United States · College BoardQ&A
PhysicsQ&A by dot point
A short Q&A bank for every United States Physics 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 1: Kinematics
- Topic 1.2 Displacement, Velocity, and Acceleration: define displacement, velocity and acceleration as rates of change, and apply the kinematic equations to one-dimensional motion with constant acceleration.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 1.4 Reference Frames and Relative Motion: explain how measured position and velocity depend on the observer's reference frame, and combine velocities for relative motion along one dimension.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 1.3 Representing Motion: translate between verbal, mathematical and graphical representations of motion, and interpret the slopes and areas of position-time, velocity-time and acceleration-time graphs.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 1.1 Scalars and Vectors in One Dimension: distinguish scalar and vector quantities, and add and subtract vectors along a single dimension using a chosen sign convention.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 1.5 Vectors and Motion in Two Dimensions: resolve vectors into perpendicular components, and analyze two-dimensional motion, including projectiles, by treating the horizontal and vertical motions independently.2Q&A pairs
Unit 2: Force and Translational Dynamics
- Topic 2.9 Circular Motion: analyze uniform circular motion using centripetal acceleration and the net inward (centripetal) force that produces it.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 2.2 Forces and Free-Body Diagrams: identify the forces acting on an object, represent them on a free-body diagram, and calculate the net force as the vector sum of all forces.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 2.6 Gravitational Force: use Newton's law of universal gravitation to find the force between masses, and relate this to weight and the gravitational field strength near a planet's surface.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 2.7 Kinetic and Static Friction: distinguish static from kinetic friction, and calculate friction forces using the coefficient of friction and the normal force.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 2.4 Newton's First Law: state Newton's first law, relate it to inertia, and apply the condition of zero net force to objects in translational equilibrium.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 2.5 Newton's Second Law: relate the net force on an object to its acceleration and mass through Fnet = ma, and use it to solve for forces, masses or accelerations.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 2.3 Newton's Third Law: state Newton's third law, identify action-reaction force pairs, and explain why the paired forces act on different objects and so do not cancel.3Q&A pairs
- Topic 2.8 Spring Forces: apply Hooke's law to relate the force from an ideal spring to its displacement, and use it in equilibrium and dynamics problems.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 2.1 Systems and Center of Mass: define a system and its center of mass, and explain how the center of mass of a system moves in response to external forces.2Q&A pairs
Unit 3: Work, Energy, and Power
- Topic 3.4 Conservation of Energy: apply conservation of mechanical energy to systems with conservative forces, and account for energy dissipated by nonconservative forces such as friction.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 3.3 Potential Energy: define potential energy as stored energy of a system's configuration, and calculate gravitational potential energy (mgh) and elastic potential energy (1/2 kx^2).2Q&A pairs
- Topic 3.5 Power: define power as the rate of energy transfer through P = W/t = Delta E/Delta t, and use P = Fv to relate power to force and speed.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 3.1 Translational Kinetic Energy: define the kinetic energy of a moving object through K = 1/2 mv^2, and reason about how it changes with mass and speed.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 3.2 Work: calculate the work done by a force through W = Fd cos(theta), connect net work to the change in kinetic energy, and read work as the area under a force-displacement graph.2Q&A pairs
Unit 4: Linear Momentum
- Topic 4.2 Change in Momentum and Impulse: relate impulse to the change in momentum through J = F*t = Delta p, and read impulse as the area under a force-time graph.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 4.4 Collisions: analyze elastic and inelastic collisions using conservation of momentum, and distinguish them by whether kinetic energy is conserved.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 4.3 Conservation of Linear Momentum: apply conservation of momentum to an isolated system, where the total momentum before equals the total momentum after an interaction.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 4.1 Linear Momentum: define linear momentum as the vector product of mass and velocity, p = mv, and distinguish it from kinetic energy.2Q&A pairs
Unit 5: Torque and Rotational Dynamics
- Topic 5.2 Connecting Linear and Rotational Motion: relate linear and angular quantities for a point on a rotating rigid body through v = r*omega and a = r*alpha.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 5.6 Newton's Second Law in Rotational Form: relate the net torque on a rigid body to its angular acceleration and rotational inertia through tau_net = I*alpha.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 5.5 Rotational Equilibrium and Newton's First Law in Rotational Form: apply the condition of zero net torque for rotational equilibrium, alongside zero net force, to analyze balanced rigid bodies.3Q&A pairs
- Topic 5.4 Rotational Inertia: define rotational inertia as an object's resistance to angular acceleration, and reason about how mass and its distribution from the axis determine it.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 5.1 Rotational Kinematics: describe rotational motion using angular displacement, angular velocity and angular acceleration, and apply the rotational kinematic equations for constant angular acceleration.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 5.3 Torque: calculate the torque produced by a force as tau = rF sin(theta), and identify the lever arm and the sense of rotation.2Q&A pairs
Unit 6: Energy and Momentum of Rotating Systems
- Topic 6.3 Angular Momentum and Angular Impulse: define angular momentum and relate the angular impulse from a torque to the change in angular momentum.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 6.4 Conservation of Angular Momentum: apply conservation of angular momentum to systems with no net external torque, including changes in rotational inertia.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 6.6 Motion of Orbiting Satellites: analyze circular and elliptical orbits using gravity as the centripetal force, gravitational potential energy, and conservation of energy and angular momentum.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 6.5 Rolling: analyze objects that roll without slipping using the v = R omega condition and the partition of energy between translation and rotation.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 6.1 Rotational Kinetic Energy: define the kinetic energy of a rotating rigid body and relate it to rotational inertia and angular velocity.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 6.2 Torque and Work: calculate the work done by a torque through an angular displacement and apply the work-energy theorem to rotation.2Q&A pairs
Unit 7: Oscillations
- Topic 7.1 Defining Simple Harmonic Motion: identify simple harmonic motion by the linear restoring force F = -kx and describe the resulting oscillation.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 7.4 Energy of Simple Harmonic Oscillators: analyze the interchange of kinetic and elastic potential energy in an oscillator and relate the total energy to the amplitude.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 7.2 Frequency and Period of SHM: relate frequency and period, and calculate the period of a mass-spring system and a simple pendulum.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 7.3 Representing and Analyzing SHM: describe the position, velocity and acceleration of an oscillator using sinusoidal functions and graphs.2Q&A pairs
Unit 8: Fluids
- Topic 8.4 Fluids and Conservation Laws: apply the continuity equation and Bernoulli's equation to ideal fluid flow.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 8.3 Fluids and Newton's Laws: apply Newton's laws and Archimedes' principle to objects in fluids, including the buoyant force and floating versus sinking.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 8.1 Internal Structure and Density: define a fluid and describe density as mass per unit volume, an intensive property of a substance.2Q&A pairs
- Topic 8.2 Pressure: define pressure as force per unit area and apply the relation between pressure and depth in a static fluid.2Q&A pairs