Pearson Edexcel International GCSE in Physics · 4PH1 · Free · no account needed
Topic 6 · Magnetism and electromagnetism
Magnetic fields and how a current makes one, the motor effect and the left-hand rule, electromagnetic induction, generators and transformers.
Every lesson here ends the same way: learn it, teach it to an AI pupil who asks the awkward question, then defend it against the thinker with the strongest claim on it — free · no account needed.
6 lessons, covering 20 specification statements.
What you need to know — the 20 statements, and where each one is taught
Every statement this topic carries, in the specification's own numbering, with Incandio's restatement of what it asks and the lesson that discharges it. Tick them off against your own copy of the specification: this is the topic's revision checklist, not a summary of it. Incandio is aligned to this specification. It is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson, and it reproduces none of Pearson's wording — the statement numbers are given so you can check every lesson against your own copy.
| Statement | What it asks | Taught in |
|---|---|---|
| 6.1 | Use the units ampere, volt and watt | Magnets and Magnetic Fields |
| 6.2 | Magnets repel and attract other magnets and attract magnetic substances | Magnets and Magnetic Fields |
| 6.3 | The properties of magnetically hard and soft materials | Magnets and Magnetic Fields |
| 6.4 | The term magnetic field line | Magnets and Magnetic Fields |
| 6.5 | Magnetism induced in some materials placed in a magnetic field | Induced Magnetism and Field Patterns |
| 6.6 (practical) | Practical: investigate the field pattern of a bar magnet and between two bar magnets | Induced Magnetism and Field Patterns |
| 6.7 | Using two permanent magnets to produce a uniform field | Induced Magnetism and Field Patterns |
| 6.8 | An electric current in a conductor produces a magnetic field around it | Electromagnets |
| 6.9 | The construction of electromagnets | Electromagnets |
| 6.10 | Field patterns for a straight wire, a flat circular coil and a solenoid | Electromagnets |
| 6.11 | The force on a charged particle moving non-parallel to a magnetic field | The Motor Effect |
| 6.12 | Why a force acts on a current-carrying wire in a field, and its use in motors and loudspeakers | The Motor Effect |
| 6.13 | Use the left-hand rule to predict the direction of the force | The Motor Effect |
| 6.14 | How the force changes with the magnitude and direction of the field and the current | The Motor Effect |
| 6.15 | Induced voltage when a conductor moves through a field or the field through it changes, and the factors affecting its size | Electromagnetic Induction |
| 6.16 | Generating electricity by rotating a magnet in a coil or a coil in a field, and the factors affecting the induced voltage | Electromagnetic Induction |
| 6.17 | The structure of a transformer and how turns change an alternating voltage | Transformers |
| 6.18 | The use of step-up and step-down transformers in generation and transmission | Transformers |
| 6.19 | Use the transformer turns-ratio relationship | Transformers |
| 6.20 | Use input power = output power for a 100% efficient transformer | Transformers |
The lessons
- Magnets and Magnetic Fields — Why only repulsion proves you are holding a magnet, and what a field line is actually a picture of. (6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4)
- Induced Magnetism and Field Patterns — Why an iron nail sticks to a magnet at all, why it never pushes back, and how to plot a field you cannot see. (6.5, 6.6, 6.7)
- Electromagnets — The four pages of Latin that showed a current makes a field — and why that field goes round the wire rather than along it. (6.8, 6.9, 6.10)
- The Motor Effect — Put a current in a magnetic field and something moves — the effect behind every electric motor and every loudspeaker. (6.11, 6.12, 6.13, 6.14)
- Electromagnetic Induction — Move a magnet near a coil and a voltage appears from nowhere — provided something is changing. (6.15, 6.16)
- Transformers — Two coils that never touch, the reason the National Grid runs at 400 000 volts, and why none of it works on a battery. (6.17, 6.18, 6.19, 6.20)