Structure of the introduction part of the Physics IA

[Anmtan]

For the physic IA, what should the structure of the introduction be? I know that 1)the design & method,2) the theory& background, 3)Method and materials needs to be there.

But what is the order of them all?

and how detailed should the descriptions be? 

[Vioh]

There is no official IB format that you must follow regarding how the introduction should be structured. So try to be creative. As long as you have an introduction with reasonable stuff in it, that should be fine. The length of the introduction can vary from essay to essay, but I don't think it should be longer than 1.5 pages.

In general, I think you should have a short rationale in your introduction. Explain the reasons why you want to pursue the topic. What's so interesting about it? How did you come up with the RQ in the first place? Perhaps, briefly mention some useful applications or even some implications that your IA has on physics in general. The method and materials shouldn't be in the introduction. Those belong to the Design section of your IA. However, you can briefly mention the main methodology that you used in your investigation. Is it an experimental IA? or a simulation-based one? What mathematical techniques did you use for the main part of the analysis? Just write a couple of sentences about it. The theory/background should be mentioned in details. But if you think you have a lot of background information for your topic, maybe it is a good idea to move these into a separate section after the introduction. As I said, try to be creative!

Last but not least, make sure that you carefully read the assessment criteria, something that you can use to grade yourself. You can find the criteria here: https://ibpublishing.ibo.org/server2/rest/app/tsm.xql?doc=d_4_physi_gui_1402_2_e&part=9&chapter=5