IB Physics IA Topics: 20+ Ideas to Get You Started

Are you finding it difficult to generate IB Physics IA topics for your Internal Assessment? You’ve come to the right place.

The right topic for your assessment is the one that’s interesting, concise, and easy to investigate within the scope of the assessment criteria.

Unfortunately, good topic ideas don’t always come to mind when you need them the most. At times, brainstorming can take longer than expect, with no guarantee that you’ll have the best ideas to consider for your IA.

To make your work easier, we’ve put together 20+ Physics IA topics, which can inspire you to get started with your writing as soon as possible.

Key Takeaways

• The IB IA topic you choose for your IA project should be interesting enough to explore within the scope of the assessment criteria.
• Choose your ideas early and do your preliminary research to learn more about the topic.
• You want to be as creative with your topic research, but it’s completely fine if you write your IA based on a topic that you find online.
• Your teacher won’t grade you for searching for an IA topic in Physics. Instead, the assessment criteria look at your method, data acquisition, data analysis and report writing.

If you already have a Physics internal assessment topic to investigate but not enough time to do the writing, you can get our IA writing help to complete the work on time. Our team focuses on professional custom writing, making us the right platform to hire to help you write your Physics IA.

IB Physics IA Topics

The following are examples of the best IB Physics IA ideas from which you can pick a topic for your internal assessment on the subject:

Mechanics

1. Examine the impact of the mass of a toy parachute on its terminal velocity.
2. Analyze how the angle of the blade influences the lift force of a toy helicopter.
3. Explore the relationship between the height of a ramp and the time taken for a cylinder to roll down the ramp.
4. Investigate how the cross-sectional area of blades affects the lift force of a toy helicopter.
5. Examine the relationship between the volume of an object and its buoyancy when fully submerged in water.
6. Analyze how the temperature of rubber affects the coefficient of static friction between the rubber and a surface.

Thermal Physics IA Topics

1. Investigate the impact of temperature on the average rate of wall collisions within a container for an ideal gas, particularly suitable for simulation purposes.
2. Examine how the distance between panes of glass in double-glazing affects the rate of heat loss.
3. Investigate how the volume of water affects the rate of cooling when exposed to a controlled breeze.
4. Explore the relationship between the change in temperature of a copper rod and its resulting length of extension.
5. Analyze how the concentration of salt in water affects the specific heat capacity.

Waves and Oscillation

1. Explore the impact of string density on the fundamental frequency.
2. Examine how the temperature of a guitar string affects the frequency produced when plucked with a constant force and left to vibrate freely.
3. Investigate the relationship between the length of a guitar string and the sustain time of producing a sound when plucked with a constant force.
4. Analyze how sugar concentration influences the refractive index of a sugar water solution.
5. Investigate how the distance from a speaker affects the sound intensity level.
6. Provide evidence supporting the validity of the inverse square law for a point source light bulb and its inapplicability to a directional light source.

Electricity and Magnetism

1. Investigate the relative permeability of free space by manipulating the current flowing through a solenoid and measuring the resulting magnetic field.
2. Analyze how the magnetic field strength of magnets influences the efficiency of an electric motor.
3. Examine the relationship between the magnetic field strength of a permanent magnet and its levitation height when positioned above another permanent magnet.
4. Investigate how temperature affects the magnetic field strength of a permanent magnet.
5. Explore the impact of the diameter of a coil on a battery copper coil train on the train’s speed.
6. Determine how the number of coils affects the efficiency of an electric motor.
7. Investigate the effect of varying the height of a water tube (with five different measurements) on the power delivered by the falling water in an electrical energy generator.

Wave Phenomena

1. Investigate the relationship between the spacing of slits produced from a laser and the distance from the screen.
2. Analyze how the radius of a solid sphere affects the time of oscillation on a curved track.
3. Examine how the temperature of water in a wine glass influences the resonant frequency of sound produced when striking the glass, causing the rim to vibrate freely.
4. Investigate how the angle of incidence of p-polarized light affects the reflectivity of light.
5. Analyze how the width of a single slit affects the maximum angle of visible diffraction for a monochromatic source.
6. Determine how the cross-sectional area of a card attached to a vibrating mass affects the displacement of the mass after twenty oscillations.
7. Examine how the volume of water in a wine glass influences the resonant frequency of sound produced when striking the glass, causing the rim to vibrate freely.
8. Study how light intensity varies when passed through a Polaroid filter at different angles.
9. Assess whether a pendulum obeys the rules of Simple Harmonic Motion (SHM) at large angles of release.

IB Physics IA Topics in Electromagnetic Induction

1. Explore the impact of connecting capacitors in series on the voltage across a discharging capacitor.
2. Investigate how the resistivity of a metal pipe influences the time it takes for a magnet to descend through it.
3. Examine the relationship between temperature and the efficiency of a transformer.
4. Analyze how the diameter of a coil on a battery copper coil train affects the speed of the train.
5. Explore the connection between the voltage applied to a flat-laid Helmholtz coil and the period of a freely oscillating pendulum within the loop.
6. Investigate the effect of varying the frequency of rotation of a simple AC generator on the induced peak electromotive force.
7. Examine how the radius of a copper pipe affects the time it takes for a magnet to pass through it.

Engineering Physics

1. In what way does the cross-sectional area of a siphon pipe affect the rate of volumetric flow for the water within?
2. What effect does the mass of a submerged body have on the amount of fluid displaced?
3. How does the height from which a water droplet falls affect the height it rebounds to upon contacting a water surface?
4. What is the relationship between temperature and the viscosity of castor oil?
5. In what manner does the density of an object, completely submerged in water, influence the duration required to achieve equilibrium upon release?
6. How does the moment of inertia influence the final velocity of a cylinder as it rolls down an inclined slope?
7. How does the immersion of an object in water affect the buoyancy because of its volume?