Your AP Physics 2 Resource Center

AP Physics 2 stands for Advanced Placement Physics 2. It is a college-level course offered by the College Board to high school students who wish to explore deeper into the world of physics. This course extends the topics of Physics 1, covering fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, electricity, magnetism, optics, and quantum physics.

The course is rigorous and requires a foundational understanding of the concepts taught in Physics 1. It further challenges students with advanced problems and lab experiments to deepen their understanding of the physical world.

Course Contents

Unit	Details	Exam Weighting (Multiple-Choice Section)
Unit 9: Thermodynamics	You’ll study heat, temperature, and thermal energy in contexts such as heat engines, heat pumps, and refrigerators	15%–18%
Unit 10: Electric Force, Field, and Potential	You’ll begin your study of electromagnetism by getting familiar with fundamental concepts such as electric charge and electric forces	15%–18%
Unit 11: Electric Circuits	You’ll continue to examine the behavior of charged particles to learn about the components of a circuit, the path that an electric current travels on	15%–18%
Unit 12: Magnetism and Electromagnetism	You’ll build on your knowledge of electrostatic forces and fields to explore the relationships between moving electric charges—electric currents—and the magnetic forces and fields they generate	12%–15%
Unit 13: Geometric Optics	You’ll be introduced to the different ways of thinking about how light interacts with materials, and how images are formed by mirrors and lenses	12%–15%
Unit 14: Waves, Sound, and Physical Optics	You’ll be introduced to the study of waves, including ways to quantify a wave, such as amplitude, wavelength, period, frequency, and wave speed, and how light can be modeled as a wave	12%–15%
Unit 15: Modern Physics	You’ll be introduced to the concepts of modern physics and learn how these new models can resolve the conflicts and questions that Newtonian physics could not answer	12%–15%

Resources

AP Physics 2 Exam Guide

AP Physics 2 College Credit

AP Physics 2 Practice Tests

AP Physics 2 Formula Sheet

Difficulty Level of AP Physics 2