AP Physics B Objectives

Links:

College Board Topic II:
Thermal Physics

Topics:

1. Fluid Mechanics
1. Hydrostatic pressure
2. Buoyancy
3. Fluid flow continuity
4. Bernoulli's equation
2. Temperature and heat
1. Mechanical equivalence of heat
2. Specific and latent heat (including calorimetry)
3. Heat transfer and thermal expansion
3. Kinetic theory and thermodynamics
1. Ideal gases
1. Kinetic model
2. Ideal gas law
2. Laws of thermodynamics
1. First law (including processes on pV diagrams)
2. Second law (including heat engines)

Time Range:
3 hours of night lectures

Suggested Teaching Strategies:

• Demonstrate buoyancy principles using double-pan balance and water-filled beakers and by putting one Solo cup of water into another; demonstrate Bernoulli by picking up hole punch leavings with Whirlytube and by floating a ball in stream of air from airtrack air source.
• Cover thermodynamics in optional night lectures for AP test-takers; that topics are part of the in-class Chemistry II AP curriculum. Note that specific and latent heat deleted from topic list.
• Thermal expansion can be demonstrated using linear expansion apparatus, while simulations can illustrate pV diagrams (which can be explained using a syringe as a piston model).

Aligned Resources:

• Whirlytube
• Linear expansion apparatus
• Halliday and Resnick Java Simulations CD-ROM
• Physics by Pictures software to show pV diagrams and processes

Revision Date:
December 2003