Honors Physics

Honors Physics course leads students through an investigation of matter and its motion through time and space, along with related concepts such as energy and force. 

Honors Physics course was developed to help students build a strong foundation in basic physics prior to taking Advanced Placement Physics. We have found that students often struggle with AP Physics when they have a weak foundation in the basic concepts and mathematical skills of general physics.

 Honors Physics helps to fill in holes in student understanding, helping them to create a strong foundation of general physics concepts upon which they can build. It Includes

• What Physics is, measured numbers, using significant digits, scientific notation, and the metric system.
• 1-D Kinematics, solving motion problems, free fall and gravity, solving a quadratic for time, and 2-part motion problems
• Vectors and 2-D Kinematics, vector magnitude and direction, analytical addition of vectors, unit vector notation, breaking down and solving 2-D motion, projectile motion
• Forces and Newton’s Laws
• Newton’s second law – single force, Newton’s first law, multiple forces, weight, Newton’s third law and normal force
• Circular Motion and Gravity
• uniform circular motion, centripetal force and acceleration, period, vertical circles, centripetal versus centrifugal force, and the force and acceleration of gravity
• Work and energy, kinetic energy, gravitational potential energy, mechanical energy, energy problems.
• impulse, conservation of momentum, collisions, inelastic collisions, recoil, elastic collisions,
• Rotational Motion
• fluids, pressure, pressure and depth, Pascal’s principal, buoyant , Fluid Mechanics
• rotational kinematics, rotational motion problems, rotational and linear motion, torque, equilibrium, moment of inertia, rotational dynamics
• Thermodynamics, heat, temperature, thermal expansion, heat and temperature change, calorimetry, phase change, calorimetry
• Hooke’s Law, simple harmonic motion, period and frequency, energy in simple harmonic motion.
• Sound, Light, Optics, Electric Forces, DC Electric Circuits
• Magnetic Forces, Induction
• The photoelectric effect, atomic spectra, the Bohr model, matter waves, and lasers.
• Atomic Physics