AP Physics 2 Syllabus & Curriculum 2027
This syllabus and curriculum map covers the complete AP Physics 2 learning sequence across 7 units and 46 topics. It combines the topic directory with prerequisites, mathematics, laboratory expectations, science practices, pacing and a practical year-long study structure.
What is the AP Physics 2 syllabus and curriculum?
The AP Physics 2 syllabus is the complete course map of topics and skills across thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, optics, waves and modern physics; the curriculum is the actual sequence of concepts, representations, mathematics, experiments and assessment skills developed through that map. This page combines both intents without splitting one course plan across duplicate URLs.
What you should be ready to do before and during the course
Physics 2 assumes a first introductory physics course and uses algebra, trigonometry, graphs and experimental reasoning throughout.
| Area | Expected preparation | What it means in real study |
|---|---|---|
| Physics prerequisite | AP Physics 1 or a comparable introductory physics course. | Forces, energy, momentum, graphs and systems should already be familiar enough to reuse in new contexts. |
| Mathematics | Precalculus or an equivalent course taken before or alongside Physics 2. | Rearrange symbolic expressions, use proportional reasoning/trigonometry, interpret slopes and areas, and work confidently with scientific notation. |
| Laboratory work | About one quarter of instructional time should involve hands-on investigation. | Measure variables, control competing causes, graph data, estimate uncertainty and defend conclusions with evidence. |
| Exam reasoning | 42 MCQs in 85 minutes and 4 FRQs in 95 minutes. | Practice must include calculations, representation translation, experimental design and written qualitative/quantitative justification. |
All 46 topics in the seven-unit curriculum
Every topic below links to a dedicated lesson with same-page definitions, equations, physical examples, experimental reasoning and its exact practice bank.
Thermodynamics
State variables, microscopic models, P–V diagrams, heat/work/internal energy and entropy.
Kinetic Theory of Temperature and Pressure
Gas pressure comes from repeated particle collisions that transfer momentum to surfaces, while absolute temperature sets the average translational kinetic-energy scale and the molecular speed distribution.
Topic 9.2The Ideal Gas Law
The ideal gas law connects pressure, volume, amount of gas and absolute temperature for a model gas with random particle motion, negligible particle volume, elastic collisions and negligible forces except during collisions.
Topic 9.3Thermal Energy Transfer and Equilibrium
Thermal processes transfer energy spontaneously from higher-temperature systems toward lower-temperature systems by conduction, convection or radiation until thermal equilibrium produces no net thermal transfer.
Topic 9.4The First Law of Thermodynamics
The first law tracks how a thermodynamic system’s internal energy changes when energy enters or leaves by heating/cooling and when work is done on or by the system; P–V diagrams reveal the work associated with volume change.
Topic 9.5Specific Heat and Thermal Conductivity
Specific heat determines how much energy is needed for a given mass and temperature change, while thermal conductivity determines how quickly energy is transferred by steady conduction through a material.
Topic 9.6Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
The second law is qualitative in this course: energy tends to spread, isolated systems never experience a decrease in total entropy, reversible processes keep total entropy constant, and irreversible spontaneous processes increase it.
Electric Force, Field, and Potential
Charge interactions, vector fields, scalar potential, capacitors and electric-energy reasoning.
Electric Charge and Electric Force
Electric charge is signed and quantized; Coulomb’s law gives the magnitude and direction of the electrostatic force between pointlike charged objects, with vector superposition for several sources.
Topic 10.2Conservation of Electric Charge and the Process of Charging
A system’s net charge changes only when charge crosses its boundary. Friction and contact can transfer electrons, induction redistributes charge, and grounding connects a system to a much larger approximately neutral charge reservoir.
Topic 10.3Electric Fields
Electric field is a vector property of space defined by force per unit positive test charge. Fields superpose vectorially, and electrostatic conductors have zero internal field with excess charge on their surfaces.
Topic 10.4Electric Potential Energy
Electric potential energy is energy of a charge configuration. For point charges it depends on charge signs and separations, and the total for several charges is the scalar sum over distinct interacting pairs.
Topic 10.5Electric Potential
Electric potential is a scalar energy-per-charge field. Potentials from point charges add algebraically, equipotential lines are perpendicular to electric-field vectors, and electric field points toward decreasing potential.
Topic 10.6Capacitors
A parallel-plate capacitor stores equal and opposite plate charge and electric-field energy. Its capacitance is set by geometry and dielectric material, while charge, voltage, field and energy respond differently depending on what is held fixed.
Topic 10.7Conservation of Electric Energy
When a charge moves through a potential difference, ΔU_E=qΔV. If electric interaction is the only energy-transfer mechanism, the decrease in electric potential energy appears as an equal increase in kinetic energy.
Electric Circuits
Current, potential difference, resistance, power, network conservation and RC transients.
Electric Current
Electric current is the rate at which net charge crosses a cross-sectional area. Conventional current follows the direction positive charge would move, even though electrons in ordinary metal wires move in the opposite direction.
Topic 11.2Simple Circuits
A circuit is a network of elements connected by conducting paths. Whether current can flow depends on closed paths, while a schematic preserves electrical connectivity rather than the physical shape of the wires.
Topic 11.3Resistance, Resistivity, and Ohm’s Law
Resistance measures how strongly an object opposes charge motion, while resistivity is a material property. For a uniform conductor, resistance depends on resistivity, length, and cross-sectional area; ohmic behavior is identified by a linear current–potential-difference relationship under fixed conditions.
Topic 11.4Electric Power
Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred, converted, or dissipated by a circuit element. For a resistor, equivalent power expressions follow from combining P = IΔV with Ohm’s law.
Topic 11.5Compound Direct Current (DC) Circuits
Compound DC circuits combine branches, nodes, series elements, and parallel elements. Analyze them from electrical topology: use equivalent resistance only for genuine series or parallel groups, and connect meters according to what they measure.
Topic 11.6Kirchhoff’s Loop Rule
Kirchhoff’s loop rule is conservation of energy applied around a closed circuit path: the algebraic sum of potential changes around the loop is zero. A potential-versus-position graph provides the same energy accounting visually.
Topic 11.7Kirchhoff’s Junction Rule
Kirchhoff’s junction rule is conservation of charge in a steady circuit: the total current entering a junction equals the total current leaving it. Current splits among branches and recombines; it is not consumed by circuit elements.
Topic 11.8Resistor-Capacitor (RC) Circuits
Topic 11.8 combines equivalent capacitance with qualitative RC-circuit behavior. Series capacitors carry equal charge magnitude, parallel capacitors share potential difference, and the time constant τ = RC sets how quickly charging or discharging approaches steady state.
Magnetism and Electromagnetism
Magnetic-field direction, force on charges/currents, magnetic flux and electromagnetic induction.
Magnetic Fields
Magnetic fields are vector fields that describe magnetic interactions. Magnetic field lines form closed loops, magnetic dipoles have north and south polarity, and a material’s magnetic response depends on how its microscopic dipoles respond to an external field.
Topic 12.2Magnetism and Moving Charges
A moving charged object can produce a magnetic field and can experience a magnetic force in an external field. The magnetic force is perpendicular to both velocity and field, so magnetic force alone changes the direction of motion rather than the particle’s kinetic energy.
Topic 12.3Magnetism and Current-Carrying Wires
Electric current produces a magnetic field, and an external magnetic field can exert a force on a current-carrying wire. Around a long straight wire, the field circles the wire and decreases as 1/r; fields from multiple wires combine by vector addition.
Topic 12.4Electromagnetic Induction and Faraday’s Law
Electromagnetic induction occurs when magnetic flux through a circuit changes. Faraday’s law determines the induced-emf magnitude, Lenz’s law determines the direction, and a moving conducting rod in a magnetic field provides a standard motional-emf case.
Geometric Optics
Ray diagrams, reflection/refraction, image formation, focal length and optical sign conventions.
Reflection
Geometric optics models light with rays that point in the direction of travel and are perpendicular to wavefronts. At a reflecting surface, the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence when both are measured from the local normal; smooth and rough surfaces differ because their local normals differ across the illuminated region.
Topic 13.2Images Formed by Mirrors
Plane, concave spherical, and convex spherical mirrors form images according to ray geometry. Concave mirrors converge parallel rays toward a focal point, convex mirrors make parallel rays diverge as if from a focal point behind the mirror, and image location and magnification can be found with ray diagrams and the mirror equation using one consistent sign convention.
Topic 13.3Refraction
Refraction is the change in ray direction caused by a change in light speed when light crosses a boundary. The refractive index n=c/v connects index to speed, Snell’s law connects the incidence and refraction angles, and total internal reflection can occur only when light travels from higher refractive index to lower refractive index beyond the critical angle.
Topic 13.4Images Formed by Lenses
Thin converging and diverging lenses form images by refraction. A converging lens brings parallel rays toward a transmitted-side focal point, a diverging lens makes them spread as if from an incident-side focal point, and the thin-lens equation, magnification, and principal-ray diagrams determine image location, type, orientation, and relative size.
Waves, Sound, and Physical Optics
Wave propagation, phase, sound, polarization, interference, diffraction and physical optics.
Properties of Wave Pulses and Waves
Waves transfer energy through a disturbance without carrying the medium as a whole with them. Mechanical waves require a medium, electromagnetic waves do not, transverse disturbances are perpendicular to propagation, longitudinal disturbances are parallel, and the medium helps determine wave speed.
Topic 14.2Periodic Waves
A periodic wave repeats in time and space. Period and frequency are reciprocals, wavelength is the spatial repeat distance, and wave speed connects frequency and wavelength through v=fλ; at a fixed point or fixed instant, sinusoidal graphs reveal amplitude, period, wavelength, and phase.
Topic 14.3Boundary Behavior of Waves and Polarization
When a wave reaches a boundary, part of the disturbance can reflect and part can transmit. Frequency remains tied to the source, the reflected pulse orientation depends on how the transmitted-wave speed changes, transverse waves can be polarized, and intensity describes average power delivered per area.
Topic 14.4Electromagnetic Waves
Electromagnetic waves are transverse waves made of mutually perpendicular oscillating electric and magnetic fields, both perpendicular to the direction of propagation. They require no material medium, travel at speed c in vacuum, and are classified across the electromagnetic spectrum by wavelength and frequency.
Topic 14.5The Doppler Effect
The Doppler effect is the change in observed frequency caused by relative motion between a wave source and an observer. Approach produces a higher observed frequency, separation produces a lower observed frequency, and a greater relative speed produces a greater frequency shift.
Topic 14.6Wave Interference and Standing Waves
Interference occurs when waves overlap and their displacements add by superposition. Constructive and destructive interference, beats, reflections, and boundary conditions can produce standing waves with nodes, antinodes, and discrete resonant modes.
Topic 14.7Diffraction
Diffraction is wave spreading produced by an opening or obstacle, and it becomes most pronounced when the opening size is comparable to the wavelength. A single slit produces a broad central maximum and dark minima whose positions depend on slit width, wavelength, and screen distance.
Topic 14.8Double-Slit Interference and Diffraction Gratings
Two coherent slits produce interference maxima and minima whose spacing depends on wavelength, slit separation, and screen distance, while each slit also contributes a diffraction envelope. A diffraction grating uses many equally spaced openings to produce sharp angular maxima and disperse wavelengths.
Topic 14.9Thin-Film Interference
Thin-film interference comes from superposition of light reflected from the film’s top and bottom surfaces. Optical path difference and reflection phase reversals determine whether a wavelength is enhanced or suppressed; in the simplest antireflection case, a quarter-wave film makes the two reflected waves destructively interfere.
Modern Physics
Photons, matter waves, atomic energy levels, spectra, radiation and nuclear processes.
Quantum Theory and Wave-Particle Duality
Quantum theory is needed when classical models fail at atomic and subatomic scales: light carries discrete photon energy and momentum, while material particles can show wave behavior with a de Broglie wavelength.
Topic 15.2The Bohr Model of Atomic Structure
The Bohr model is a historical atomic model that combines electric attraction, circular-motion reasoning and a standing-wave condition to motivate discrete energy states; the course treatment stays at energy levels rather than advanced orbital probability descriptions.
Topic 15.3Emission and Absorption Spectra
An atom absorbs or emits a photon only when the photon energy matches the difference between two allowed atomic energy states; the resulting line spectrum acts as a fingerprint of the element.
Topic 15.4Blackbody Radiation
An ideal blackbody absorbs all incident radiation and emits a continuous temperature-dependent spectrum: increasing absolute temperature shifts the peak to shorter wavelength and increases total emitted power very strongly.
Topic 15.5The Photoelectric Effect
In the photoelectric effect, individual photons transfer energy to electrons: emission requires the photon frequency to reach a threshold, frequency controls the maximum electron kinetic energy, and intensity mainly controls how many electrons can be emitted when the frequency is already sufficient.
Topic 15.6Compton Scattering
Compton scattering is a photon–electron collision in which energy and two-dimensional momentum are conserved; the scattered photon generally leaves with lower energy, lower momentum and longer wavelength, with the wavelength shift set by scattering angle.
Topic 15.7Fission, Fusion, and Nuclear Decay
Nuclear processes are constrained by conservation laws and mass–energy equivalence; fission and fusion can release energy, while radioactive samples decay probabilistically with rates described by a decay constant and half-life.
Topic 15.8Types of Radioactive Decay
Alpha, beta-minus, beta-plus and gamma decay are distinguished by the emitted particles and by how proton number, nucleon number, charge and lepton number are conserved; the specific isotope’s decay mode or half-life is not something to memorize.
Track all 46 curriculum topics on this device
Mark a topic complete after you can explain the model, solve its focused practice and justify your reasoning. Progress is stored only in this browser.
Unit 9 · Thermodynamics
Unit 10 · Electric Force, Field, and Potential
Unit 11 · Electric Circuits
Unit 12 · Magnetism and Electromagnetism
Unit 13 · Geometric Optics
Unit 14 · Waves, Sound, and Physical Optics
Unit 15 · Modern Physics
A practical year-long sequence
The unit ranges total roughly 82–127 class periods. Treat them as planning ranges, then reserve additional time for laboratory investigations, cumulative review, assessment and reteaching.
Thermodynamics establishes energy-transfer and graph habits; electric interactions introduce the field/potential distinction used throughout electromagnetism.
Circuits deserve sustained practice because conservation, network structure, power and RC time dependence interact.
Move from fields and induction into ray-model optics while keeping vector direction and representation discipline explicit.
Use wave models, interference and diffraction as the bridge to photons, matter waves, spectra and nuclear physics.
Stop reviewing only by chapter. Mix unit contexts so you must identify the governing model before seeing a familiar heading.
Three skills that spiral through every unit
A complete syllabus trains what you do with physics, not only what vocabulary you can recall.
Create and interpret representations
Draw physical diagrams, schematics, tables and graphs; connect them to equations and verbal descriptions.
Use mathematical routines
Derive symbolic expressions, calculate with units, compare scenarios and reason from functional dependence.
Question, design and argue
Design procedures, analyze data, choose appropriate models and justify claims with evidence or physical principles.
15 investigations already connected to this learning system
Laboratory work should test a relationship rather than merely confirm a memorized number.
| Unit | High-value investigation targets | Data/representation skill |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | gas-state behavior; calorimetry; thermal transfer | P–V or temperature-time graphs; energy accounting |
| 10 | electric-field mapping; capacitor behavior | vector/equipotential maps; geometry-dependence graphs |
| 11 | Ohmic behavior; network rules; RC time constant | I–V graphs; linearization; exponential transients |
| 12 | magnetic force and induction | direction evidence; flux/emf dependence |
| 13 | focal length and refraction | ray diagrams; reciprocal/geometry relationships |
| 14 | wave speed, resonance, interference and diffraction | frequency/wavelength data; fringe-spacing patterns |
| 15 | spectra, photon-energy graphs and half-life models | slope interpretation; energy-level and exponential-decay representations |
What math is actually used
The course is algebra-based, but strong graph and proportional reasoning matters as much as substitution.
Algebra & proportional reasoning
Rearrange multivariable relationships, compare ratios and predict factors of change.
Example: if plate spacing doubles while charge stays fixed, reason through how field, potential and stored energy respond before calculating.
Trigonometry & geometry
Resolve vector directions, use angles in magnetic force and refraction, and reason from optical/wave geometry.
Example: use Snell’s law with an angle measured from the normal rather than from the surface.
Graphs & linearization
Interpret slope, area, intercept and functional form; choose transformed variables when a straight-line test clarifies a model.
Example: an I–V graph distinguishes ohmic from non-ohmic behavior.
Scientific notation & units
Move comfortably among microscopic charges, wavelengths, energies and macroscopic circuit/thermal quantities.
Example: convert electron volts and joules deliberately instead of mixing energy units inside one equation.
How to turn the curriculum into measurable progress
Content completion is not mastery until you can recognize the model in unfamiliar wording.
Learn
Complete the topic lesson and same-page prerequisite definitions.
Check
Use the exact 42-MCQ topic bank to expose conceptual and representation weaknesses.
Explain
Complete all four topic FRQ modes and score evidence rather than only final answers.
Mix
Move to unit review and then five full model exams so the heading no longer tells you the model.
AP Physics 2 syllabus and curriculum: fast answers
These answers separate course planning from the dedicated lesson pages.
How many topics are in the AP Physics 2 curriculum?
This learning system contains 46 topics across 7 units, numbered 9 through 15.
What math do I need for AP Physics 2?
You should be comfortable with algebra, proportional reasoning, scientific notation, graphs and basic trigonometry. The course is algebra-based rather than calculus-based.
Do I need Physics 1 before Physics 2?
This curriculum assumes a first introductory physics course or equivalent background, especially forces, energy, momentum, graphs and systems.
How much laboratory work should I expect?
Plan for about one quarter of instructional time to involve hands-on investigation, measurement, graphing, uncertainty and evidence-based conclusions.
What is the difference between the Units page and this syllabus page?
The Units page compares weighting, topic counts and conceptual connections. This syllabus/curriculum page owns the complete 46-topic directory, prerequisites, math, labs, pacing and progress tracking.
How should I use this curriculum to study?
Learn one topic, complete its focused MCQs, answer all four FRQ modes, correct the evidence behind mistakes, then move into mixed unit and full-model-exam practice.
This syllabus and curriculum contains 46 of 46 topics across 7 of 7 units, with every topic linked to its own lesson and focused practice path. The separate Units page owns weighting/connection intent; this page owns the complete course-map, pacing and progress-tracking intent.