Home Page of Peggy E. Schweiger
Content Outline for AP Physics B Exam
- Newtonian Mechanics - 35%
- Kinematics - 7%
- (Includes vectors, vector algebra, vector components, coordinant systems, displacement, velocity, and acceleration.)
- Motion in one dimension
- Motion in two dimensions
- Newton's laws of motion - 9%
- (Includes friction and centripetal force.)
- Static equilibrium (first law)
- Dynamics of a single particle (second law)
- Systems of two or more bodies (third law)
- Work, Energy, and Power - 5%
- Work and work-energy theorem
- Conservative forces and potential energy
- Conservation of energy
- Power
- Systems of Particles & Linear Momentum - 4%
- Impulse and momentum
- Conservation of linear momentum and collisions
- Circular Motion & Rotation - 4%
- Uniform circular motion
- Torque and rotational statics
- Oscillations and Gravitation - 6%
- Simple harmonic motion (dynamics and energy relationships)
- Mass on a spring
- Pendulums and other oscillations
- Newton's law of gravity
- Circular orbits of planets and satellites
- Fluid Mechanics & Thermal Physics - 15%
- Fluid Mechanics - 5%
- Hydrostatic pressure
- Buoyancy
- Fluid flow continuity
- Bernoulli's equation
- Temperature & Heat - 3%
- Mechanical equivalent of heat
- Specific and latent heat (including calorimetery)
- Heat transfer and thermal expansion
- Kinetic Theory & Thermodynamics - 7%
- Ideal gases (both kinetic model and ideal gas law)
- Laws of thermodynamics (First law including processes and pV diagrams and Second law including heat engines)
- Electricity & Magnetism - 25%
- Electrostatics - 5%
- Charge, field, and potential
- Coulomb's and field and potential of point charges
- Spherical symmetry of fields and potentials of other charge distribution
- Conductors, capacitors, & dielectrics - 4%
- Electrostatics with conductors
- Parallel plate capacitors
- Electric Circuits - 7%
- Current, resistance, & power
- Steady-state direct current circuits with batteries and resistors only
- Steady-state capacitors in circuits
- Magnetostatics - 4%
- Forces on moving charges in magnetic fields
- Forces on current-carrying wires in magnetic fields
- Fields of long current-carrying wires
- Electromagnetism - 5%
- Electromagnetic induction (including Faraday's and Lenz's laws)
- Waves & Optics - 15%
- Wave motion (including sound) - 5%
- Properties of traveling waves
- Porperties of standing waves
- Doppler effect
- Superposition
- Physical Optics - 5%
- Interference and diffraction
- Dispersion of light and the electromagnetic spectrum
- Geometric Optics - 5%
- Reflection & refraction
- Mirrors
- Lenses
- Atomic & Nuclear Physics - 10%
- Atomic physics and quantum effects - 7%
- Photons and the photoelectric effect
- Atomic energy levels
- Wave-particle duality
- Nuclear Physics - 3%
- Nuclear reactions (including conservation of mass number and charge)
- Mass-energy equivalence