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United States · College BoardQ&A
Physics 2Q&A by dot point
A short Q&A bank for every United States Physics 2 syllabus dot point. Each question and answer is drawn directly from our worked dot-point page, so you can scan key concepts before opening the long-form answer.
Unit 10: Electric Force, Field, and Potential
- Topic 10.6 Capacitors: relate charge, voltage and capacitance, find the capacitance of a parallel-plate capacitor, and calculate the energy stored.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 10.2 Conservation of Charge and the Process of Charging: apply conservation of charge to charging by friction, conduction and induction.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 10.7 Conservation of Electric Energy: apply conservation of energy to charges moving through potential differences, relating qV to kinetic energy.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 10.1 Electric Charge and Coulomb's Law: describe electric charge and apply Coulomb's law to the force between point charges.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 10.3 Electric Fields: define the electric field, calculate the field of a point charge, and represent fields with field lines and superposition.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 10.5 Electric Potential and its Relation to the Electric Field: define electric potential, relate potential difference to field and to potential energy, and use equipotentials.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 10.4 Electric Potential Energy: calculate the electric potential energy of a system of point charges and relate it to work done.2Q&A pairs
Unit 11: Electric Circuits
- Topic 11.8 Capacitors in Circuits and RC Circuits: combine capacitors in series and parallel and describe charging and discharging through a resistor.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 11.1 Electric Current: define electric current as the rate of charge flow and relate it to drift of charge carriers.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 11.4 Electric Power: calculate the power delivered or dissipated in a circuit using P = IV, P = I squared R and P = V squared over R.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 11.7 Kirchhoff's Junction Rule: apply conservation of charge to the currents at a junction in a circuit.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 11.6 Kirchhoff's Loop Rule: apply conservation of energy to the voltage changes around any closed loop of a circuit.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 11.3 Resistance, Resistivity, and Ohm's Law: apply Ohm's law and relate resistance to resistivity, length and cross-sectional area.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 11.5 Resistors in Series and Parallel: find the equivalent resistance of series and parallel combinations and the resulting currents and voltages.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 11.2 Simple Circuits: interpret circuit schematics and explain the role of emf, the complete circuit and the conventions for open and short circuits.2Q&A pairs
Unit 12: Magnetism and Electromagnetic Induction
- Topic 12.4 Electromagnetic Induction and Faraday's Law: apply Faraday's law and Lenz's law to find the emf and current induced by a changing magnetic flux.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 12.1 Magnetic Fields: describe magnetic fields, their sources, the dipole nature of magnets, and the representation of fields with field lines.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 12.3 Magnetism and Current-Carrying Wires: relate currents to the magnetic fields they create and the forces they experience in a field.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 12.2 Magnetism and Moving Charges: calculate the magnetic force on a moving charge and describe the resulting circular motion.2Q&A pairs
Unit 13: Geometric Optics
- Topic 13.4 Images Formed by Lenses: apply the thin-lens equation and magnification to images from converging and diverging lenses.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 13.2 Images Formed by Mirrors: apply the mirror equation and magnification to images from concave and convex mirrors.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 13.1 Reflection: apply the law of reflection and the ray model of light to plane surfaces.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 13.3 Refraction: apply Snell's law and the index of refraction, and find the critical angle for total internal reflection.2Q&A pairs
Unit 14: Waves, Sound, and Physical Optics
- Topic 14.3 Boundary Behavior of Waves and Polarization: describe reflection and transmission of waves at boundaries and the polarization of transverse waves.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 14.7 Diffraction and Interference of Light: apply double-slit interference, diffraction gratings and thin-film interference using path difference.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 14.4 Electromagnetic Waves: describe electromagnetic waves, their speed in vacuum, and the electromagnetic spectrum.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 14.6 Wave Interference and Standing Waves: apply superposition to interference and find the harmonics of standing waves.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 14.1 Properties of Wave Pulses and Periodic Waves: describe transverse and longitudinal waves and apply v = f lambda to periodic waves.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 14.5 The Doppler Effect: explain the shift in observed frequency when a wave source and observer move relative to each other.2Q&A pairs
Unit 15: Modern Physics
- Topic 15.4 Blackbody Radiation: describe the thermal radiation spectrum of a hot object and how its peak shifts with temperature.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 15.7 Nuclear Physics and Radioactivity: describe alpha, beta and gamma decay, half-life, and the energy of fission and fusion through mass-energy equivalence.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 15.1 Quantum Theory and Wave-Particle Duality: relate photon energy to frequency and describe the wave-particle duality of light and matter.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 15.2 The Bohr Model and Atomic Spectra: relate quantised energy levels to the emission and absorption spectra of atoms.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 15.5 The Photoelectric Effect and Compton Scattering: apply the photoelectric equation and describe Compton scattering as evidence of the photon.2Q&A pairs
Unit 9: Thermodynamics
- Topic 9.6 Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics: relate entropy to disorder and apply the second law to the direction of energy transfer.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 9.4 First Law of Thermodynamics and PV Diagrams: apply the first law to track internal energy, heat and work, and read work as the area on a PV diagram.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 9.1 Kinetic Theory of Gases: relate the pressure and temperature of an ideal gas to the average kinetic energy and motion of its atoms.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 9.5 Specific Heat and Thermal Conductivity: apply Q = mc(delta T) for heating and the conduction rate equation for steady heat flow.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 9.3 The Ideal Gas Law: apply PV = nRT (and PV = N k_B T) to relate the state variables of an ideal gas.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 9.2 Thermal Equilibrium and Temperature: define temperature through average kinetic energy and explain heat transfer and thermal equilibrium between systems in contact.2Q&A pairs