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AP Physics Syllabus Course Description This course is equivalent to the first two semesters of physics in college and is designed to prepare the student for the AP Physics “B” Exam. Taking the AP Exam is not required to enroll in the class, but it is encouraged since students have the ability to earn college credit by doing well on the exam. As such, the class will move quickly and students will need to work hard to master the subjects. The course will give students an introduction to five content areas in physics: Newtonian mechanics, fluid mechanics and thermal physics, electricity and magnetism, waves and optics, and atomic and nuclear physics. Classroom activities will include teacher lecture, classroom discussion, group work, and student-designed lab experiments. Course Outline NEWTONIAN MECHANICS Unit One: Kinematics in One Dimension – 8 days Content/ Skills Taught: Define distance, calculate speed, and explain what is meant by a scalar quantity. Define displacement, calculate velocity, and explain the difference between a scalar and a vector quantity. Explain the relationship between acceleration and velocity and perform graphical analyses of acceleration. Explain and apply the constant acceleration kinematic equations to physical situations, including free fall. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study uniformly accelerated motion by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: grooved inclined plane, meterstick, a glass marble, steel marble, stopwatch, and graph paper. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Two: Kinematics in Two Dimensions – 7 days Content/ Skills Taught: Analyze motion in terms of its components and apply the kinematic equations to the components of motion. Add and subtract vectors graphically and analytically. Determine relative velocities through vector addition and subtraction. Analyze projectile motion to determine position, time of flight, instantaneous velocity , and range. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study projectile motion by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: ramp assembly, C clamp, plumb bob, meterstick, carbon paper, and graph paper. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Three: Force and Motion – 9 days Content/ Skills Taught: Relate force and motion and explain what is meant by a net or unbalanced force. State and explain Newton’s three laws of motion and apply them to physical situations. Describe inertia and its relationship to mass. Distinguish between weight and mass. Identify action-reaction force pairs. Utilize free body diagrams while applying Newton’s three laws of motion and explain the concept of translational equilibrium. Explain the causes of friction and determine the magnitude of friction using coefficients of friction. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study motion caused by a constant force by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: air track, glider, scale, thread, pulley, various masses, and graph paper. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Four: Work and Energy – 9 days Content/ Skills Taught: Define mechanical work and compute work done in various situations. Differentiate between work done by a constant or variable force and compute the work done by a spring force. Explain the work-energy theorem and apply it to physical situations. Explain how potential energy depends on position and compute values of gravitational and elastic potential energy. Distinguish between conservative and nonconservative forces and explain their effect on the law of conservation of energy. Define power and describe mechanical efficiency. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study power output by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: meterstick, scale, stopwatch, and a long flight of stairs. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Five: Momentum and Collisions – 7 days Content/ Skills Taught: Compute linear momentum and the components of linear momentum. Relate impulse, kinetic energy, and momentum. Explain the conditions for the conservation of linear momentum and apply it to physical situations. Describe the conditions for elastic and inelastic collisions and apply these conditions to physical situations. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study elastic and inelastic collisions by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: air track, two gliders, scale, two photogates, spring, and magnet. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Six: Circular Motion and Gravitation – 9 days Content/ Skills Taught: Define units of angular measure and show how angular measure is related to arc length. Describe and compute angular velocity and explain its relationship to tangential velocity. Explain why there is a centripetal acceleration during constant or uniform circular motion and compute centripetal acceleration. Define angular acceleration and analyze rotational kinematics. Describe and apply Newton’s law of gravitation. Explain the relationship between Newton’s law of gravitation and the acceleration due to gravity. Apply the general formula for gravitational potential energy. State and explain Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and describe the motion and orbits of satellites. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study centripetal force by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: racket ball with string and clip attached, plastic tube, hooked mass set, scale, stopwatch, safety goggles, and graph paper. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Seven: Rotational Motion and Equilibrium – 4 days Content/ Skills Taught: Distinguish between pure rotational and pure translational motion of a rigid body and state the conditions for rolling without slipping. Define torque and apply the conditions for mechanical equilibrium. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. FLUID MECHANICS and THERMAL PHYSICS Unit Eight: Solids and Fluids – 7 days Content/ Skills Taught: Distinguish between stress and strain and use elastic moduli to compute dimensional changes. Explain the pressure-depth relationship and state Pascal’s principle and describe how it can be used in practical applications. Relate the buoyant force and Archimedes’ principle and tell whether an object will sink or float based on relative densities. Identify the simplifications used in describing ideal fluid flow and use the continuity equation and Bernoulli’s equation to explain the common effects. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study Archimedes’ principle by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: spring scale, digital scale, string, various masses, and displacement cup with tube attached. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Nine: Temperature – 7 days Content/ Skills Taught: Distinguish between temperature and heat. Explain how a temperature scale is constructed and convert temperatures from one scale to another. Describe the ideal gas law and explain how it is used to determine absolute zero. Calculate the thermal expansion of solids and liquids. Relate kinetic energy and temperature and explain the process of diffusion. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Ten: Heat – 7 days Content/ Skills Taught: Distinguish between the various units of heat and define the mechanical equivalent of heat. Describe specific heat and explain how the specific heats of substances are obtained from calorimetry. Compare and contrast the three phases of matter and relate latent heat to phase changes. Describe the three methods of heat transfer and give practical and environmental examples of each. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study the specific heat of a liquid by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: scale, masses, thermometer, body of known material, Styrofoam cup, and a liquid. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Eleven: Thermodynamics – 7 days Content/ Skills Taught: Define thermodynamic systems and states of systems and explain how thermal processes affect such systems. Explain the relationship among internal energy, heat and work as expressed by the first law, and analyze various thermal processes. State and explain the second law of thermodynamics in several forms and explain the concept of entropy. Explain the concept of a heat engine and compute thermal efficiency and explain the concept of a thermal pump and compute coefficient of performance. Explain how the Carnot cycle applies to heat engines, compute the ideal Carnot efficiency, and state the third law of thermodynamics. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. ELECTRICITY and MAGNETISM Unit Twelve: Electric Charge, Forces, and Fields – 6 days Content/ Skills Taught: Distinguish between the two types of electric charge, state the force law that operates between charged objects, and understand and use the law of charge conservation. Distinguish between conductors and insulators, explain the operation of an electroscope, and distinguish among charging by friction, conduction, induction, and polarization. Understand Coulomb’s law and use it to calculate the electric force between charged particles. Understand the definition of the electric field and plot electric field lines and calculate electric fields for simple charge distributions. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Thirteen: Electric Potential, Energy and Capacitance – 6 days Content/ Skills Taught: Understand the concept of electric potential difference and its relationship to electric potential energy and calculate electric potential differences and electric potential energies. Explain what is meant by an equipotential surface, sketch equipotential surfaces for simple charge configurations, and explain the relationship between equipotential surfaces and electric fields. Define capacitance and explain what it means physically, and calculate the charge, voltage, electric field, and energy storage for parallel-plate capacitors. Find the equivalent capacitance of capacitors connected in series and in parallel and calculate the charges, voltages, and energy storage of individual capacitors in series and parallel configurations. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Fourteen: Electric Current and Resistance – 7 days Content/ Skills Taught: Summarize the basic features of a battery and explain how a battery produces a direct current in a circuit. Define electric current, distinguish between electron flow and conventional current, and explain the concept of drift velocity and electric energy transmission. Define electrical resistance and explain what is meant by an ohmic resistor, summarize the factors that determine resistance, and calculate the effect of these factors in simple situations. Define electric power, calculate the power delivery of simple electric circuits, and explain joule heating and its significance. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study resistors and Ohm’s law by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: multimeter, rheostat, two #6 dry cells, switch, connecting wire, junction clips, and 3 resistance spools. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Fifteen: Basic Electric Circuits – 5 days Content/ Skills Taught: Determine the equivalent resistance of resistors in series, parallel, and series-parallel combinations and use equivalent resistances to analyze simple circuits. Understand the physical principles that underlie Kirchhoff’s circuit rules and apply these rules in the analysis of actual circuits. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study resistors in series and parallel by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: various resistors, switch, multimeter, four #6 dry cells, junction connectors, and connecting wires. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Sixteen: Magnetism – 8 days Content/ Skills Taught: State the force rule between magnetic poles and explain how the magnetic field direction is determined with a compass. Define magnetic field strength in terms of the force exerted on a moving charged particle and determine the magnetic foce exerted by a magnetic field on such a particle. Understand the origin of the magnetic field and calculate its strength for simple cases, and use the right-hand force rule to determine the direction of the magnetic field from the direction of the current that produces it. Explain how ferromagnetic materials enhance external magnetic fields, how permanent magnets are produced and how permanent magnetism can be destroyed. Calculate the magnetic force on a current-carrying wire and the torque on a currentcarrying loop and explain the concept of a magnetic moment for such a loop. Define magnetic flux and explain how induced emfs are created by changing magnetic flux, and calculate the magnitude and predict the polarity of an induced emf. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. WAVES and OPTICS Unit Seventeen: Vibrations and Waves – 8 days Content/ Skills Taught: Describe simple harmonic motion and relate energy and speed in such motion. Understand the equation of motion for SHM and explain what is meant by phase and phase differences. Describe wave motion in terms of various parameters and identify different types of waves. Explain various wave properties and resulting phenomena. Describe the formation and characteristics of standing waves and explain the phenomena of resonance. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study the motion of a simple pendulum, factors that determine the period, and its relationship to the acceleration due to gravity by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: metal sphere, long string, verniewr caliper, stopwatch, meterstick, and pendulum clamp and support. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Eighteen: Geometrical Optics: Reflection and Refraction of Light – 7 days Content/ Skills Taught: Define and explain the concepts of wave fronts and rays. Explain the law of reflection and distinguish between regular and irregular reflections. Explain refraction in terms of Snell’s law and the index of refraction, and give examples of refractive phenomena. Explain dispersion and some of its effects. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study Snell’s law by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: semi-circular optical box, straight pins, ruler, cardboard, polar coordinate paper, water, and ethanol. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Nineteen: Mirrors and Lenses – 6 days Content/ Skills Taught: Describe the characteristics of plane mirrors and explain apparent right-left reversals. Distinguish between converging and diverging spherical mirrors, describe images and their characteristics, and determine these image characteristics from ray diagrams and the spherical mirror equation. Distinguish between converging and diverging lenses, describe images and their characteristics, and find image characteristics by using ray diagrams and the thin-lens equation. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study the focal length of convex lenses by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: optical bench with light source and sliding mounts, several convex lenses, metal plate with slit in the form of an arrow, screen, and a meterstick. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Unit Twenty: Physical Optics: Wave Nature of Light – 6 days Content/ Skills Taught: Explain how Young’s experiment demonstrated the wave nature of light and compute the wavelength of light from experimental results. Describe how thin films produce colorful displays and give some examples of practical applications of thin-film interference. Define diffraction and give some examples of diffractive effects. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. Students will study diffraction by designing and conducting an experiment. A list of equipment will be supplied to students: various diffraction gratings, diffraction grating holder, He-Ne laser, and a meterstick. Students will then write a lab report that includes the purpose, procedure, data collection, data analysis, error analysis (when appropriate), and conclusions. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. ATOMIC and NUCLEAR PHYSICS Unit Twenty-One: Quantum Physics – 8 days Content/ Skills Taught: Understand the equivalence of mass and energy. Define blackbody radiation and use Wien’s law and understand how Planck’s hypothesis paved the way for quantum ideas. Describe the photoelectric effect, explain how it can be understood by assuming that light energy is carried by particles, and summarize the properties of photons. Understand how the photon model of light explains scattering of light from electrons (Compton effect) and calculate the wavelength of the scattered light in the Compton effect. Understand how the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom explains atomic emission and absorption spectra, calculate the energies and wavelengths of emitted photons for transitions in atomic hydrogen, and understand how the generalized concept of atomic energy levels can explain other atomic phenomena. Use charge and nucleon conservation to write nuclear reaction equations, and understand and use the concepts of Q value and threshold energy to analyze nuclear reactions. Major Assignments and Assessments: Students will be assigned problem sets from the textbook as both homework and group work. These problem sets will assess the extent to which students have mastered the content and skills taught. A test will also be administered to determine the extent to which the content and skills taught were mastered. Textbook used: Wilson, J. and Buffa, A. College Physics. Prentice Hall, 2000. 4th ed. Listing of Laboratory Investigations - Name Each lab will require one class period to conduct the experiment. Lab reports will be completed outside of class when necessary and turned in at the beginning of the next class period. Total time dedicated to lab investigations will be 14 days for the entire course. Goals