"Standards without asterisks represent those that all students are expected to achieve in the course of their studies. Standards with asterisks represent those that all students should have the opportunity to learn."
Motion and Forces
1. Newton's laws predict the motion of most objects.
As a basis for
understanding this concept, students know:
a. how to solve problems involving
constant speed and average speed.
b. when forces are balanced no acceleration occurs,
and thus an object continues to move at a constant
speed or stays at rest (Newton's First Law).
c. how to apply the law F=ma to solve one-dimensional
motion problems involving constant forces (Newton's
Second Law).
d. when one object exerts a force on a second object,
the second object always exerts a force of equal
magnitude and opposite direction. (Newton's Third
Law).
e. the relationship between the universal law of
gravitation and the effect of gravity on an object at the
surface of the Earth.
f. applying a force to an object perpendicular to the
direction of its motion causes the object to change
direction but not speed (for example, the Earth's
gravitational force causes a satellite in a circular orbit
to change direction but not speed).
g. circular motion requires application of a constant
force directed toward the center of the circle.
h.* Newton's Laws are not exact but they provide very
good approximations unless an object is moving close
to the speed of light or is small enough that the
quantum effects are important.
i.* how to solve two-dimensional
trajectory problems.
j.* how to resolve two-dimensional vectors into their
components and calculate the magnitude and
direction of a vector from its components.
k.* how to solve two-dimensional problems involving
balanced forces (statics).
l.* how to solve problems in circular motion, using the
formula for centripetal acceleration in the following
form: a=v2/r.
m.* how to solve problems involving the forces
between two electric charges at a distance (Coulomb's
Law) or the forces between two masses at a distance
(Universal gravitation).
Conservation of Energy and Momentum
2. The laws of conservation of energy and momentum provide a way
to predict and describe the movement of objects.
As a basis for
understanding this concept, students know:
a. how to calculate kinetic energy using the
formula E=(1/2)mv2.
b. how to calculate changes in gravitational
potential energy near the Earth using the
formula (change in potential energy) =mgh
(change in the elevation).
c. how to solve problems involving conservation
of energy in simple systems such as falling
objects.
d. how to calculate momentum as product mv.
e. momentum is a separately conserved
quantity, different from energy.
f. an unbalanced force on an object produces a change
in its momentum.
g. how to solve problems involving elastic and inelastic
collisions in one dimension using the principles of
conservation of momentum and energy.
h.* how to solve problems involving conservation of
energy in simple systems with various sources of
potential energy, such as capacitors and springs.
Heat and Thermodynamics
3. Energy cannot be created or destroyed although in many
processes energy is transferred to the environment as heat.
As a
basis for understanding this concept, students know:
a. heat flow and work are two forms of energy transfer
between systems.
b. the work done by a heat engine that is working in a
cycle is the difference between the heat flow into the
engine at high temperature and the heat flow out at a
lower temperature (First Law of Thermodynamics) and
that this is an example of the law of conservation of
energy.
c. thermal energy (commonly called heat) consists of
random motion and the vibrations and rotations of
atoms and molecules. The higher the temperature, the
greater the atomic or molecular motion.
d. most processes tend to decrease the order of a
system over time, and energy levels are eventually
distributed uniformly.
e. entropy is a quantity that measures the order or
disorder of a system, and is larger for a more
disordered system.
f.* the statement "entropy tends to increase" is a law of
statistical probability that governs all closed systems
(Second Law of Thermodynamics).
g.* how to solve problems involving heat flow, work,
and efficiency in a heat engine and know that all real
engines have some heat flow out.
Waves
4. Waves have characteristic properties that do not depend on the
type of wave.
As a basis for understanding this concept, students
know:
a. waves carry energy from one place to
another.
b. how to identify transverse and longitudinal waves in
mechanical media such as springs, ropes, and the
Earth (seismic waves).
c. how to solve problems involving wavelength,
frequency, and wave speed.
d. sound is a longitudinal wave whose speed depends
on the properties of the medium in which it propagates.
e. radio waves, light and X-rays are different
wavelength bands in the spectrum of electromagnetic
waves whose speed in vacuum is approximately 3x108
m/s (186,000 miles/second).
f. how to identify the characteristic properties of waves:
interference (beats), diffraction, refraction, Doppler
effect, and polarization.
Electronic and Magnetic Phenomena
5. Electric and magnetic phenomena are related and have many
practical applications.
As a basis for understanding this concept,
students know:
a. how to predict the voltage or current in simple direct
current electric circuits constructed from batteries,
wires, resistors, and capacitors.
b. how to solve problems involving
Ohm's law.
c. any resistive element in a DC circuit dissipates
energy which heats the resistor. Students can calculate
the power (rate of energy dissipation) in any resistive
circuit element by using the formula Power = (potential
difference IR) times (current I) = I2R.
d. the properties of transistors and their
role in electric circuits.
e. charged particles are sources of electric fields and
experience forces due to the electric fields from other
charges.
f. magnetic materials and electric currents (moving
electric charges) are sources of magnetic fields and
experience forces due to magnetic fields of other
sources.
g. how to determine the direction of a magnetic field
produced by a current flowing in a straight wire or in a
coil.
h. changing magnetic fields produce electric fields,
thereby inducing currents in nearby conductors.
i. plasmas, the fourth state of matter, contain ions
and/or free electrons and conduct electricity.
j.* electric and magnetic fields contain energy and act
as vector force fields.
k.* the force on a charged particle in an electric field is
qE, where E is the electric field at the position of the
particle and q is the charge of the particle.
l.* how to calculate the electric field resulting from a
point charge.
m.* static electric fields have as their source some
arrangement of electric charges.
n.* the force on a moving particle (with charge q) in a
magnetic field is qvB sin(a) where a is the angle
between v and B (v and B are the magnitudes of
vectors v and B, respectively), and students use the
right-hand rule to find the direction of this force.
o.* how to apply the concepts of electrical and
gravitational potential energy to solve problems
involving conservation of energy.