AP Physics C:
(Mechanics)
Physics C (Mechanics) is a one semester class, consisting of Lecture, Discussion, Problem Solving and Labs, Monday through Friday, during 50 minute periods, with a minimum, on average, of two-hours a week spent on Lab
activities.
Text: Resnick, Haliday and Walker, 8th edition, New York: John Wiley
Web Support: Many homework problems, practice quizzes, instructional activities, and labs will be taken from both the MIT (Mechanics) and University of California, UCCP Open Access on-line courses.
Prerequisite:
Physics or AP Physics B, Calculus or currently enrolled in Calculus.
Most students who take this class have completed (and passed the AP exams in) both AP Physics B, AP Calculus AB and are currently enrolled in AP Calculus BC.
1st Semester (Mechanics)
Timeline
2-3 weeks
Topic
Kinematics:
Motion in One Dimension
2 weeks
Motion in Two Dimensions
Newton's Laws of Motion:
Newton's First Law
Newton's Second Law
Newton's Third Law
Applications of Newton's Laws
2-3 weeks
3 weeks
Work, Energy, and Power:
Work and Work-Energy Theorem
Conservative Forces and Potential Energy
Conservation of Energy
Power
Systems of Particles, Linear Momentum:
Center of Mass
Impulse and Momentum
LABS
1. Sort of free fall- Measuring g (Stop watch timing water drops)
2. Coffee Filter Drop (motion detector-lab quest)-nonuniform acceleration
3. Projectile Motion (Video Capture Analysis – Tracker software) vector analysis 2d motion
4. 2cnd Law Lab( low friction track, carts, washers, photo gate timers) curve fits
5. Measuring the Coefficient of Kinetic Friction(friction pad, cart, motion detector or video capture )
6. Mass of a dime using Atwood with nearly massless and frictionless pulley
7. Changing Potential Energy (spring)
8. Dropping Chain (Force plate). Example Enquiry lab designed by a former student
9. Measuring Rocket Engine Impulse (Estes Rocket Engine, Force Meter)
Conservation of Linear Momentum,
Collisions
10. Spreadsheet Physics: predicting rocket motion
11. Conservation of Linear Momentum (Colliding Carts)
Circular Motion and Rotation:
Uniform Circular Motion
Angular Momentum
Torque and Rotational Statics
Rotational Kinematics and Dynamics
Oscillations and Gravitation
Simple Harmonic Motion
Mass on a Spring
Pendulum and Other Oscillations
12. 2 Dimensional Momentum Conservation (hockey pucks)
13. Buzz Light Year (conical pendulum, centripetal force)
14. Compound Pendulum(SHM)
Newton's Law of Gravity
Orbits of Planets and Satellites
15. Using a Torsion Pendulum to Measure Rotational Inertia
16. Kepler’s Law Lab (curve fitting to derive keplers r^3/T^2 relationship)
2-3 weeks
2-3 weeks
The Official College Board AP Course Outline: For a detailed breakdown of the topics covered on the AP Physics C exam as described by the College Board, Google it.
For handouts, lab templates and extra assignments go to my AP Physics C website
This includes percentages, information about calculations, and expectations about the amount of lab work performed. I have taken much of this information and included it in the outline above.
Grading:
Quarter Grade Exams (1 per unit):
(80-150 points)
50% of grade Quizzes (1-3 per unit):
(10-30 points)
10% of grade Lab Reports (1-7 per unit):
(30 points)
30% of grade Homework (1 assignment per chapter): (20 points) 10% of grade
Semester Grade Each Quarter - 40%, Final Exam - 20%
Overall Grading Philosophy:
Since the official AP Physics C examination is an authentic evaluation of how well a student understands Calculus based Physics: Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, near the AP Exam time, our in class examination questions are taken mostly from
old college board AP exams and graded with released rubrics. Students who have satisfactorily completed all of the required labs and expect to earn a at least C- in the class should be able to earn at least a 3 on the AP Exam. A “B” student should earn
at least a 4 and an “A” student should earn a 5.
Evaluation
Cumulative exams will cover 2-4 chapters of material. Small quizzes will be given as needs arise, but the bulk of your grade will be determined from the large exams. All Quiz and Test questions be will taken from either text book problems,
released AP Exam questions, the UCCP Open access site, the M.I.T. site or Lab practical type questions based on previous lab results. The quizzes are purposely similar in construction to the AP Exam. Each consists of 8 to 12
multiple-choice questions and a multi-part free-response question. The day after the quizzes are given, students score each other’s papers using a rubric similar to those used to score the free-response questions on the AP Exam.
The solution is projected on a screen, showing where points are to be given. Before students begin scoring papers, each section of the solution is carefully explained. Students will maintain a lab journal and lab reports will be
graded based upon a the the rubric found on the link How to write a UC lab report ( includes example report and error calculations) at my web site.
Teaching Strategies
Teaching strategies will include lecture, demonstration, guided problem solving and lab activities. Calculus used extensively throughout the course and physics is integrated into the calculus classes, as for many students the
calculus and physics teacher are one and the same. Students will have access to books, the Internet, lab equipment (including frictionless tracks,carts, vernier probes, lab quests etc), and computer simulations. The teacher will
act as a facilitator assisting and guiding students, at all times encouraging carefully articulated responses based on principles of physics. On a regular basis, students will also work in small groups on white-board problems. Each
group will be given a problem and will be expected to work out and present their solution to the class. Throughout the course, examples of “real life” applications of interest to students will be used to challenge them to apply
what they have learned; these examples will be used in the daily questions, in the white-board problems, in demos, etc. We will use Google Forms with networked lab computers for instant feedback of student’s understanding.
Homework and Review Questions:
We will do most of the homework problems posted at the University of California, UCCP Open Access web site as well as some of the challenging problems posted at the Mit Open CourseWare site, together with
problems selected from the Resnick, Haliday and Walker text.
Laboratory:
The College Board requires a minimum of twenty two labs as outlined in the AP syllabus book. The labs will be used to teach AP Physics C with a learn by doing approach. Two to three hours of laboratory time per week will be required. Most Lab
templates with grading rubrics will be posted at my website. All students are responsible for maintaining a lab book. Other information such as videos for video capture labs will be distributed via flash drive. Lab groups of 2-3 will help set up and tear
down labs for the entire class at least once each quarter. Once students have learned how to use lab equipment such as motion detectors, photo-gate timers, force probes, video capture software etc. they will be given more freedom to design enquiry
based labs. They will revisit their lab journal and answer questions such as how can they modify the water drop lab to get better results. They'll do and design an opened ended force plate lab where they'll be asked to design a lab that will investigate the
area under the force vs time curve with the resulting motion. For example some of them might use a motion detector to analyze the motion of a ball dropping onto a force plate while others might use video capture analysis to see how high some one
would jump up from the force plate.
Each lab will be graded by the UC lab report rubric and will require:
• The formation of an hypothesis or hypotheses, based on in-class discussion of the presented problem or focus of each experiment
• Design of (an) experiment(s), also based on in-class discussion, to test the hypothesis or hypotheses
• Collection of data and observations
• Calculations using the collected data
• Conclusions about how well the hypothesis or hypotheses held up based on the experiment
• Class discussion of variance and error analysis
• Written report
STEM Project for Extra Credit:
Each quarter students will be encouraged to complete an Inquiry Based or Engineering related project for extra credit. Such projects might include building a Monkey and Hunter apparatus, building and
analyzing the physics of a toy, building and analyzing a trebuchet, building a boat and participating in the boat wars etc. Extra credit will not raise a student’s grade by more than half of a grade. We have
received a grant so physics students will participate in modified form of the National Rocket Challenge. They will use appropriate formulas, measure drag, design, using spreadsheet analysis, build and
perform experiments, including rocket engine impulse analysis with vernier force probes, before they compete to send an egg up propelled by solid fuel rocket engines to a specified altitude and return it to
the ground unbroken. An example of project points assigned on a 100 point scale is ([60 points basic construction], [70 pts construction with functionality and or analysis] , [80pts functionality and analysis],
[90pts functionality, analysis, within 10% target goal], [100 pts, functionality, analysis, 5% target goal], [+5 top three of a competition, +10 winner]