Unit 1: Electric Field and Circuit Analysis

PREREQUISITE COURSE: Physics 1 or equivalent course

     This first unit of Physics 2 begins by establishing the fundamental rules of electrostatics. It establishes that the property called "charge" relates to electric force in a similar way that mass relates to gravitational force. You can see why your understanding of topics from Physics 1 are so important. But they will now be extended to the electrical aspects of the world. The second half of the unit presents concepts associated with electric circuit analysis. After you complete this unit you will understand the fundmental principles that allow for the fascinating devices created by electronic circuitry.

Suggested timeframe: 5 weeks

VERY IMPORTANT: If you have not taken Physics 1 at Physics Prep, please read the following information prior to starting this course:

1. Please do not skim over the unit review at the end of each unit as it contains a list of objectives that the College Board has identified as the ONLY objectives from which exam questions are derived. Your score on the AP* exam will increase if you spend time carefully studying the unit review presentations.

2. If you are taking Physics 1 in the same school year, the timeframe for each unit should be adjusted to be about two-thirds as long as suggested.

3. As you will often hear in the presentations, in order to do well in this course you must practice using the concepts in a wide variety of ways to truly internalize them. One of the ways to do that is to practice solving problems and answering conceptual questions that one easily finds in a physics textbooks. The time needed to do this practice is built into the suggested timeframe that you will see at the start of each new unit. Moving through the material too quickly, and not spending time investigating the ideas from many persectives may be detrimental to long-term retention. That said, every individual student can determine for themselves when mastery of a concept occurs, and is aided in this effort by the assessments (quizzes and tests) that are a part of the workflow in each unit. To see information about obtaining a companion book online, click here. 

4.Having a record of your labwork (in electronic or hand-written form) is a very important product of your work in this course. For this reason, you need to use a Lab Notebook. It can be a traditional (paper) or digital notebook. For each lab activity you should use this structure in the lab notebook:

1. The title of the lab activity
2. The date the lab activity was performed
3. The goal(s) of the lab activity
4. A description of the lab activity (procedures, sketches, pictures, etc.)
5. Data collected in the lab activity
6. Analysis of data (graphs and sample calculations)
7. Analysis of error (when appropriate)
8. Conclusion(s) (What did you learn that you didn't know before performing the lab? Did you achieve your goal(s)...why or why not?)

Because some of the parts listed above may not be applicable for each lab, details in the lab assignment will list the parts of the report that must be included and those that are not required for that particular lab.

The lab report should be done neatly and completely in the lab notebook so that any university officials that ask to see your reports would be satisfied regarding the lab component of your work in physics.

Finally, lab safety should be of utmost importance whenever a scientist performs a lab activity. Please do not use any of the equipment called for in this course in any way that is not safe. Follow all instructions regarding the use of any lab equipment that can cause injuries to you are anyone else in the vacinity of your lab work.

• Before every lab, make sure you know and record the potential hazards involved in the investigation, as well as the precautions you will take to stay safe.
• Before using equipment, make sure you know the proper method of use to acquire good data and avoid damage to equipment.
• Know where safety equipment is located in the lab space, such as safety goggles, and a first aid kit.
• Follow any special safety guidelines as set forth prior to each experiment. (Students should record these as part of their design plan for a lab.)
• When in doubt about the safety or advisability of a procedure, check with the teacher before proceeding.

Big Ideas:
•Physical systems (that may have internal structure) and objects (that do not have internal structure) can be characterized by certain properties. Mass and charge are two such properties.
•Interactions (between objects in systems or between systems themselves) can be explained using an idea called a field.
•The concept of force can be used to describe the interactions between objects in systems or between systems themselves.
•Systems can change due to interactions with other systems.
•Laws of conservation of certain properties of systems restrict the manner in which systems can change due to interactions.