Physics - Second Semester Goals

Static Electricity (Ch. 20, 21)

Describe what it means for an object to be charged or neutral.
Describe three methods of charging.
State coulombs law and use it to describe the size and direction of electrical forces.
Sketch the electric field lines around point charges, dipoles and plates.
Sketch equipotential lines around point charges, dipoles and plates.
Qualitatively describe electric field strength, electric potential energy and voltage/potential and distinguish between them.
Solve problems with Coulomb’s law and the equations for electric field strength, potential energy and voltage.
Qualitatively explain electrical phenomena like lightning, static cling, shocks, grounding.
Describe the charge of an electron and how it was determined.

Current Electricity (Ch. 22-23)
Know meanings of potential difference (voltage), current, resistance, power. Be able to use appropriate relationships between them with correct abbreviations and units.
Properly use the terms series, parallel and circuit.
Draw and decipher circuit diagrams.
Determine current, resistance, potential difference and power output for any part of a circuit, including simple circuits, series circuits, parallel circuits and complex circuits with both series and parallel elements.
Describe what affects an object’s resistance and categorize resistors as ohmic or nonohmic
Interpret graphs about resistance I vs. V and V vs. R.
Know how to include ammeters and voltmeters in a circuit and what this says about their resistances.
Describe the structure of a capacitor.
Use transient currents to describe how steady state voltages and currents are established.
Describe how houses are wired and the role of circuit breakers.
Determine loss of energy to heat in wires and describe how it can be reduced.
Trace the conducting path through light bulbs.
Describe the production of electrical energy in batteries and the role of internal resistance.
Use the pressure metaphor for voltage and interpret color-coded voltage diagrams.

Magnetism (Ch. 24,25)
Explain the arrangements responsible for permanent magnets.
Describe what affects the strength of magnetic forces and an electromagnet’s field.
Describe the shape of magnetic fields around permanent magnets and charge carrying wires.
Describe the causes and beneficial effects of the Earth’s magnetic field.
Predict the direction of magnetic forces and induced currents.
Describe how magnetic forces are applied in electric motors and generators.
Determine currents and voltages produced by transformers.

Sound and Waves (Ch. 14,15)
Explain what a wave is.
Differentiate between longitudinal and transverse waves
Correctly use the vocabulary: medium, pulse, crest, trough, compression, and rarefaction.
Define and apply the following wave characteristics: period, frequency, velocity, wavelength, amplitude, and energy.
Apply the following relationships: T=1/f and v =f*wavelength.
Explain how standing waves are produced and correctly use the terms nodes and antinodes.
Explain the following wave behaviors, interference, beats, resonance, doppler effect and sonic booms.

Light (Ch. 16-19)
What is light?
a) Be able to describe strengths and weaknesses of the two models of light.
b) Be able to give effective examples showing the strengths of each model.
How light behaves
a) Colors.
i) What are primary, secondary and complementary colors.
ii) How are colors produced by dispersion, addition and subtraction of light.
b) Reflection
i) What is the law of reflection.
ii) Be able to locate images and make ray diagrams for reflection.
c) Refraction
i) What is it?
ii) What is Snell’s Law
iii) How did we determine a law for refraction?
iv) Be able to solve problems and draw ray diagrams.
d) Lenses
i) Be able to draw ray diagrams for converging and diverging lenses.
ii) Identify images as real or virtual.