BALTIMORE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
PHYSICS 2
COURSE SYLLABUS
Overview of the Course
Physics 2 is a whole-year course that is a continuation of your previous physics course.
The emphasis of this course is on electricity, magnetism and modern physics. Your understanding
of the concept of force, motion and vectors are necessary to facilitate the learning of this course.
At the end of every semester, an examination will be administered to evaluate the students’
understanding and learning of the concepts covered in the semester.
The following topics will be covered during the year:
 Static electricity
 Electric fields
 Current electricity
 Series and parallel circuit
 Magnetic fields
 Electromagnetic induction
 Electromagnetism
 Quantum theory
 The atom
 Relativity
Quarter Grading System
Assessments
60%
Labs/Activities
20%
Homework/Classwork
20%
Semester Grading System
40% First/Third Quarter Grade + 40% Second/Fourth Quarter Grade + 20% Semester Exam
Overall Course Grade
(First Semester Grade + Second Semester Grade)/2
Materials
 Scientific calculator
 Notebook/Binder
Textbook
Physics: Principles and Problems
Reminder: In order to become successful in this course the students must come to class prepared
at all times. Academic honesty will be strictly enforced in this class. Copying of homework, drill,
classwork, test and quiz is not allowed and will not be tolerated. A grade of zero, for the
assignment, will be given both to the person who copied and the person who let others to copy
his/her work. Habitual dishonesty will also be referred to the administrators.
Week
Number
1
2
Date
3
Aug. 26 – Aug. 30
Sept. 2 – 6
Sept 2 – Schools closed
(Labor day holiday)
Sept. 9 – 13
4
Sept. 16 – 20
5
Sept. 23 – 27
Sept 27 – Schools closed
(Professional Devt)
Sept 30 – Oct 4
6
9
10
Oct. 7 – 11
Oct. 14 – 18
Oct. 17 - 18 – Schools
closed (Professional
Devt)
Oct. 21 – 25
Oct. 28 – Nov 1
11
Nov. 4 – 8
12
Nov. 11 – 15
Nov 15 – Schools closed
(Professional Devt)
Nov. 18 – 22
Nov 21-22 – Schools
closed (Thanksgiving
Holiday)
Nov. 25 – 29
7
8
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Topics and Activities*
Electric charge and Coulomb’s law
Coulomb’s law involving three or more charges
LAB: Investigating Static Electricity
Electric field
Capacitance and electric potential difference
LAB: How can large amount of charge be stored
Energy stored in capacitors
Current, resistance and resistivity
LAB: The capacitor
Resistance and temperature
Ohm’s law
LAB: Ohm’s law
Electric power and energy
Using electric energy: calculating the amount of
energy used and its cost
LAB: Electric circuits
Direct-current series circuits: voltage, current and
resistance in series circuits
Polarity of voltage drops, total power in a series
circuit, voltage drop by proportional parts
LAB: Series resistance
Direct-current parallel circuits: voltage, current and
resistance in parallel circuits
Open and short circuits, division of current in two
parallel branches, power in parallel circuits
LAB: Parallel resistance
Dec. 2 – 6
Series- parallel combination
Dec. 9 – 13
Batteries
Kirchhoff’s rules
LAB: Cells in series and parallel
Dec. 16 – 20
Kirchhoff’s Rules
December 23 – January 1 – Winter Break
Jan. 2 – 3
Delta-Wye transformation/ Open & Short circuits
LAB: Voltmeter-ammeter method of measuring
resistance
LAB: Internal resistance of cells and batteries;
potential drop
Jan. 6 – 10
REVIEW WEEK FOR SEMESTER EXAM
Jan. 13 – 17
SEMESTER EXAM WEEK
SECOND SEMESTER
21
Jan. 20 – 24
Jan 20 – MLK Holiday
22
Jan. 27 – 31
Jan 31 – Schools closed
(Professional Devt)
Feb. 3 – 7
Feb. 10 – 14
23
24
25
26
27
Feb. 17 – 21
Feb 17 – Schools closed
(Presidents’ Day
Holiday)
Feb. 24 – 28
Mar. 3 – 7
Magnets: permanent and temporary, forces caused by
magnetic fields
LAB: The nature of magnetism
Creating electric current from changing magnetic
field
LAB: Principles of electromagnetism
Changing magnetic fields induce EMF
Transformers
LAB: Magnetic field about a coil
Interaction between electric and magnetic fields and
matter
LAB: Electromagnetic induction 1
Photoelectric effect
The Compton effect
LAB: Electromagnetic induction 2
28
Mar. 10 – 14
Particles behave like waves
29
Mar. 17 – 21
The Bohr model of the atom
LAB: How can you measure the number of electron
energy transitions?
30
Mar. 24 – 28
Radioactive decay and nuclear reactions
31
Mar. 31 – Apr. 4
The building blocks of matter: particle accelerators,
Apr 4 – Schools closed detectors and the elementary particles
(Professional devt)
LAB: What can you learn from an emission
spectrum?
32
Apr. 7 – 11
Holding the nucleus together: the strong nuclear force
and binding energy
April 14 – 21 – SPRING BREAK
33
Apr. 22 – 25
Using nuclear energy: artificial radioactivity, nuclear
fusion and nuclear fusion
LAB: Planck’s constant
34
Apr 28 – May 2
Solid state electronics
35
May 5 – 9
Theory of relativity
36
May 12 – 16
SENIOR EXAM REVIEW
37
May 19 – 23
SENIOR EXAM
38
May 26 – 30
Underclassmen review week
May 26 – schools closed
(Memorial day holiday)
May 27 – Senior
Farewell
May 28 – Senior Status
Day, Senior Prom
May 29 – Senior Awards
39
Jun. 2 – 6
Underclassmen Semester Exams
June 6 – last day for
students
40
Jun 10
Last day for teachers
Prepared by: Dennis B. Barles, Physics Teacher
*dates and order of topics subject to change. All topics will be covered by the end of the semester