THE GREAT T2 PHYSICS COMMON ASSESSMENT STUDY GUIDE

THE GREAT T2 PHYSICS COMMON ASSESSMENT STUDY GUIDE


Contents:

1.

Exam Breakdown
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Page 1

2.

Studying and test
-
taking strategies
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Page 2

3.

Big Ideas from Each Topic

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Page 3

a.

Unit 4
–

Momentum
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Page 3

b.

Unit 5
–

Energy……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Page 3

c.

Unit 6
–

Thermodynamics
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………P
age 4

d.

Unit 7
–

Electrostatics
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Page 5

e.

Unit 7½
-

Uniform Circular Motion
……………………………………………………………………………………………..Page 5

f.

Cumulative Topics
–

Kinematics and Universal Gravitation
…………………………………………………………..Page6

4.

Table of var
iables and standard units

5.

Common conversions


The Common Assessment Breakdown:



45 multiple choice, 90 minutes (2 minutes / question)



2 Free Response questions
, 45 minutes

o

1 lab
-
based

o

1 cumulative


Multiple Choice Breakdown by Topic:

Unit

Topic (Objectives)

# of
Questions

4
–

Mom敮瑵m

4.1
: Momentum

4.2
: Impulse

4.3
: Conservation of Momentum

6

5
–

䕮敲Ey

5.1
:

Types of Energy and their Transformations

5.2
: Conservation of Energy

6

5.3
: Work

5.4
: Power

6

6
–

周敲moTyn慭i捳c

6.1
: Methods of Heat Transfer

6.2:

Laws of Thermodynamics

6.3
: Energetic Properties of Matter

6.4
: Specific Heat, Latent Heat, and Thermal Equilibrium

6

7
–

䕬散瑲WV瑡W楣i

5.1
: Electric Charge

3

5.2
: Coulomb’s Law

4

5.3
: Electric Fields

5.4
: Electric Potential and Work

4

7½
–

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7½.1
: Tangential Velocity and Centripetal Acceleration

7½.2
: Applications of UCM

4

CUMULATIVE REVIEW

1.1
: One
-
Dimensional Kinematics

3.2
: Universal Gravitation

6






Studying Strategies:

Principle 1: Manage Your Time!

I recommend

studying physics for an hour per night (including weekends) each day from now until the Common
Assessment. That gives you five evenings to review
-

one night per unit on the exam.


Principle 2: Focus!

How do you study best? Do you best study alone or with
others (be honest with yourself about how much work you get
done with friends or significant others!)? Do you prefer to study while listening to music, collaboratively working with
others, or in a silent environment? Determine your ideal studying style and

find a way to maximize this studying! Don’t
study at your computer where Facebook or Twitter can distract you! Don’t study in front of the TV
!

Whether you
hibernate in your room, sit at your kitchen table, head to the library, or claim a table at Starbuck
s, eliminate distractions.
Determine where you’ll study, when you’ll study, who you’ll study with, and stick to it!


Principle 3: Be Tactful!

Don’t try to study
everything

at once. It’s overwhelming, and you won’t be as successful! Pick one major unit or t
opic to
study each day, and only review that topic. You’ll be more focused, and get more practice on a specific objective. A
common strategy I used while studying in college was figuring out what I didn’t know, reviewing that first, and leaving
the concept
s I knew easily for last. How you can apply this strategy right now:

1)
Review your past exams and end
-
of
-
unit reflections
; 2) i
dentify your weakest topics
; and 3) f
ocus your studying
on those topics.


Principle 4: Keep your brain calm!

Your brain operates better when you’ve had a good night’s sleep. Experts recommend 8 hours. Your realistic physics
teacher who spent far too many late nights at the library cramming for finals recommends a
minimum

of 6 hours.
Furthermore,
don’t study anyth
ing the day of the test!

Don’t stress yourself out cramming during lunch right before the
Common Exam. Use that time to alleviate some stress: eat a healthy lunch, get some exercise at activity time to increase
endorphins and lower stress levels, listen to

music to focus yourself, and just come into the test with a positive attitude.
A calm, collected, and ready
-
to
-
problem
-
solve mind can make all the difference after a long week of testing!


Test
-
Taking Strategies:

Principle 1:

Go with What You Know!

There
will be problems that you don’t have any idea how to solve right away. There will be problems that you look at
and you feel as though you can solve it in your sleep. Solve those easy problems first! Each problem
—
no matter the
difficulty level
—
is worth the
same amount of points on the multiple choice section. Solving simpler problems you
definitely can solve first and skipping the ones you find challenging will help boost your self
-
esteem early in the test, and
maximize your score.


Principle 2:

If all else
fails part 1: GUESS!

There will be problems that you look at and they seem foreign. If you rack your brain and can’t determine the concept
the question is assessing, a great strategy before you just bubble a random answer is to GUESS. Identify your
G
ivens.

Identify your
U
nknowns.

Look for the
E
quation corresponding to the variables you know and the one you want.
S
ubstitute and
S
olve!


Principle 3: If all else fails part 2: guess!

There’s five minutes left of the test, and you have 12 unanswered questions.
AH! At this point, pick one remaining
question you feel most comfortable with to try and work through, but before you finish that one question, guess and
bubble answers for the rest! There’s no penalty for guessing on Common Assessments, and while I want 1
00% of you to
finish with time leftover to check your answers and then take a nap, I know that may

not be realistic for everyone. So
make sure at the end of the test, no question goes unanswered.



Principle 4: Never give up. Never surrender
!

Attempt all
problems, and never settle for “I don’t know,” or “I don’t care.” Especially on Free Response, you receive
partial credit for correct setup, equations, and even units! Even if you feel like you don’t understand a problem, work
your way through! It’s traini
ng your brain
-

just keep at it!

Major Topics, the Big Ideas, and Practice Problems

This section is to help you study by objective. After you identify your weakest topics, use this guide to
review most
important concepts
.
Then study problems on your

notes

a
nd from homework

on that topic (all copies of filled in notes
will be posted online at
http://ypsephysics.wordpress.com
),
a
nd then complete the practice problems

on the 2011
-
12 T2
Common Assessment

and re
-
ta
ke exams

on your own

(all solutions will also be posted online at the URL above)
. If you
still struggle with the practice problems, check out online tutorials from
https://www.khanacademy.org/scie
nce/physics

(great for AP Level 4 or AP Level 5 problems!)
or
http://physicsclassroom.com
!


Unit 4: Momentum

Topic:
4.1
Momentum

The Big Ideas



Momentum is how difficult an object is to stop



Momentum = Mass x Velo
city

Problems to work:
7


Topic:
4.2

Impulse

The Big Ideas



Impulse is an object’s
change in momentum



Impulse = final momentum
–

楮楴楡i mom敮瑵m



Impulse = mass x change in velocity = force x time

Problems to work:

29, 31


Topic:

4.3
Conservation of
Momentum

The Big Ideas



Any time an object
collides

with another object, this involves conservation of momentum



Momentum lost by one object is gained by another object



The impulse one object experiences is equal and opposite to the impulse of the other obje
ct



The total momentum is the same before and after the collision



When two objects stick together, or
collide perfectly inelastically
, they have the same final
velocity

Problems to
Work:

5, 21, 23



Unit
5
:
Energy

Topic:

5.1
–

Types
of Energy

The Big
Ideas



Energy is the ability of an object to do work



Potential gravitational energy is energy an object has due to
height



Potential elastic energy is energy an object has while being
stretched

or
compressed



Kinetic energy is energy an object has due to
motion



The sum of an object’s kinetic and potential energies is its total mechanical energy

Problems to
Work:

13 (step 1),
22, 30, 33


Topic
5.2
–

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䕮敲Ey

The Big Ideas



Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed to other
types of energy



When work is not done (i.e. lifting or pushing an object) and heat is not released (i.e.
friction), the total mechanical of an object is constant



Change in energy of an object is equal to the heat absorbed plus work done on the object

Problems to
Work:

10, 16, 23,
24
, 44


Topic
5.3
–

坯rk

The Big Ideas



Work is an object’s
change in energy

when heat remains constant



When an object is accelerated by an outside force, work = change in kinetic energy



When an object is lifted, work =
change in potential energy

Problems to
Work:

26, 28, 34


Topic
5.4
–

Pow敲

The Big Ideas



Power is the
rate

at which energy is used



Power = force x velocity = work / time

Problems to
Work:

34, 43

Unit
6
:
Thermodynamics

Topic:

6.1
–

Methods of Heat
Transfer

The Big Ideas



Conduction is the transfer of heat through the collisions of particles, most often in
solids

Problems to
Work:

6, 20, 40



Convection is the transfer of heat through the expansion of particles, most often in
liquids
and
gases



Radiation is the transfer of heat through
waves

directly from energy sources


Topic:

6.2
–

周攠
L慷猠o映
周敲ToTynam楣i

The Big Ideas



The Zeroth

Law of Thermodynamics states that when a hot object placed next to a cool
object, heat will transfer from the hot object to the cool object until they reach
thermal
equilibrium

(the same temperature)



The First Law of Thermodynamics is the Law of Conservat
ion of Energy

o

To change the internal energy of an object, it can either absorb or release heat, do
work, or have work done on it



The Second Law of Thermodynamics is the Law of Entropy.

o

Entropy is the amount of disorder in a system

o

High entropy makes it
harder to do work, making engines less efficient

o

Entropy in the universe is always increasing



The Third Law of Thermodynamics states that as an object approaches absolute zero, its
entropy will become zero; however, nothing can reach this temperature since

objects must
always have some kinetic energy



Over one or more
cycle
s

of an engine, its change in internal energy equals zero:

o

0 = Q
absorbed

+ W + Q
released


Problems to
Work:

26, 38


Topic:

6.3
–

䕮敲E整楣i
P牯p敲瑩eVf
M慴a敲

The Big Ideas



Solids have

the lowest entropy and lowest energy



Gases have the greatest entropy and greatest energy



When substances are increasing temperature, they are increasing kinetic energy



When substances are changing phase, they are increasing potential energy

Problems to
W
ork:

2, 3


Topic:
6.4
–

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L慴anW⁈敡琬⁡湤
周敲T慬
䕱E楬楢物rm

The Big Ideas



Specific heat capacity is the amount of energy required to raise 1 g of a substance by 1
°
C



Latent heat is the amount of energy required to change the phase of 1 g
of a substance

o

Fusion = solid


汩qu楤

o

Vaporization = liquid


g慳



For a system exchanging heat with its surroundings, the heat lost by the system is gained by
the surroundings until the two reach thermal equilibrium

Problems to
Work:

8, 13 (2
nd

step), 15
, 39





Unit 7: Electrostatics

Topic:

7.1
–

Electric Charge

The Big Ideas



Charge is an imbalance of protons and electrons

o

More electrons than protons = negative

o

More protons than electrons = positive



Like charges repel; opposite charges attract



Conductors transfer charge easily and have a large number of free electrons



Insulators do not transfer charge easily and have a small number of free electrons



When charging via friction, electrons move from a less electronegative object to a more
electrone
gative object



When charging via conduction on objects of equal size, electrons diffuse from the more
negative object to the less negative object until the two have even charge density

Problems to
Work:

24, 52, 53


Topic:
7.2
–

Coulomb’s Law

The Big
Ideas



Electrostatic forces are directly proportional to charge and inversely proportional to the
square of the distance separating them.

Problems to
Work:

45, 46, 47


Topic:
7.3
–

䕬散E物r⁆楥汤V

The Big Ideas



Electric fields are to electrostatic forces

as acceleration is to gravitational forces



Electric field is the force per unit charge a positive charge would experience in a space



Electric field lines point from positive charges to negative charges



Electric field lines indicate the direction a positiv
e charge would experience a force



A greater density of field lines indicate a stronger electric field

Problems to
Work:

48, 49


Topic
:

7.4
–

䕬散E物r⁐oW敮瑩慬
慮T⁗o牫

The Big Ideas

Problems to
Work:

50, 51



Electric potential is the energy per unit
charge a positive charge would experience in a space



Equipotential lines run perpendicular to electric field lines




Unit 7½: Uniform Circular Motion

Topic:

Centripetal
Acceleration and
Tangential
Velocity

The Big Ideas



Centripetal acceleration changes t
he direction of an object’s velocity



Centripetal acceleration always points toward the center of a circle



Tangential velocity always points in the direction an object would fly off a circle

Problems to
Work:

1, 12, 18,
41











Review:

Topic:

3.2
–

Universal
Gravitation

The Big Ideas



Gravitational force is an object’s
weight



The gravitational force is directly proportional to object’s masses and inversely proportional
to the square of the distance between them



Gravitational forces are always
attracti
ve

Problems to
Work:

14, 19, 35,
36


Topic:

1.1
–

One
Dimensional
Kinematics

The Big Ideas



Displacement, velocity, and acceleration are
vectors

that have both magnitude and direction



Distance and speed are
scalars

that do not have direction



Velocity is
the rate of change of displacement. Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity.



Problems can be solved using a dv
i
v
f
at table

Problems to
Work:

1, 34, 54,
55


Common Variables, their Symbols, and Standard Units

Variable

Symbol

Unit

Time

t

Seconds
(s)

Displacement


d

Meters (m)

Velocity

v

Meters / Second (m/s)

Acceleration

a

Meters / Second
2

(m/s
2
)

Mass

m

Kilograms (kg)

Force

F

Newtons (N)

Momentum

p

Kilograms*meters per second (kg m/s)

Impulse

J

Kilograms*meters per second (kg m/s)

Energy

KE, PE

Joules (J)

Work

W

Joules (J)

Heat

Q

Joules (J)

Power

P

Watts (W)

Charge

q

Coulomb (C)

Electric Field

E

Newtons / Coulomb (N/C)

Electric Potential

V

Volts (V)


Common
Metric
Conversions

cm


m: divide by 100

km


m: multiply by 1000

g


kg: divide by 1000

kN


N: multiply by 1000

kJ


J: multiply by 1000

µ
C


C: multiply by 10
-
6