← United States Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
United States · College BoardSyllabus
Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism syllabus, dot point by dot point
Every dot point in the United States Physics C: Electricity and Magnetismsyllabus, with a focused answer for each one. Click any dot point for a worked explainer, past exam questions, and links to related dot points. Written by Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic's latest AI.
Unit 10: Conductors and Capacitors
Module overview →- How is capacitance defined, and how do you find it and the energy stored for parallel-plate and other geometries?Topic 10.3 Capacitors: define capacitance, derive it for parallel-plate, spherical and cylindrical geometries, and find the stored energy and series and parallel combinations.12 min answer →
- How does inserting a dielectric change a capacitor's capacitance, field, voltage and stored energy?Topic 10.4 Dielectrics: explain how a dielectric increases capacitance and analyze the field, voltage and energy of a capacitor with a dielectric.10 min answer →
- What are the properties of a conductor in electrostatic equilibrium, and why do they hold?Topic 10.1 Electrostatics with Conductors: describe the field, charge and potential of a conductor in electrostatic equilibrium using Gauss's law.10 min answer →
- How does charge redistribute when conductors are connected, and what equalises between them?Topic 10.2 Redistribution of Charge between Conductors: predict how charge redistributes when conductors are connected, using the equalisation of potential.10 min answer →
Unit 11: Electric Circuits
Module overview →- How do you reduce a network of series and parallel resistors to find currents and voltages?Topic 11.5 Compound Direct Current Circuits: combine resistors in series and parallel to find equivalent resistance, currents and voltages in multi-resistor networks.10 min answer →
- What is electric current, and how is it related to drift velocity and current density?Topic 11.1 Electric Current: define current as the rate of charge flow and relate it to drift velocity, current density and charge carriers.10 min answer →
- How is electrical power delivered and dissipated, and how does it relate to current, voltage and resistance?Topic 11.4 Electric Power: calculate the power delivered or dissipated in circuit elements using P = IV and its resistive forms.9 min answer →
- How does conservation of charge constrain the currents meeting at a junction?Topic 11.7 Kirchhoff's Junction Rule: apply the junction rule (charge conservation) and combine it with the loop rule to solve multi-loop circuits.10 min answer →
- How does conservation of energy constrain the voltages around a circuit loop?Topic 11.6 Kirchhoff's Loop Rule: apply the loop rule (energy conservation) to write voltage equations for multi-loop circuits.10 min answer →
- How do resistance and resistivity arise, and what does Ohm's law say about them?Topic 11.3 Resistance, Resistivity, and Ohm's Law: relate resistance to resistivity and geometry, apply Ohm's law, and distinguish ohmic from non-ohmic behavior.10 min answer →
- How do charge, current and voltage evolve in time when a capacitor charges or discharges through a resistor?Topic 11.8 Resistor-Capacitor (RC) Circuits: model the exponential charging and discharging of a capacitor through a resistor using the time constant.12 min answer →
- What are the basic elements of a simple circuit, and how do EMF and internal resistance set the terminal voltage?Topic 11.2 Simple Circuits: model a single-loop circuit with a source of EMF, internal resistance and a load, and find currents and voltages.10 min answer →
Unit 12: Magnetic Fields and Electromagnetism
Module overview →- How does Ampere's law use symmetry to find the magnetic field of a current distribution?Topic 12.4 Ampere's Law: apply Ampere's law with a chosen Amperian loop to find the field of wires, solenoids and toroids.11 min answer →
- How does the Biot-Savart law give the magnetic field of a current, and how is it applied to wires and loops?Topic 12.3 Magnetic Fields of Current-Carrying Wires and the Biot-Savart Law: use the Biot-Savart law to find the field of current elements, straight wires and loops.12 min answer →
- What is a magnetic field, how is it represented, and how does it differ from an electric field?Topic 12.1 Magnetic Fields: describe magnetic fields, their sources in moving charges and magnets, field-line representation, and the absence of magnetic monopoles.9 min answer →
- How does a magnetic field exert a force on a moving charge or a current-carrying wire?Topic 12.2 Magnetism and Moving Charges: apply the magnetic force on moving charges and currents, including circular motion and the force on a wire.11 min answer →
Unit 13: Electromagnetic Induction
Module overview →- How does energy oscillate between a capacitor and an inductor in an LC circuit?Topic 13.6 Circuits with Capacitors and Inductors (LC Circuits): model the oscillation of charge and current in an LC circuit and the exchange of energy.11 min answer →
- How do current and voltage evolve in time in a circuit with a resistor and an inductor?Topic 13.5 Circuits with Resistors and Inductors (LR Circuits): model the exponential growth and decay of current in an LR circuit using the time constant.11 min answer →
- How does a changing magnetic flux induce an EMF, and what sets its direction?Topic 13.2 Electromagnetic Induction: apply Faraday's law and Lenz's law to find the magnitude and direction of an induced EMF.12 min answer →
- How do induced currents create forces, and how does energy conservation govern them?Topic 13.3 Induced Currents and Magnetic Forces: analyze the forces on induced currents, the energy and power in induction, and eddy-current effects.11 min answer →
- What is inductance, and how does an inductor store energy and oppose changes in current?Topic 13.4 Inductance: define self-inductance, find the inductance and stored energy of a solenoid, and apply the back-EMF of an inductor.10 min answer →
- What is magnetic flux, and how is it computed as a surface integral of the field?Topic 13.1 Magnetic Flux: define magnetic flux as the surface integral of the field and compute it for uniform and changing configurations.9 min answer →
Unit 8: Electric Charges, Fields, and Gauss's Law
Module overview →- How is charge conserved during charging, and what distinguishes conduction, induction and polarization?Topic 8.2 Conservation of Charge and the Process of Charging: apply conservation of charge to charging by friction, conduction and induction, and explain grounding and polarization.10 min answer →
- How does Coulomb's law quantify the force between charges, and how do you combine these forces as vectors?Topic 8.1 Electric Charge and Coulomb's Law: model the electrostatic force between point charges with Coulomb's law and add the forces from several charges as vectors.11 min answer →
- How do you integrate over a continuous charge distribution to find the electric field it produces?Topic 8.4 Electric Fields of Charge Distributions: set up and evaluate integrals to find the electric field of continuous charge distributions such as rods, rings and arcs.12 min answer →
- What is the electric field, how does a point charge produce one, and how do field lines represent it?Topic 8.3 Electric Fields: define the electric field as force per unit charge, calculate the field of point charges, and represent fields with field lines.11 min answer →
- What is electric flux, and how is it computed as a surface integral of the field?Topic 8.5 Electric Flux: define electric flux as the surface integral of the field and compute it for uniform and non-uniform fields through flat and closed surfaces.10 min answer →
- How does Gauss's law use symmetry to find the electric field of a charge distribution?Topic 8.6 Gauss's Law: apply Gauss's law with a chosen Gaussian surface to find the field of spherically, cylindrically and planar-symmetric charge distributions.12 min answer →
Unit 9: Electric Potential
Module overview →- How does conservation of energy govern a charge moving through a potential difference?Topic 9.3 Conservation of Electric Energy: apply conservation of energy to charges moving through potential differences, including charged particles accelerated by fields.10 min answer →
- How is electric potential energy defined through the work done by the electric force?Topic 9.1 Electric Potential Energy: relate electric potential energy to the work done by the electric force and compute it for point-charge systems.11 min answer →
- How is electric potential related to the field through integration, and how do you find the field from the potential?Topic 9.2 Electric Potential: relate potential to the field by line integral, find potential by superposition, and recover the field as the gradient of the potential.12 min answer →