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Introduction: The Five-Step Program
Acknowledgments
STEP 1 Set Up Your Study Program
1 How to Approach Your AP Physics Course
Ignore Your Grade
Don’t Bang Your Head Against a Brick Wall
Work with Other People
Ask Questions When Appropriate
Keep an Even Temper
Don’t Cram
2 What You Need to Know About the AP Physics 2 Exam
Some Frequently Asked Questions About the AP Physics 2 Exam
3 Building Your Personal Attack Plan
Memorization and Cramming Won’t Help
Building a Plan That Is Right for You
Plan A: I’m Starting in September
Plan B: I’m Starting in January
Plan C: It’s Spring Break and I Just Got Started!
STEP 2 Determine Your Test Readiness
4 Test Yourself: AP Physics 2 Fundamentals
AP Physics 2 Fundamentals Self-Assessment
Answers to AP Physics 2 Fundamentals Self-Assessment
What Do I Know, and What Don’t I Know?
5 Test Yourself: AP Physics 2 Question Types
AP Physics 2 Question-Types Self-Assessment
Answers to AP Physics 2 Question-Types Assessment
STEP 3 Develop Strategies for Success
6 General Strategies
What Do I Need to Remember from AP Physics 1?
Tools You Can Use
Get to Know the Relationships
What Information Can We Get from a Graph?
Ranking Task Skills
7 Strategies for the Multiple-Choice Questions
Multiple-Choice Basics
How to Get Better at Multiple-Choice Problems
Multiple-Correct Questions
Time: Pace Yourself !
Additional Strategies and Words of Wisdom
8 Strategies for the Free-Response Questions
The Structure of the Free-Response Section
Getting Off to a Good Start
Lab Questions
Practice Designing a Lab
Paragraph-Length Responses
Student-Contention Questions
Qualitative-Quantitative Transition (QQT) Questions
What the Exam Reader Looks For
Final Advice About the Free-Response Section
STEP 4 Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High
9 Fluid Mechanics
How the Nano-World Influences the Fluid World We Live In
Density
Pressure
Static Fluids
Applications of Static Fluids
Barometer
Buoyancy and Archimedes’ Principle
Dynamic Fluids—Continuity
Dynamic Fluids—Bernoulli’s Equation
Practice Problems
Solutions to Practice Problems
Rapid Review
10 Thermodynamics and Gases
Start Small—Atomic Behavior That Produces Thermal Results
Heat, Temperature, and Power
Heat Transfer
Kinetic Theory of Gases
Ideal Gas Law
First Law of Thermodynamics
PV Diagrams
Round and Round We Go: Cycles
Four Special Processes (Paths) on a PV Diagram
Entropy
Practice Problems
Solutions to Practice Problems
Rapid Review
11 Electric Force, Field, and Potential
Electric Charge
Quanta of Charge, Conservation of Charge, and How Charge Moves Around
Charge Distribution on Different Objects
Electric Fields
Force of an Electric Field
Electric Field Vector Diagrams
Electric Potential
Equipotential Isolines
Special Geometries for Electrostatics
Electric Fields Around a Point Charge and a Charged Conducting Sphere
Electric Potential Associated with a Point Charge and a Charged Conducting Sphere
The Force Between Two Charges
Mechanics and Charges
Practice Problems
Solutions to Practice Problems
Rapid Review
12 Electric Circuits
Current
Resistance and Ohm’s Law
Ohmic Versus Nonohmic
Resistors in Series and in Parallel
The V-I-R Chart
Kirchhoff’s Rules
Circuits from an Experimental Point of View
Real Batteries and Internal Resistance
Changes in a Circuit—Switches
Capacitors
Parallel and Series Capacitors
RC Circuits
Practice Problems
Solutions to Practice Problems
Rapid Review
13 Magnetism and Electromagnetic Induction
Magnetic Fields
Magnetic Dipoles in a Magnetic Field
Magnetic Field Around a Straight Current-Carrying Wire
Force on a Moving Charged Particle
Magnetic Force on a Wire
Force Between Two Parallel Wires
Charges in a Magnetic Field and the Mass Spectrometer
Particles Moving Through Both Magnetic and Electric Fields
Magnetic Flux
Electromagnetic Induction
Magnetic Behavior of Materials
Practice Problems
Solutions to Practice Problems
Rapid Review
14 Geometric and Physics Optics
Transverse and Longitudinal Waves
The Wave Equation
Interference
Electromagnetic Waves
Polarization
Diffraction and the Point-Source Model
Single and Double Slits
Index of Refraction
Thin Films
Wave Behavior at Boundaries
Reflection and Mirrors
Snell’s Law and the Critical Angle
Lenses
Practice Problems
Solutions to Practice Problems
Rapid Review
15 Quantum, Atomic, and Nuclear Physics
What Is Modern Physics?
Space, Time, the Speed of Light, and E = mc2
Subatomic Particles
The Electron-Volt
Photons
Photoelectric Effect
Photon Momentum
De Broglie Wavelength and Wave Functions
Bohr Model of the Atom and Energy Levels in an Atom
Three Types of Nuclear Decay Processes
E = mc2 and Conservation During Nuclear Reactions
Half-Life
Other Nuclear Reactions
Mass Defect, Binding Energy, and the Strong Nuclear Force
Practice Problems
Solutions to Practice Problems
Rapid Review
STEP 5 Build Your Test-Taking Confidence
The AP Physics 2 Practice Exams
Taking the Practice Exams
Test-Taking Strategies
AP Physics 2 Practice Exam 1: Section 1 (Multiple Choice)
AP Physics 2 Practice Exam 1: Section 2 (Free Response)
AP Physics 2 Practice Exam 1: Solutions: Section 1 (Multiple Choice)
AP Physics 2 Practice Exam 1: Solutions: Section 2 (Free Response)
How to Score Practice Exam 1
AP Physics 2 Practice Exam 2: Section 1 (Multiple Choice)
AP Physics 2 Practice Exam 2: Section 2 (Free Response)
AP Physics 2 Practice Exam 2: Solutions: Section 1 (Multiple Choice)
AP Physics 2 Practice Exam 2: Solutions: Section 2 (Free Response)
How to Score Practice Exam 2
AP Physics 2 Practice Exam 3: Section 1 (Multiple Choice)
AP Physics 2 Practice Exam 3: Section 2 (Free Response)
AP Physics 2 Practice Exam 3: Solutions: Section 1 (Multiple Choice)
AP Physics 2 Practice Exam 3: Solutions: Section 2 (Free Response)
How to Score Practice Exam 3
Words of Encouragement
Appendix
Constants
AP Physics 2 Equations
