Elite Scholars

Physical Sciences Grade 11

This is every topic in the CAPS Physical Sciences curriculum for Grade 11, 16 in total, organised by content strand, the way the Department divides the subject. It is the same curriculum your school teaches from, and the same one the NSC examines.

Mechanics

4 topics · 16.87%

27 teaching hours in CAPS

  • Vectors in two dimensions: resultants of perpendicular vectors and resolving a vector into components
  • Newton’s first, second and third laws, and the law of universal gravitation
  • Different kinds of force: weight, normal, frictional, applied and tension
  • Force diagrams, free-body diagrams, and equilibrium and non-equilibrium problems

Waves, Sound and Light

2 topics · 8.13%

13 teaching hours in CAPS

  • Geometrical optics: refraction, Snell’s Law, critical angles and total internal reflection
  • 2D and 3D wavefronts: diffraction

Electricity and Magnetism

3 topics · 12.5%

20 teaching hours in CAPS

  • Electrostatics: Coulomb’s Law and the electric field
  • Electromagnetism: magnetic fields around current-carrying wires, and Faraday’s Law
  • Electric circuits: energy and power

Matter and Materials

3 topics · 15.00%

24 teaching hours in CAPS

  • Molecular structure: the chemical bond, molecular shape, electronegativity and bond polarity
  • Intermolecular forces, states of matter, density, and the three phases of water
  • Ideal gases: the kinetic theory of gases, the gas laws, and the relationship between temperature and pressure

Chemical Change

3 topics · 17.50%

28 teaching hours in CAPS

  • Stoichiometry: molar volume of gases, concentration, limiting reagents and volume relationships
  • Energy and chemical change: bond energy, exothermic and endothermic reactions, activation energy
  • Types of reaction: acid-base and redox, and oxidation numbers

Chemical Systems

1 topic · 5.00%

8 teaching hours in CAPS

  • The lithosphere: mining and energy resources

Knowing the topics is the easy part

The list above is public. It is what your teacher works from. What it does not do is explain a topic you are stuck on, show you a worked example, or tell you which mistakes cost marks in the exam. That is what an Elite Scholars account is for: study notes written against these exact topics, past papers, and tools that show their working.

See how we help

Source: CAPS FET Physical Sciences, Grades 10-12, Department of Basic Education, checked on 2026-08-05. Schools sequence topics differently within a year, so treat this as what is examined rather than the order your class will meet it in.

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