20 IB Physics IA Topic Ideas!

Choosing where to start with an IA can be the hardest part, and this is definitely true for the Physics IA. We know that our topic has to be somewhat related to the syllabus, but where should we focus? Thankfully, we’ve asked some of our favourite IB graduates for some of the ideas they pursued!

NOTE: These topics are purely meant as inspiration and are not to be chosen blindly. Even though many of these topics led to high scores for some of our graduates in the past, it is important that you listen to the advice of your subject teacher before choosing any topic!

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1. How does sugar concentration affect the refractive index of water?

2. How does the number of coils affect the efficiency of an electric motor?

3. How does the thickness of human hair affect the Young Modulus?

4. How does the cross-sectional area of a shuttlecock affect the range of projection?

5. Investigate how the radius of a football affect the impulse on the football when kicked?

6. Exploring the relationship between angle of initial release of a pendulum and the subsequent calculation of ‘g’ from the pendulum

7. How does temperature affect the flight distance or arc of an elastic band when fired

8. Set up a hydraulics system and change multiple variables to test the impact

9. Investigate the impact of different levels of shade on the power output of a solar panel

10. Investigate the impact of various variables (temperature, concentration, colour) of a liquid on its refractive index

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11. What is the ‘sweet spot’ on a tennis racket that delivers the best hit by calculating the coefficient of restitution

12. Exploring the relationship between suspension length and period of disk rotation

13. Looking into factors that affect the refraction of certain light sources

14. Exploring the resonance of musical instruments within a wave framework

15. Determining the charge of an electron using a computer simulation

16. Investigating the Magnetic field inside a slinky

17. Electromagnetic induction laws and some factors that affect it

18. Investigating properties of light-dependent resistors

19. Looking at how the density of water affects single-slit diffraction patterns of waves

20. An investigation of measuring the permeability of free space constant using simple solenoids and a magnetic field probe

So there we have it! 20 top ideas to get your Physics IA underway! Maybe you’ve got the Physics IA topic but you’re still finding the task a bit of a chore? Don’t worry, we know that Physics is one of the trickiest subjects…

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