AP® Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism
Text: Serway, Raymond A., and John W. Jewett, Jr., Principles of Physics – A Calculus-based
Text, 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole, 2006.
C6 – Curricular Requirement: Introductory differential and integral calculus is
used throughout the course.
Course evaluation:
- Grade determination
→Final Exam – 15%
→Unit Exams – 42.5%
→Daily Work – 42.5%
- chapter assignments, quizzes
- laboratory activities
- formal lab report
Unit assessments are composed of multiple choice and free response questions from AP exams.
Assignments for each chapter/unit are completed using Quest (https://quest.cns.utexas.edu/).
The laboratory component of this course is described in detail after the course outline.
Course outline
Chapter 19 – Electric Forces and Electric Fields
C1 – Curricular Requirement: Electrostatics
- Instructional time: 3 weeks
- Topics covered
→Properties of electric charges
→Insulators and conductors
→Coulomb’s law
→The electric field
→The electric field due to continuous charge distributions
→Electric field lines
→Motion of a charged particle in a uniform electric field
- Chapter 19 Quiz #1
→Electric flux
→Gauss’s law
→Application of Gauss’s law to symmetric charge distributions
→Conductors in electrostatic equilibrium
- Chapter 19 Quiz #2
- Chapter 19 Assessment
Chapter 20 – Electric Potential and Capacitance
C2 – Curricular Requirement: Conductors, capacitors, and dielectrics
- Instructional time: 3 weeks
- Topics covered
→Potential difference and electric potential
→Equipotential surfaces
→Electric potential and potential energy due to point charges
→Obtaining electric field from electric potential
→Electric potential due to continuous charge distributions
→Electric potential of a charged conductor
- Chapter 20 Quiz #1
→Capacitance
→Combinations of capacitors
→Energy stored in a charged capacitor
→Capacitors with dielectrics
- Chapter 20 Quiz #2
- Chapter 20 Assessment
Chapter 21 – Current and Direct Current Circuits
C3 – Curricular Requirement: Electric circuits
- Instructional time: 3 weeks
- Topics covered
→Current and direct current circuits
→Drift velocity
→Sources and types of current
→Behavior of resistors
→Electric energy and power
→Sources of emf
- Chapter 21 Quiz #1
→Resistors in series
→Resistors in parallel
→Kirchhoff’s rules and simple DC circuits
→RC circuits – charging a capacitor
→RC circuits – discharging a capacitor
- Chapter 21 Quiz #2
- Chapter 21 Assessment
Chapter 22 – Magnetic Forces and Magnetic Fields
C4 – Curricular Requirement: Magnetic fields
- Instructional time: 3 weeks
- Topics covered
→Magnets
→Magnetic fields
→Magnetic force
→Charged particles in a magnetic field
→Magnetic force on a current-carrying conductor
→Torque on a current loop in a uniform magnetic field
- Chapter 22 Quiz #1
→The Biot-Savart law
→Ampère’s law
→Magnetic field of a solenoid
→Magnetic domains
- Chapter 22 Quiz #2
- Chapter 22 Assessment
Chapter 23 – Faraday’s Law and Inductance & Chapter 24 – Electromagnetic Waves
C5 – Curricular Requirement: Electromagnetism
- Instructional time: 3 weeks
- Topics covered
→Faraday’s law of induction
→Lenz’s law
→Motional emf
→Induced emfs and electric fields
- Chapters 23 & 24 Quiz #1
→Self-inductance
→RL circuits
→Energy stored in a magnetic field
→Maxwell’s equations
- Gauss’s law
- Gauss’s law for magnetism
- Faraday’s law of induction
- Ampère’s law (generalized form)
- Lorentz force
- Chapters 23 & 24 Quiz #2
- Chapters 23 & 24 Assessment
AP Physics C Exams
Relativity Unit
→Instructional time: 1.5 weeks
→Topics covered
- Michelson-Morley experiment
- Einstein’s principle of relativity
- Consequences of special relativity
- Relativistic momentum
- Relativistic energy and the equivalence of mass and energy
- General relativity
Spring Semester Final Exam
Laboratory Activities
The majority of the following laboratory activities are computer-based using PASCO materials.
Activities are incorporated in the curriculum to provide students experience with and/or
understanding of the following as described in “Objectives for the AP® Physics Courses”: 1)
experimental design; 2) observation and measurement of real phenomena; 3) data analysis; 4)
error analysis; and 5) communication of results. During a regular 5-day week, students are in
class for 265 minutes (53 minutes/day) and are engaged in hands-on activities for at least 60
minutes. Students are required to maintain a portfolio of all laboratory activities. Students have
one formal lab write up over a major activity (60 minutes or longer) of their choosing.
C7 – Curricular Requirement: The course utilizes guided inquiry and student-centered
learning to foster the development of critical thinking skills.
C8 – Curricular Requirement: The course includes a laboratory component
comparable to a semester-long, college-level physics laboratory. Students spend a
minimum of 20 percent of instructional time engaged in laboratory work. A hands-on
laboratory component is required. Each student should complete a lab notebook or
portfolio of lab reports.
Electromagnetism
- Charging by conduction and induction (30 minutes)
→transfer charge between objects by conduction and induction
- Static electricity (hands-on/45 minutes)
→investigate basic examples of static electricity
- Equipotential mapping (hands-on/60 minutes)
→delineate an equipotential map and derive electric field lines
- Capacitance and dielectrics (hands-on/60 minutes)
→investigate the relationship between charge, voltage and capacitance for a
parallel plate capacitor
- Capacitors in series and in parallel (hands-on/60 minutes)
→determine how capacitors behave in an RC circuit depending upon how the
capacitors are combined
- Ohm’s Law (hands-on/45 minutes)
→investigate the relationship between resistance, current, and potential difference
- Introduction to multimeters (hands-on/60 minutes)
→understand and use multimeters to measure resistance, current, and potential
difference
- Resistors in series and in parallel (hands-on/75 minutes)
→investigate the simple combination of resistors in series and in parallel
- Resistance, voltage, and current in circuits (hands-on/100 minutes)
→investigate the relationship between variables that contribute to the operation of
an electric circuit
- RC circuit (hands-on/60 minutes)
→investigate the change in potential across a capacitor as it charges and
determine the capacitive time constant
- Electromagnets (hands-on/45 minutes)
→investigate the properties of electromagnets and magnetic fields
- Magnetic field of a solenoid (hands-on/60 minutes)
→determine the magnetic field inside a solenoid and compare the magnetic field
to a theoretical value based on the current through the solenoid
- Electromagnetic induction (hands-on/45 minutes)
→investigate electromagnetic induction qualitatively and quantitatively
- Transformers (hands-on/45 minutes)
→investigate several of the factors influencing the operation of a transformer
- LR circuit (hands-on/60 minutes)
→investigate the relationship between the current through an inductor and its
behavior in a DC circuit
- Virtual electricity and magnetism (virtual/45 minutes)
→use internet sites to better understand electromagnetic concepts