Advanced Placement Physics

A. INQUIRY SKILLS

Students will design and conduct scientific investigations Identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations Use appropriate tools, technology, and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data Organize and maintain a journal showing all phases of investigations Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence and logic Use mathematics to explain, interpret, and improve investigations and communications Construct logical relationships between evidence and explanations Identify and analyze alternative explanations, models, and predictions Demonstrate understanding about scientific inquiry
Students will communicate scientific procedures and explanations Demonstrate effective methods to organize and display scientific concepts Present investigative procedures and results to others verbally, graphically, and in writing Communicate science concepts accurately and clearly, using scientific vocabulary

B. NEWTONIAN MECHANICS

Students will apply principles of kinematics (including vectors, vector algebra, components of vectors, coordinate systems, displacement, velocity, and acceleration) Investigate motion in one dimension and two dimensions (including projectile motion, uniform circular motion) Mathematically explain principles related to vectors, components of vectors, coordinate systems, displacement, velocity, and acceleration Demonstrate and explain the law of static equilibrium Demonstrate and explain the law of a single particle Demonstrate and explain law three, systems of two or more bodies Explain work and work-energy theorem (time and causality) Demonstrate and explain conservation of energy and potential energy Explain power Describe systems of particles, linear momentum (center of mass, impulse and momentum, conservation of linear momentum, collisions) Explain science principles related to rotation, torque, rotational inertia, rotational dynamics, angular momentum and its conservation Explain oscillations and gravitation (including simple harmonic motion, mass on a spring, pendulum and other oscillations, law of gravity, orbits of planets and satellites
Students will differentiate between work, energy, and power Explain work and work-energy theorem Demonstrate conservative forces and potential energy Describe conservation of energy Explain power
Students will understand systems of particles, linear momentum Explain center of mass Demonstrate principles related to impulse and momentum Describe conservation of linear momentum, including collisions
Students will apply Newtonian principles related to rotation and torque Demonstrate and explain torque and rotational statics Explain rotational kinematics Describe rotational inertia and rotational dynamics Demonstrate angular momentum and its conservation (point particles, extended bodies)
Students will explain oscillations and gravitation force Explain simple harmonic motion (dynamics and energy relationships) Conduct experiments with pendulums and other oscillations Explain mass on a spring Describe the orbits of planets and satellites (circular and general) Explain Newton's law of gravity

C. HEAT, KINETIC THEORY, AND THERMODYNAMICS

Students will distinguish between temperature and heat Explain the mechanical equivalent of heat Compare specific and latent heat, including calorimetry Demonstrate heat transfer and thermal expansion
Students will understand understand kinetic theory and thermodynamics Explain ideal gas law (kinetic model, ideal gas law) Demonstrate the laws of thermodynamics, including processes on pVdiagrams and heat engines

D. ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM

Students will explain electrostatics Explain charge, field, and potential Describe Coulomb's law and field and potential of point charges Explain fields and potentials of other charge distributions (examples: planar, spherical symmetry, cylindrical symmetry) Describe Gauss's law
Students will differentiate between conductors, capacitors, and dielectrics Demonstrate electrostatics with conductors Explain capacitors (parallel plate, spherical and cylindrical) Describe dielectrics
Students will design and build electric circuits Differentiate between current, resistance, and power Build a steady-state direct current circuit with batteries and resistors only Design capacitors in circuits and explain steady state and transients in RC circuits
Students will explain magnetostatics Explain forces on moving charges in magnetic fields Explain forces on current-carrying wires in magnetic fields Explain fields of long current-carrying wires Describe Biot-Savart and Ampere's law
Students will understand electromagnetism Distinguish between Faraday's law and Lenz's law Describe inductance (including LR and LC circuits) Explain Maxwell's equations

E. WAVES AND OPTICS

Students will understand principles related to wave motion Determine the properties of traveling waves Describe the properties of standing waves Explain the doppler effect Demonstrate and explain superposition
Students will explain science principles applied to physical optics Explain interference and diffraction Demonstrate dispersion of light and the electromagnetic spectrum
Students will explain geometric optics Demonstrate reflection and refraction Explain factors related to mirrors and lenses

F. MODERN PHYSICS

Students will explain science principles related to atomic physics Explain the Rutherford model and alpha particle scattering Describe photons and photoelectric effect Explain Bohr model and energy levels Describe wave-particle duality Explain nuclear reactions
Students will understand principles related to nuclear physics Explain radioactivity and half-life Describe nuclear reactions, including conservation of mass number and charge
Students will explain the theory of relativity Determine postulates of special relativity Describe space and time effects Explain mass and energy effects