# Ten original fictional physics source cards · Days 1–10

These are **constructed classroom records, not measurements from a real person, object or experiment**. Diagrams described in words are inventions. A claim in a public card is deliberately open to challenge; the separate desk note supplies the model limits. No learner should heat, touch, wire, sample or test anything to complete this pack. In each case, identify the system, energy path or model, then name one uncertainty or missing fact. [Fresh checks](STUDENT-CHECKS.md) use different cases.

## Day 1 · Ceramic studio label

**Public label:** “Both bowls are at 60 °C, so they contain exactly the same thermal energy.” The drawing makes two bowls the same apparent size.

**Desk note:** The fictional bowls contain the **same material in the same phase** at the same temperature. One model sample has mass **0.20 kg**, the other **1.00 kg**. The drawing is not to scale. Temperature indicates the particles' average kinetic-energy state in this simple model; internal energy concerns the whole sample and is affected by how much matter is present. No exact internal energy or phase-change history is supplied.

**Question:** What can equal temperature tell us, and what cannot the label conclude about the two whole samples?

## Day 2 · Music-stand sleeve

**Public product sketch:** “A solid metal bridge between a warm model block and its sleeve cannot transfer energy because nothing is moving through the metal.” The drawn bridge touches both ends.

**Desk note:** In this **paper-only model**, the metal bridge is a continuous solid with one end at a higher temperature than the other. Energy can move by **conduction** through the material without bulk travel of the metal. The sketch supplies no transfer rate, surface temperature, touch safety or comparison with another material.

**Question:** Trace the conduction path and correct the claim without presenting the sketch as a real safety test.

## Day 3 · Library stairwell cutaway

**Public caption:** “An upward arrow beside warm air proves that warmth itself rises as a substance.” The fictional cutaway has a lower air region and an upper region.

**Desk note:** The illustrative model stipulates **air moving** from a lower inlet past a warm surface toward an upper return path, with model readings **23 °C below** and **27 °C above**. **Convection** transfers energy as a fluid moves. The arrows are a proposed flow, not measured velocity; two temperatures alone would not prove the direction or rate of movement.

**Question:** Identify what moves, what energy is transferred, and which part of the picture is not observed evidence.

## Day 4 · Space-exhibit display gap

**Public sign:** “A thermal signal cannot cross an empty gap. Without air, there is no way for energy to move.” The gap in this fictional exhibit is marked **evacuated**.

**Desk note:** The paper diagram has a warm emitting panel, an evacuated gap and a receiving surface. In the model, **thermal radiation** travels across the gap. Conduction and convection need matter between the surfaces; no power, absorbed fraction, surface finish or actual equipment performance is specified.

**Question:** Which pathway can cross this model gap and which two cannot operate *through the empty gap*?

## Day 5 · Lunch-crate poster

**Public poster:** “The one heat pathway here is conduction, so the crate is proven safe for every lunch.” It shows a closed fictional crate with a solid wall, air space and facing inner surfaces.

**Desk note:** The constructed diagram allows **conduction through the solid wall**, **convection within moving air** and **radiation between facing surfaces**. It supplies no measured heat flow, food temperature, duration or food-safety result. The pathways can coexist and their relative contributions are unknown.

**Question:** Label three distinct paths and remove the unsupported safety promise. The separate [Check A](STUDENT-CHECKS.md) follows only if locally scheduled.

## Day 6 · Archive temperature card

**Public card:** “The archive changes from 22 °C to −5 °C, so its temperature difference is 27 + 273 = 300 K.” The two model readings appear on separate invented dates.

**Desk note:** Apply the QCAA syllabus convention **T(K) = T(°C) + 273** for each temperature: **22 °C** and **−5 °C**. A difference of 1 °C has the same size as 1 K; the offset is not added to a temperature **change**. These are illustrative numbers, not a climate or archive report. The syllabus convention is rounded relative to the exact Celsius–Kelvin offset.

**Question:** Convert both readings and find the size and direction of their change with a correct unit.

## Day 7 · Bicycle-workshop readout

**Public note:** “The part rose exactly 9.0 °C. One decimal place proves the thermometer is accurate.” An invented screen shows **18.0 °C** then **27.0 °C**.

**Desk note:** The paper device card separately **stipulates ±0.1 °C measurement uncertainty for each reading**. For this activity, use a conservative worst-case bound: add the two absolute uncertainties when subtracting readings. This does not prove calibration accuracy, repeatability, a temperature cause, or that all real digital devices have the same uncertainty.

**Question:** Report the temperature change with an absolute and percentage uncertainty; explain why display digits alone are not an accuracy certificate.

## Day 8 · Theatre prop cooling model

**Public budget line:** “Doubling the amount of prop material needs no extra heating energy if the temperature rise stays at 4 K.” The line is about a simulated material, not a real heater.

**Desk note:** An invented single-phase material has **specific heat capacity c = 2,000 J kg⁻¹ K⁻¹**. The model first uses **m = 0.50 kg** and **ΔT = 4 K**, with all calculated energy transferred to the sample and no phase change. Compare a second model with **m = 1.00 kg**, same c and ΔT. Use **Q = mcΔT**. Heat losses and device rating are excluded, not measured.

**Question:** Calculate both model energy transfers and say which assumption makes the comparison possible.

## Day 9 · Model display tiles

**Public catalogue:** “Two equal-mass tiles given the same energy must warm by the same amount, whatever they are made of.” The fictional tile materials are called **Aster** and **Beryl**.

**Desk note:** Each **0.50 kg** model tile receives **3,000 J** in a single phase with no losses. The stipulated values are **c(Aster) = 1,000 J kg⁻¹ K⁻¹** and **c(Beryl) = 2,000 J kg⁻¹ K⁻¹**. These are exercise constants, not properties of real products. Rearrange **Q = mcΔT**; do not infer which real tile is safer to handle.

**Question:** Find both temperature changes, compare them, and qualify the catalogue claim.

## Day 10 · Transit-museum graph note

**Public graph caption:** “One straight line proves every material at every temperature responds exactly this way.” The invented plot has energy transfer Q against temperature change ΔT.

**Desk note:** A fictional **0.25 kg** single-phase sample has model points **(ΔT K, Q J): (0, 0), (1, 1,000), (2, 2,000), (3, 3,000)**. These are calculated classroom points, **not collected experimental data**. Assume c constant and no heat loss in this range. From **Q = mcΔT**, slope Q/ΔT = mc. No uncertainty bars, wider-range measurements or phase-change data are supplied.

**Question:** Find the line slope and model c with units, then narrow the caption. The separate [Check B](STUDENT-CHECKS.md) uses another case.

**Original resource rights:** © NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd 2026, SubjectNest, [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Credit author, source, licence and changes.