Physics Syllabus for Class XI & XII

Class XI Syllabus

UNIT I: Physical World and Measurement

• Physics – scope and excitement; nature of physical laws; Physics, technology, and society.
• Need for measurement: Units of measurement; systems of units; SI units, fundamental and derived units. Length, mass, and time measurements; accuracy and precision of measuring instruments; errors in measurement; significant figures.
• Dimensions of physical quantities, dimensional analysis, and its applications.

UNIT II: Kinematics

• Frame of reference. Motion in a straight line: Position-time graph, speed, and velocity. Uniform and non-uniform motion, average speed and instantaneous velocity. Uniformly accelerated motion, velocity-time and position-time graphs. Relations for uniformly accelerated motion (graphical treatment).
• Elementary concepts of differentiation and integration for describing motion. Scalar and vector quantities: Position and displacement vectors, general vectors, and notation; equality of vectors, multiplication of vectors by a real number; addition and subtraction of vectors. Relative velocity.
• Unit vector; Resolution of a vector in a plane – rectangular components. Scalar and Vector product of vectors. Motion in a plane. Cases of uniform velocity and uniform acceleration – projectile motion. Uniform circular motion.

UNIT III: Laws of Motion

• Intuitive concept of force. Inertia, Newton’s first law of motion; momentum and Newton’s second law of motion; impulse; Newton’s third law of motion. Law of conservation of linear momentum and its applications.
• Equilibrium of concurrent forces. Static and kinetic friction, laws of friction, rolling friction, lubrication.
• Dynamics of uniform circular motion. Centripetal force, examples of circular motion (vehicle on level circular road, vehicle on banked road).

UNIT IV: Work, Energy, and Power

• Work done by a constant force and variable force; kinetic energy, work-energy theorem, power.
• Notion of potential energy, potential energy of a spring, conservative forces; conservation of mechanical energy (kinetic and potential energies); non-conservative forces; motion in a vertical circle, elastic and inelastic collisions in one and two dimensions.

UNIT V: Motion of System of Particles and Rigid Body

• Centre of mass of a two-particle system, momentum conservation, and centre of mass motion. Centre of mass of a rigid body; centre of mass of a uniform rod.
• Moment of a force – torque, angular momentum, conservation of angular momentum with examples.
• Equilibrium of rigid bodies, rigid body rotation, and the equation of rotational motion, comparison of linear and rotational motions; moment of inertia, radius of gyration. Values of M.I. for simple geometrical objects (no derivation). Statement of parallel and perpendicular axes theorems and their applications.

UNIT VI: Gravitation

• Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. The universal law of gravitation. Acceleration due to gravity and its variation with altitude and depth.
• Gravitational potential energy; gravitational potential. Escape velocity, orbital velocity of a satellite. Geostationary satellites.

UNIT VII: Properties of Bulk Matter

• Elastic behavior, Stress-strain relationship. Hooke’s law, Young’s modulus, bulk modulus, shear modulus of rigidity, Poisson’s ratio; elastic energy.
• Viscosity, Stokes’ law, terminal velocity, Reynold’s number, streamline and turbulent flow. Critical velocity, Bernoulli’s theorem, and its applications.
• Surface energy and surface tension, angle of contact, excess of pressure, application of surface tension ideas to drops, bubbles, and capillary rise.
• Heat, temperature, thermal expansion; thermal expansion of solids, liquids, and gases. Anomalous expansion. Specific heat capacity: Cp, Cv- calorimetry; change of state – latent heat.
• Heat transfer- conduction and thermal conductivity, convection, and radiation. Qualitative ideas of Black Body Radiation, Wein’s displacement law, and Greenhouse effect.
• Newton’s law of cooling and Stefan’s law.

UNIT VIII: Thermodynamics

• Thermal equilibrium and definition of temperature (zeroth law of Thermodynamics). Heat, work, and internal energy. First law of thermodynamics. Isothermal and adiabatic processes.
• Second law of thermodynamics: Reversible and irreversible processes. Heat engines and refrigerators.

UNIT IX: Behaviour of Perfect Gas and Kinetic Theory

• Equation of state of a perfect gas, work done on compressing a gas.
• Kinetic theory of gases: Assumptions, concept of pressure. Kinetic energy and temperature; degrees of freedom, law of equipartition of energy (statement only) and application to specific heat capacities of gases; concept of mean free path.

UNIT X: Oscillations and Waves

• Periodic motion-period, frequency, displacement as a function of time. Periodic functions. Simple harmonic motion(SHM) and its equation; phase; oscillations of a spring-restoring force and force constant; energy in SHM – Kinetic and potential energies; simple pendulum-derivation of expression for its time period; free, forced and damped oscillations (qualitative ideas only), resonance.
• Wave motion. Longitudinal and transverse waves, speed of wave motion. Displacement relation for a progressive wave. Principle of superposition of waves, reflection of waves, standing waves in strings and organ pipes, fundamental mode, and harmonics. Beats. Doppler effect.

Class XII Syllabus

UNIT I: Electrostatics

• Electric charges and their conservation. Coulomb’s law-force between two-point charges, forces between multiple charges; superposition principle and continuous charge distribution.
• Electric field, electric field due to a point charge, electric field lines; electric dipole, electric field due to a dipole; torque on a dipole in a uniform electric field.
• Electric flux, statement of Gauss’s theorem and its applications to find field due to infinitely long straight wire, uniformly charged infinite plane sheet, and uniformly charged thin spherical shell (field inside and outside).
• Electric potential, potential difference, electric potential due to a point charge, a dipole, and system of charges; equipotential surfaces, electrical potential energy of a system of two-point charges and of electric dipoles in an electrostatic field.
• Conductors and insulators, free charges and bound charges inside a conductor. Dielectrics and electric polarization, capacitors, and capacitance, combination of capacitors in series and in parallel, capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor with and without dielectric medium between the plates, energy stored in a capacitor.
• Van de Graaff generator.

UNIT II: Current Electricity

• Electric current, flow of electric charges in a metallic conductor, drift velocity, and mobility, and their relation with electric current; Ohm’s law, electrical resistance, and resistivity; variation of resistance with temperature.
• Series and parallel combinations of resistors; temperature dependence of resistance.
• Electric power, electrical energy and its consumption.
• Kirchhoff’s laws and their applications. Wheatstone bridge, meter bridge. Potentiometer-principle and its applications to measure potential difference, and for comparing emf of two cells; determination of internal resistance of a cell.

UNIT III: Magnetic Effects of Current and Magnetism

• Concept of magnetic field, Oersted’s experiment; Biot-Savart law and its application to current carrying circular loop. Ampere’s law and its applications to infinitely long straight wire and solenoid. Force on a moving charge in a magnetic field. Force on a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field. Hall effect. Circular motion of charged particles in a uniform magnetic field.
• Electromagnetic induction; Faraday’s laws, Lenz’s law. Self and mutual induction. Alternating currents; peak and rms value of AC, AC through a resistor, inductor, and capacitor; LCR series circuit, resonance, power in AC circuits, and wattless current.
• Electromagnetic waves, spectrum, and applications.

UNIT IV: Electromagnetic Induction and Alternating Currents

• Electromagnetic induction, Faraday’s laws of induction, Lenz’s law. Self-inductance and mutual inductance. AC generators and transformers.
• Alternating currents, peak and rms values, power in AC circuits, series LCR circuit, resonance, power factor.

UNIT V: Electromagnetic Waves

• Electromagnetic waves, spectrum of electromagnetic waves, and their applications.

UNIT VI: Optics

• Ray optics and optical instruments, reflection, and refraction of light, Snell’s law; total internal reflection; optical fibers; lens formula and magnification; human eye and its defects; microscope and telescope.
• Interference, Young’s double-slit experiment, and its applications; diffraction, and polarization of light waves.

UNIT VII: Dual Nature of Matter and Radiation

• Photoelectric effect, Hertz’s experiment, Einstein’s photoelectric equation, and its application. Compton effect.
• Particle nature of light; wave-particle duality, de Broglie’s hypothesis. Matter waves, Davisson-Germer experiment.

UNIT VIII: Atoms and Nuclei

• Structure of atom, Rutherford’s model, Bohr’s model of atom, hydrogen spectrum. Energy levels in atoms, and the concept of quantization.
• Nuclear model of the atom, mass-energy equivalence, binding energy per nucleon; nuclear fission and fusion. Applications of nuclear physics.

UNIT IX: Electronic Devices

• Semiconductors, p-n junction, and its applications; diode, LED, and transistor.
• Logic gates and their applications; binary arithmetic, and simple electronic circuits.