AP® Physics C
Syllabus
Essential Questions:
- How do changes in the properties of a system predict future states of the system?
- How do we describe object and system interactions?
- How do the parts of a physical system impact the whole system?
- How do conservation laws influence interactions between objects within a system?
Learning Objectives:
- Create representations that depict physical phenomena
- Conduct analyses to derive, calculate, estimate or predict physical phenomena
- Describe experimental procedures and methods, interpret results and scientifically support claims.
Unit 1: Kinematics (Week 1-4)
Week 1: Introduction to Concepts of Motion
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Understand the rules and policies of the course, and expectations of you as a contributing member of our learning community.
- Begin to build community by sharing important information with your teacher and classmates about yourself and your school.
- Develop your skills for navigating the course environment and using the various course tools
- Find the Pearson Mastering eBook platform, and take the steps to register and create an account.
- Complete some logistical assignments to prepare for success in this course.
Week 2: Kinematics in One Dimension
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe a change in an object’s position.
- Describe the average velocity and acceleration of an object.
- Describe the instantaneous displacement, velocity, and acceleration of an object as a function of time.
Week 3: Vectors and Coordinate Systems
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe a vector or scalar quantity using magnitude and direction, as appropriate.
- Describe how vectors can be resolved into their components and written in unit-vector notation.
Week 4: Kinematics in Two Dimensions
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the reference frame of a given observer.
- Describe the motion of objects as seen by observers in different inertial reference frames.
- Describe the motion of an object moving in two or three dimensions.
Unit 2: Force and Translational Dynamics (Weeks 5-7)
Week 5: Forces and Dynamics in a line
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe a force as an interaction between two objects and identify both objects for any force.
- Describe the forces exerted on an object using a free-body diagram.
- Describe or identify the conditions under which a system's velocity remains constant.
- Describe or identify the conditions under which a system's velocity changes.
- Describe the kinetic friction between two surfaces.
- Describe the static friction between two surfaces.
- Describe the motion of an object subject to a resistive force.
Week 6: Forces and Dynamics along a plane
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the interaction of two objects using Newton's third law and the representation of paired forces exerting on each object.
- Describe the motion of an object traveling in a circular path.
- Describe the conditions under which the magnitude of a system's apparent weight is different from the magnitude of the gravitational force exerted on that system.
Week 7: Newton and Kepler’s Laws, and Gravity
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the gravitational interaction between two objects with mass.
- Describe situations in which the gravitational force can be considered constant.
- Describe the gravitational force exerted on an object from a uniform, spherical distribution of mass.
- Describe the difference between inertial and gravitational mass.
- Describe circular orbits using Kepler's third law.
Unit 3: Work, Energy and Power (Weeks 8 and 9)
Week 8: Work and Kinetic Energy
Weekly Objectives:
- Describe the translational kinetic energy of an object in terms of the object's mass and velocity.
- Describe the work done on an object or system by a given force or collection of forces.
Week 9: Interactions and Potential Energy
Weekly Objectives:
- Describe the potential energy of a system.
- Describe the energies present in a system.
- Describe the behavior of a system using conservation of mechanical energy principles.
- Describe how the selection of a system indicates whether the energy of that system changes.
- Describe the transfer of energy into, out of, or within a system in terms of power.
Unit 4: Linear Momentum (Weeks 10 and 11)
Week 10:: Momentum and Impulse
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the linear momentum of an object.
- Describe the impulse delivered to a system.
- Describe the relationship between the impulse given to a system and the change in momentum of a system.
Week 11: Conservation and Collisions
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Describe the behavior of a system using the conservation of linear momentum.
- Describe how the selection of a system indicates whether the momentum of that system changes.
- Describe whether an interaction between systems is elastic or inelastic.
Unit 5: Torque and Rotational Dynamics (Weeks 12-13)
Week 12: Rotational Motion
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the rotation of a system with respect to time using angular displacement, angular velocity, and angular acceleration.
- Describe the linear motion of a point on rotating rigid system that corresponds to the rotational motion of that point, and vice versa.
Week 13: Rotational Dynamics
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the torques exerted on a rigid system.
- Describe the rotational inertia of a rigid system relative to a given axis of rotation.
- Describe or identify the conditions under which a system's angular velocity remains constant using a dynamics analysis.
Unit 6: Energy and Momentum of Rotating Systems (Week 14)
Week 14: Rotational Energy and Momentum
Weekly Learning Objectives::
- Describe the rotational kinetic energy of an object or rigid system in terms of the object's or rigid system's rotational inertia and angular velocity.
- Describe the work done on an object or system by a net torque.
- Describe the angular momentum of an object or rigid system.
- Describe the angular impulse delivered to an object or rigid system by a torque.
- Relate an object's or rigid system's change in angular momentum to the angular impulse given to the object or rigid system.
- Describe the behavior of a system using the conservation of angular momentum.
- Describe the kinetic energy of a system that has translational and rotational motion.
- Describe the motion of a system that is rolling without slipping and a system that is rolling while slipping.
Unit 7: Oscillations (Week 15)
Week 15: Oscillations
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Identify motion as simple harmonic motion.
- Describe the frequency and period of an object exhibiting simple harmonic motion.
- Describe the displacement, velocity, and acceleration of an object exhibiting simple harmonic motion using representations of that motion.
- Describe the mechanical energy of a system exhibiting simple harmonic motion.
- Describe the properties of a physical pendulum.
Unit 8: Electric Charges, Fields, and Gauss’s Laws (Weeks 16-17)
Week 16: Electric Chargers and Fields
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the electric force that results from the interactions between charged objects or systems.
- Describe the behavior of a system using the law of the conservation of charge.
- Describe the electric field produced by a charged object or configuration of point charges.
- Describe the electric field generated by charged conductors or uniformly charged solid objects.
- Describe the electric field resulting from a given charge distribution.
Week 17: Gauss’s Law
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the electric flux through an arbitrary area or geometric shape.
- Describe the properties of a charge distribution by applying Gauss's law.
Unit 9: Electric Potential (Weeks 18-19)
Week 18: Electric Potential
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the electric potential energy of a system.
- Describe the electric potential due to a configuration of charged objects.
Week 19: Potential and Field
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Describe the relationship between electric potential and electric field.
- Describe changes in a system due to a difference in electric potential between two locations.
Unit 10: Conductors and Capacitors (Weeks 20-21)
Week 20: Conductors
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the charge distribution within a conductor.
- Describe the movement of charge and the resulting interactions when conductors physically contact each other.
Week 21: Capacitors
Weekly Learning Objectives
- Describe the physical properties of a parallel plate capacitor.
- Describe how a dielectric inserted between the plates of a capacitor changes the properties of the capacitor.
Unit 11: Electric Circuits (Weeks 22-24)
Week 22: Current and Resistance
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the movement of electric charges through a medium.
- Describe the resistance of an object using physical properties of that object.
Week 23: Fundamentals of Circuits
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the behavior of a circuit.
- Describe the electrical characteristics of elements within a circuit.
- Describe the transfer of energy into, out of, or within an electrical circuit in terms of power.
- Describe the equivalent resistance of multiple resistors connected in a circuit.
- Describe a circuit with resistive wires and a battery with internal resistance.
- Describe the measurement of current and potential difference within a circuit.
Week 24: Expanding Circuits
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe a circuit or elements within a circuit by applying Kirchhoff's Loop rule.
- Describe a circuit or elements within a circuit by applying Kirchhoff's Junction rule.
- Describe the equivalent capacitance of multiple capacitors.
- Describe the behavior of circuits containing combinations of resistors and capacitors
Unit 12: Magnetic Fields and Electromagnetism (Weeks 25-27)
Week 25: Magnetism
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the properties of a magnetic field.
- Describe the magnetic behavior of material as a result of the configuration of magnetic dipoles within the material.
- Describe the magnetic permeability of a material.
Week 26: Magnetism and Moving Charge
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the magnetic field produced by moving charged objects.
- Describe the force exerted on moving charged objects by a magnetic field.
- Describe the magnetic field produced by a current-carrying wire.
- Describe the force exerted on a current carrying wires by a magnetic field.
Week 27: Magnetic Laws
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Use Ampere's law to describe the magnetic field created by a moving charge carrier.
- Describe the behavior of a system using the laws of the conservation of charge.
- Describe the resistance of an object using physical properties of an object
- Describe the magnetic field produced by a current-carrying wire.
- Describe the rotation of a system with respect to time using angular displacement, angular velocity, and acceleration
- Describe the induced electric potential difference resulting from a change in magnetic flux.
Unit 13: Electromagnetic Induction (Weeks 28-29)
Week 28: Electromagnetic Induction
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the magnetic flux through an arbitrary area or geometric shape.
- Describe the induced electric potential difference resulting from a change in magnetic flux.
- Describe the forces exerted on a object that arise from magnetic interaction.
- Describe the physical and electrical properties of an inductor.
Week 29: Inductors and Circuits
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Describe the physical and electrical properties of a circuit containing combinations of capacitors and a single inductor.
- Describe the physical and electrical properties of a circuit containing combinations of reistors and a single inductor
Unit 14: Review and AP Practice Exams (Weeks 30-33)
Week 30: Mechanics Review and AP Practice Exam
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Review knowledge of Mechanics topics and prepare for the AP Physics C Exam by completing Progress Checks.
- Take a Mechanics AP Practice Exam
Week 31: Electricity & Magnetism Review and AP Practice Exam
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Reflect on performance of the Mechanics Practice Exam.
- Review knowledge of Electricity and Magnetism topics and prepare for the AP Physics C Exam by completing Progress Checks.
- Take a Mechanics AP Practice Exam.
Week 32: AP Exam Review and Reflection
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Reflect on performance on AP Practice Exams.
- Prepare to take the real AP Exam.
Week 33: Final Reflections on AP Physics C
Weekly Learning Objectives:
- Provide feedback about your experience in this course.
- Reflect on how well prepared you feel for the exam.
- Properly disassemble the lab kit