Kenneth Rideout - Barrons AP Physics 2

About the Authors:

Ken Rideout has a B.S. in Honors Physics from Purdue University and an M.S. in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University. He has been teaching high school physics for more than fifteen years in the Boston area and is currently the science department head at Wayland High School in Wayland, Massachusetts.

Jonathan Wolf is an adjunct professor of physics at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey. He has been teaching physics at both the secondary school and college levels for more than thirty-five years. He has published over forty professional papers in the fields of astronomy, physics, and physics education and served for more than ten years as assistant editor for The Science Teachers Bulletin published by the Science Teachers Association of New York State (STANYS). In addition to being the author of Barrons AP Physics B, he is also the author of Barrons College Review: Physics and previously was co-author of Barrons SAT Subject Test in Physics.

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ISBN: 978-1-5062-7781-3

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In this review book, you will find all the material needed to review and prepare for the AP Physics 2 exam, a second-year precalculus course. This book is an updated, targeted, and enriched edition of an earlier edition of this book. This book (and the test itself) assumes you have familiarity with the material in the AP Physics 1 curriculum. AP Physics 2 should be seen not only as additional topics in physics but as a continuation of AP Physics 1 topics.

Each chapter has review questions that vary in style and level of difficulty. These are intended to test your level of understanding of the review material. Some of these chapter questions may be easier, harder, or of a slightly different style than the actual AP exam as they are limited to the content of that particular chapter. Likewise, each chapter has a mix of traditional problem-solving examples as well as the more text-based and conceptual questions that also appear on the AP Physics 2 exam. The tests, on the other hand, are broad in scope and draw from several different content areas at once. Included in this book, as well as online, are several full-length practice tests that mirror the actual AP exams in style, content, and difficulty. All questions have full solutions and explanations provided. Before the review chapters is a diagnostic exam that can be used for practice or to guide you specifically to certain content areas you may need to review before taking the test. Additional problem-solving strategies are provided throughout the book.

Most important, I want to thank my wife, Irene, for her support throughout this project.

Ken Rideout

Wayland, Massachusetts

May 2020

KEY CONCEPTS

STRUCTURE AND SCOPE OF THE AP PHYSICS EXAMS

The College Board currently offers four AP Physics exams. This book is for students preparing for the AP Physics 2 exam, which corresponds to a second-year algebra-based college course. The other exams are AP Physics 1 (a first-year algebra-based college course), AP Physics C Mechanics (calculus based), and AP Physics C Electricity and Magnetism (also calculus based). Note that the old AP Physics B is a retired test and is no longer offered by the College Board. Both the AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 exams focus on conceptual underpinnings and basic scientific reasoning along with the traditional problem-solving aspects of physics. In addition, both exams have questions that require experiential lab understanding. Although there are some calculation-oriented questions, these two tests are designed explicitly to not be plug and chug questions. If you do not thoroughly understand the physics concepts behind the equations, you will find yourself at a disadvantage.

TEST BASICS

90 minutes for fifty multiple-choice questions, including five multiple-correct questions (see )

90 minutes for four free-response questions

Calculator allowed throughout

Formula sheet and table of information provided throughout

The AP Physics 1 exam focuses on mechanics, the three conservation laws, electric charge and force, introductory circuits, and mechanical waves (including sound). The AP Physics 2 exam assumes you have already taken these topics and understand this material. If you have not studied these topics, it is highly recommended that you review these topics (with Barrons AP Physics 1, for example) before using this book. The AP Physics 2 exam not only assumes you have this background but covers overlapping topics such as force fields, circuits (now including capacitors), center of mass, and electromagnetic waves. Additional topics unique to the AP Physics 2 exam are thermodynamics, optics, fluids, modern physics, and magnetism.