Table Of ContentGeneral
Science
for
SSC Examinations Railway Examinations
CGL, Sub-Inspector in Delhi Police / Technical, Non-technical and
CAPFs and Assistant Sub-Inspector in Group D Staff
CISF, Junior Engineers, Stenographer
C&D, CHSL (10+2), Multi Tasking (Non-
Other State Examinations
Technical) Staff and Others
General
Science
for
SSC Examinations Railway Examinations
CGL, Sub-Inspector in Delhi Police / Technical, Non-technical and
CAPFs and Assistant Sub-Inspector in Group D Staff
CISF, Junior Engineers, Stenographer
C&D, CHSL (10+2), Multi Tasking (Non-
Other State Examinations
Technical) Staff and Others
Nitin Grewal
McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited
CHENNAI
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SSC General Science
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I dedicate this book to
my parents,
Sh. Dhup Singh
and
Late Smt. Santosh Devi
P r e f a c e
Before you dive deep
There are many books on Science in market. But good quality books among them (like that of I. E.
Irodov), are of high level, and their language is also very technical. Hence, for students preparing for
one-day exams, such books remain useless, especially for those who never had science background in XI
and XII class. In fact, those from science background too lack in core concepts many times.
Then there are some GK books from famous publishers, which provide some help, but their content
is so brief that it doesn’t help in exams much. They merge Geography, History, Science, Polity, Economy,
etc., in the same book. But the way questions are framed in exams now-a-days, it tests your understanding
of concept, for which mere cramming of facts won’t help.
There is third type of books too, written by so-called “authors” for whom, grabbing money from
book-market is prime concern, no matter even if the content quality is bad. Every other day, a new author
rises with aspirations of getting a book printed to his or her name. When I roam around in Mukherjee
Nagar, and randomly pick one of those books in book stores, I feel sad to see their texts full of mistakes.
I have great hope with every new book. May be I get to learn something new out of them. But when the
very first page I open, it shows signs of copy-paste, I hopelessly lose trust in rest of the content too.
After all, students buy a book with a hope that it may help them in cracking exams, unaware of the
mistakes in them. But such books are not only harmful to the aspirant in a competitive exam; they also
do not do justice with a subject as royal as science. Eventually, students start hating science. What good
does a copy-pasted book do if it depreciates the reputation of Science?
Science isn’t that tough, as much it is usually portrayed, just that you need to keep applying logic
while you go through a book (which every one of you can obviously do). And as far as physics is concerned,
then besides being logical, this subject is also highly mathematical. Mathematics is the language of
physics. You need to know basic mathematics to understand basic physics, and higher mathematics to
understand higher physics. As a reader to comprehend this book, at least basic mathematical knowledge
up to tenth class is expected from you. Apart from that, slight concepts of vector algebra and calculus will
also be needed in some cases, which we will develop with the topic concerned.
The purpose of this book is not to provide entertainment. You can’t go through it like a novel.
According to a legend, Ptolemy-I-Soter, the king of Alexandria, who was studying geometry, asked
Euclid if there was an easier way to understand it. Euclid said, “There are two types of roads in our
country. Difficult ones, for common man, and royal roads for people like you. But there is just one way
to geometry. There is no royal road to geometry”. I believe that the same applies to Physics too. No
matter how hard I try to explain physics the easy way, unless you are ready to use your imagination, all
my efforts would go in vain, especially when physics is so close to mathematics. There is no royal road
to physics.
So that you may get nice score in exams, here is my advice regarding this book. A few topics in this
book are completely independent, and you can directly jump to those. But most of the other topics are
interconnected. For example, if I were to teach about a pendulum, then I would need to explain gravity
viii SSC General Science
and centre of mass before that. This book is written in such an order so that every upcoming topic may be
easier to understand. Do not jump on to those topics directly, from where you may have seen questions in
previous years’ papers. Even if centre of mass is never asked in exams, you will still need to understand
it to answer questions about pendulum. The flow of this book is more or less based on the NCERT
books, starting from class XI. Hence, in case you feel the need to refer to a standard text, I would prefer
the NCERT books because sequence of topics there will be somewhat similar to mine (except in some
cases). However, I do not recommend studying the NCERT books directly, the reason being authors of
the NCERT books have put a lot of content in little space. So, understanding the meaning of every word
can be tricky with those books. Moreover, you will not find any numerical questions in most of your
exams. Hence, I have tried to prepare such blend of standard texts along with my thoughts, which may
benefit you the most.
No one understands a concept for the first time. I still have many doubts about many topics. Hence,
even if you have NOT already studied physics in your school days, don’t worry. If you know physics,
read this book. If you don’t know physics, read it twice.
I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all those who have helped me write this book. Firstly,
I’d like to thank all my teachers for they made me this able that I am capable of educating another
generation further. I was highly motivated by my teachers Mr Narendra (Theta sir) and Mr Ravindra
Panwar. I am thankful to my guide and friend, Arun Arora who inspired me to be an author. My students
Aman Kumar, Tito and Latika have helped me type and translate the text. Also, my sisters Dr. Vijeta and
Dr. Ritu have guided me all through my life, to strive forward, and aim for excellence. I am sincerely
obliged to all of you.
—Nitin Grewal
c o n t e n t
Preface ....(vii)
PaRt–a PhySiCS a.1 – a.150
Chapter–1 Measurement A.3
Chapter–2 Kinematics A.17
Chapter–3 Dynamics A.33
Chapter–4 Energy A.45
Chapter–5 System of Particles A.55
Chapter–6 Gravity A.63
Chapter–7 Properties of Matter A.81
Chapter–8 Thermodynamics A.97
Chapter–9 Simple Harmonic Motion A.101
Chapter–10 Waves A.111
Chapter–11 Electrostatics A.117
Chapter–12 Electricity A.121
Chapter–13 Magnetism A.125
Chapter–14 Electro–Magnetic Induction A.129
Chapter–15 Optics A.133
Chapter–16 Miscellaneous A.147
PaRt–B BiOlOgy B.1 – B.106
Chapter–1 Important Lists B.3
Chapter–2 Biomolecules B.9
Chapter–3 Cell Organelles B.15
Chapter–4 Cell Division B.19
Chapter–5 Classification of Organisms B.23
Chapter–6 Animal Histology B.37
Chapter–7 Plant Morphology B.39
