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IB Physics IA Ideas: 30 Topics with Research Questions
18 August, 2026 | Abhishek Malani | 12 Min Read
Introduction
Choosing a strong IB Physics IA topic is often harder than actually running the experiment, mostly because many popular ideas either lack sufficient analytical depth or require equipment that most school labs don’t have. At Quest for Success, we’ve put together 30 genuinely workable IB Physics IA ideas, organized by subject area, each paired with real physics IA questions you can adapt to your own equipment and interests. Whether you’re just starting to brainstorm or narrowing down a shortlist, this list is built to stay relevant across syllabus cycles, since the underlying physics doesn’t change even as specific assessment criteria are periodically updated.
Table of Contents
What Makes a Strong IB Physics IA Topic
The IB Physics Internal Assessment, officially the Scientific Investigation, is a student-designed experimental report worth 20% of your final grade at both SL and HL, assessed against four equally weighted criteria totaling 24 marks. Regardless of exact word limits or formatting rules in a given syllabus year, a genuinely strong topic consistently shares the same underlying traits:
- A continuous, numerical independent and dependent variable: rather than categorical comparisons, since continuous data supports the kind of graphing, curve-fitting, and uncertainty analysis the assessment rewards most heavily.
- Equipment you can realistically access and control precisely: A topic that sounds impressive but requires lab-grade instruments your school doesn’t have will cost you far more in data quality than it gains in perceived ambition.
- A clear, testable relationship: not a vague exploration. Strong IAs isolate one independent variable, control the rest, and test a specific, falsifiable relationship against theory.
- Room for genuine analysis and evaluation: not just data collection. Since a substantial share of the available marks reward interpreting your data and critically evaluating your method’s limitations, a topic that only produces a single clean number rarely scores as well as one that invites deeper discussion of uncertainty, systematic error, and possible extensions.
How to Turn a Topic into a Strong Research Question
Before browsing ideas for Physics IA, it helps to understand the anatomy of a strong research question, since the same topic can produce either a weak or a genuinely strong IA depending entirely on how it’s framed:
- Name both variables explicitly: “How does temperature affect resistance?” is vague; “How does the resistance of a nichrome wire (Ω) vary with temperature (°C) as it’s heated from 20°C to 80°C?” is testable.
- Specify the controlled conditions: A strong question implies what you’re holding constant, wire length and diameter, in the example above, even before you write your methodology section.
- Keep the scope realistic for the time and equipment you have: A research question that would require a university-grade lab to answer properly is a common reason otherwise promising topics underperform.
- Choose a relationship with a clear theoretical prediction to compare against: The strongest IAs consistently link back to a specific physics principle or equation, which gives your analysis and evaluation sections something concrete to engage with.
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Categories
30 IB Physics IA Ideas with Research Questions
Mechanics
- Projectile launch angle and range: How does the launch angle of a spring-loaded projectile launcher affect the horizontal range of the projectile, for a fixed initial launch speed?
- Friction on an incline: How does the angle of an inclined plane affect the coefficient of kinetic friction between a wooden block and the plane’s surface?
- Coefficient of restitution: How does the drop height of a bouncing ball affect its coefficient of restitution when dropped onto a fixed surface?
- Impulse and momentum in collisions: How does the mass of a moving cart affect the impulse delivered during a collision with a fixed spring bumper, as measured by a force sensor?
Thermal Physics
5. Newton’s Law of Cooling: How does the surface area of a metal container affect its rate of cooling, when filled with water at a fixed initial temperature?
6. Specific heat capacity comparison: How does the specific heat capacity, determined experimentally, of different metal samples compare to their accepted literature values?
7. Thermal conductivity of materials: How does the thickness of an insulating material affect the rate of heat transfer through it, measured via steady-state temperature difference?
Waves and Sound
8. Resonance in air columns: How does the length of an air column in a closed pipe affect its fundamental resonant frequency?
9. The Doppler effect: How does the relative speed between a sound source and a stationary observer affect the observed frequency shift?
10. Standing waves on a string: How does the tension in a vibrating string affect the frequency required to produce a standing wave with a fixed number of nodes?
Electricity and Magnetism
11. Resistivity and temperature: How does the temperature of a nichrome wire affect its electrical resistance as it’s heated over a defined range?
12. RC circuit discharge: How does the resistance in an RC circuit affect the time constant of a capacitor’s discharge?
13. Magnetic field strength near a wire: How does distance from a current-carrying wire affect the magnetic field strength measured by a Hall probe?
14. Electromagnetic induction: How does the speed of a magnet falling through a coil affect the peak EMF induced, as measured by a data logger?
Circular Motion and Gravitation
15. Centripetal force and radius: How does the radius of circular motion affect the centripetal force required to maintain a constant angular velocity?
16. The conical pendulum: How does the angle of a conical pendulum’s string affect its period of rotation?
Oscillations
17. Simple pendulum beyond small angles: How does the initial displacement angle of a simple pendulum affect its period, particularly at angles beyond the standard small-angle approximation?
18. Mass-spring systems: How does the mass attached to a vertical spring affect the period of oscillation, and how closely does the result match the theoretical simple harmonic motion model?
19. Damped oscillations in fluid: How does the viscosity of a surrounding fluid affect the damping coefficient of an oscillating pendulum bob?
Fluids
20. Terminal velocity and viscosity: How does the viscosity of a fluid affect the terminal velocity of a steel ball falling through it, and how well does the result agree with Stokes’ Law?
21. Bernoulli’s principle in pipe flow: How does the diameter of a pipe affect the flow rate of water through it at a constant pressure difference?
Optics
22. Refractive index and concentration: How does the concentration of a sugar or salt solution affect its refractive index, as measured using a laser and a simple refraction setup?
23. Single-slit diffraction: How does slit width affect the spacing of the diffraction pattern produced by a laser passing through a single slit?
24. Malus’s Law and polarization: How does the angle between two polarizing filters affect the intensity of light transmitted through them?
Modern and Atomic Physics
25. The photoelectric effect (LED-based analogue): How does the frequency of light emitted by different colored LEDs relate to the minimum voltage required to produce light, as a classroom analogue for photoelectric stopping voltage?
26. Radioactive decay modeling: How well does a dice- or coin-based probabilistic simulation model the exponential decay curve and half-life behavior of a radioactive sample?
27. Inverse-square law with light or radiation: How does distance from a light source affect the intensity of light measured by a sensor, and how closely does the relationship follow the inverse-square law?
Energy and Applied Physics
28. Solar panel efficiency and angle: How does the angle of incidence of light on a small photovoltaic panel affect its power output?
29. Motor efficiency under load: How does the load (resistance or mass) on a small electric motor affect its overall energy efficiency?
30. Insulation and heat loss modeling: How does the type of insulating material used in a model house affect its rate of heat loss, measured through internal temperature decay over time?
Common Mistakes When Choosing a Topic
- Choosing a topic before checking equipment access:
- Confirm your school’s lab actually has, or can source, what a topic requires before committing, rather than discovering a gap midway through data collection.
- Picking a topic with only one data point of real interest: A strong IA needs a range of values across your independent variable, ideally 8-10 distinct data points with repeated trials, not just a single before-and-after comparison.
- Overcomplicating the setup to sound impressive: Examiners consistently reward a simple, well-executed investigation with thoughtful analysis over an ambitious one with sloppy data or a poorly controlled variable.
- Ignoring uncertainty analysis until the end: Strong IAs plan for uncertainty propagation from the start, choosing measurement tools and repeated trials that make meaningful error analysis possible, rather than trying to retrofit it after data collection is already done.
- Copying a topic without adapting the research question: A generic version of a popular topic performs far worse than the same topic reframed around your specific equipment, variable ranges, and a genuinely original angle.
How Quest for Success Can Help
A strong IB Physics IA depends on choosing a topic that matches your school’s equipment, your own analytical strengths, and enough experimental depth to support real evaluation, not just data collection. At Quest for Success, we help students refine a shortlist of physics internal assessment ideas into a focused, well-scoped research question, then guide the methodology, analysis, and evaluation stages so the final report reflects genuinely independent scientific thinking.
Summary
A strong IB Physics IA idea consistently combines a continuous, measurable variable, realistic equipment requirements, and enough analytical depth to support genuine evaluation, not just a single measured result. The 30 topics above span mechanics, thermal physics, waves, electricity and magnetism, circular motion, oscillations, fluids, optics, modern physics, and applied energy topics, each paired with a specific, testable research question you can adapt to your own school’s lab equipment and available materials. Regardless of which topic you choose, framing your research question with explicit, named variables and controlled conditions from the start, rather than refining it later, consistently produces stronger, more analytically rich reports. Because these underlying physics relationships don’t change from year to year, this list stays useful as a starting point for brainstorming regardless of specific assessment criteria updates in any given syllabus cycle.
FAQs
A good topic uses a continuous, measurable independent and dependent variable, realistic equipment you can actually access, and enough analytical depth to support meaningful evaluation, not just a single data point.
Very specific. Name both variables explicitly, state what you’re holding constant, and keep the scope realistic for your available time and equipment, rather than leaving the question broad or vague.
Adapt it. Using the exact framing without tailoring it to your specific equipment, variable ranges, or a slightly original angle typically scores lower than a version genuinely shaped around your own investigation.
Most strong investigations collect at least 8–10 distinct values across the independent variable, with repeated trials at each point to support meaningful uncertainty analysis.
Not necessarily. A simple, well-executed investigation with thoughtful, thorough analysis consistently outperforms an overly ambitious topic executed with unreliable data or a poorly controlled variable.
Need help narrowing down your IB Physics IA topic or refining your research question? Reach out to Quest for Success; we’re here to help you turn a solid idea into a genuinely strong investigation.
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