Physics 2

Physics 2 combines AP Physics 2 and IB Physics 2. We will learn some very exciting stuff this year including magnets, light, and quantum physics!

• Files and links will be posted on Google Classroom. I will email you a code (or you can email me at bradley.knockel@aps.edu for the code)!

• Reminders and other communication will be posted on Remind. To get access to our Remind, a code will be posted on Google Classroom. You can enter the code directly into your account via the Remind app or website.

• For the first semester, we will cover new material (just like all of last year). For the second semester, we will start doing projects and preparing for tests while still covering new material.

• In addition to having the choice to take the AP Physics 2 exam, AP students may wish to take the SL IB exam if they didn't do very well on their AP Physics 1 test.

• If it will work with your IB testing schedule, IB students should take the AP Physics 2 exam! You will likely only get Physics 1 credit from your IB exam.

• AP students, here is a nice summary of the physics 2 test and here are some great test-prep resources.

• Within the first several months, IB students will decide if they want to take the SL or HL exams in May. Depending on the college, SL gives you credit for the first college physics class, and HL gives you credit for two. This course will prepare you for the HL exams so that it aligns with AP. Regardless of SL or HL, I believe that a score of 4-7 is considered passing by most colleges.

• IB students, we are doing "Option B: Engineering physics" or "C: Imaging" because these align better with AP. I'm thinking that we'll cover most of Option B.

• We have various textbooks! IB students should get the IB Physics textbook by Oxford. AP students should get the AP Physics textbook by Giancoli. You should keep your textbook at home because we have textbooks to be used in my classroom. So that everyone can access the same book, I will reference this free online AP Physics textbook by OpenStax.

• IB students will start their IAs at the end of December. AP students will do a similar project. Rough drafts of these IAs/projects will be due in March. This will be a test grade because it tests the lab skills you have been building all year.

If you did not have me last year (or you had me during online school), please read through the appropriate syllabus of the previous year (see above tabs).

Units of new material...

1. Electricity (partially a review): OpenStax ch. 18-21; Giancoli ch. 16-19; AP units 3 and 4

2. Electromagnetism: OpenStax ch. 22,23; Giancoli ch. 20,21; AP unit 5

3. Optics: OpenStax ch. 24,25,27; Giancoli ch. 22-24; AP unit 6

4. Quantum, Atomic, and Nuclear Physics: OpenStax 4.8, 28.6, 29 ,31; Giancoli 5.10, 26.9, 27, 28.2, 30 (and maybe 7.8); AP unit 7

5. Fluids and Thermodynamics: OpenStax 11-15; Giancoli 10, 13-15; AP units 1 and 2

Essential questions for the above units...

1. How does charge flow through a circuit?

2. How are the electric and magnetic fields interconnected yet different?

3. How can light be both rays and waves?

4. How can light, electrons, etc. be both particles and waves?

5. How can we usefully describe a profoundly vast number of molecules when they all seem to be moving around randomly?

The following Khan Academy link covers the material for the above units: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-physics-2

My idea for labs is to give you the materials we have then have you develop the experiments yourself! Required experiments...

• Investigating a diode bridge rectification circuit experimentally

• Determining internal resistance experimentally

• Determining refractive index experimentally

• Investigating Young's double-slit experimentally

• Investigating half-life experimentally and by simulation

• Investigating at least one gas law experimentally

• Applying the calorimetric techniques of specific heat capacity or specific latent heat experimentally

• (If we choose to do it, option C has additional experiments...)

What AP can ignore

Everything we did last year was AP material, but AP Physics 1 will not directly be on the AP Physics 2 test. However, the ideas of kinematics, dynamics, energy, momentum, and waves will frequently appear in AP Physics 2!

Some topics we study only for IB students. Anything having to do with alternating or changing currents is not on the AP exam...

• AC current (average power and RMS voltage and current)  ← HL only

• discharging capacitors   ← HL only

• transformers   ← HL only

• Standard Model

• Q = m c ΔT and Q = ± m L

Extra IB material covered at the end of this school year will not be on the AP exam.

Note that AC current, discharging capacitors, and transformers are IB HL material. However, even if all IB students are SL, AC current must be covered to do the required IB lab (and it's important to understand!)

Extra IB Curriculum

Assuming we do Option B, everything you learned last year is needed for HL IB.

Assuming we do Option B, the only things we will do this year that you do not need for HL IB are: finding images (Option C) and relative lengths and times of Einstein's special relativity (Option A).

For the material we covered last year, there are only a handful of things that IB needs us to add...

• Formulas for propagating uncertainties.

• Max power of wind turbines = 1/2 ρ A v^3

• Orbits and escape speed (HL only)

• Vg = - G M / r is gravitational potential (HL only)

• Primary cells are battery cells that are not rechargeable. Secondary cells are what we call rechargeable battery cells.

We will discuss these things when we start preparing for the IB exams. For the new material in this Physics 2 course, there will be additional IB-only topics.

IB uses different words and symbols than the US typically uses...

• gradient means slope

• a practical is doing a lab

• For units, something like s^-1 means 1/s. For example, on a graph of speed, you would see "speed/m s^-1", which just means "speed (m/s)". I agree that IB's slash is very confusing!

• u means initial speed, v0

• s means displacement, Δx = x - x0

• μd means kinetic (dynamic) coefficient of friction, μk

• R means the normal (reaction) force, Fn

• Γ (the Greek capital gamma) is the symbol for torque, τ

• x0 is the amplitude, A. This is horrible notation because an oscillator or wave doesn't always have x = A at the beginning!