mix these up, so I think highlighyting their diffrence would be benefitial.
4. Vectors (with arrows pointing in the same sense) forming closed polygons add up to zero. (There’re diagrams on the course book)
5. How to keep a point in equilibrium (You find the sum of the given vectors and then add its opposite to the system) (worked example 1.14)
6. Reconstructing a vector from its components (This one is *really* important as it has its own formulas.) (vector F = the square root of Fx^2 + Fy^2) (Its angle = arctan Fy/Fx, you should ignore the signs, and the angle’s the one between the vector and the x axis.)
Some of these might be obvious things, but I think it’d be useful to have them nonetheless!
Hi Ida, glad you’ve found my notes useful. 🙂 Thanks for all the great suggestions. I’ve updated the notes to address many of them.
Really helpful website for revising thanks so much. Do you happen to have one or know of any good ones for Chemistry.
Hi Andrew, glad you’ve found the website helpful. 🙂 I’d recommend http://ibalchemy.com for Chemistry.
Heyy David, I’m a IB student studying in MYP 5 (10 grade). It would be really helpful if you can give me tips on how to perpare for e-assessments which is coming up in may. and share some of your notes. Thank you
Hi Kanak, I don’t have any experience in MYP unfortunately so I don’t think I can help much… Perhaps revise your syllabus thoroughly and do some past papers. All the best. 🙂
Hi! Love your notes, they are really helpful for final preps… Are there any notes on Relativity (With HL)?
Hi Aryan, glad you’ve found the notes helpful. 🙂 Don’t think I’ll be doing notes on Relativity though unfortunately.
Hey David, my exam is in two days, and I was stressing out crazy, but then I found your website. You’re amazing for doing this, thank you so much. 🙂
Hi Campbell, hope it went well!
Hey David, thank you for posting these notes, they really are helping.
Just think there’s a typo in mechanics: “Friction force=µs *Normal force for objects that are moving.”
shouldn’t it be “µk”?
Hi Raimo, I guess I was referring to Static friction instead of Kinetic friction. Thanks for pointing it out. It should be clearer now.
Amazing website, really really helpful. I believe you have the positive and negative terminals mixed up though under the battery and cells (Topic 5.3).
Hi Andrew, thanks for pointing out. Should be correct now. 🙂
Hey david, do you have the downloadable version of these notes, by any chance?
Hi Saineeraj, perhaps you can give https://webpagetopdf.com a try.
Hi Dhriti, glad you’ve enjoyed my notes. 🙂 Perhaps you can try https://webpagetopdf.com to convert it to a printable PDF format.
Yo David, is there any website to find Math, Business, Chem, Physics, English Notes and Past paper
Man, I cannot stress how helpful these notes have been to me, I consider myself to be below average in physics, mostly because i am really bad at making notes and I do not understand my physics teacher. This is almost like a lifesaver. Helped me find my weak points and clear most of my doubts. Thank you David.
These notes are extremely concise and informative. They cleared all my doubts and will certainly help me in my exam!!
Hope it went well! 🙂
Hi David, thanks for sharing really it was very useful while teaching IB Physics to my students. keep on sharing.
Hi, thanks so much for these notes, they helped me an awful lot over the IB. Although I wasn’t able to do the exam I’m sure I would’ve aced it because of this website. Thank you
Hope it all turned out alright!
Physics bible
I just abput never comment on anything, but want to remind you how grateful people are for this cite! We have quizzes every other week in physics, and you’ve saved me so many times. Thank you for making the content of the syllabus more accessible!
Mate this is great, appreciate this tons!!!
Thank you David, this an incredibly useful site.
Hello David may I ask if you have a helpful site fore physics
I graduated from IB school on 2011, and ended up 3 in sl physics. now i am studying physics for fun for liking the subject and not doing well on physics. thanks for the content and effort invested in
Hi David, Thanks for you well organised notes. I wish I knew about your site earlier. I only reached your site the other day when I was searching online for some physics clarification. Today as I was going through your notes on chapter 8, I realised a lot portions regarding different energy productions is missing from your notes. Did it get deleted? Is it possible for you to add them?
Thanks
Hello David, Wanted to know if you have pdf version of the revision notes for all units.
Hi, you should be able to get PDF versions of each topic by right-clicking each page and selecting “print”.