AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
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About the Course
Explore concepts such as electrostatics, conductors, capacitors and dielectrics, electric circuits, magnetic fields, and electromagnetism. You’ll do hands-on laboratory work and in-class activities to investigate phenomena and use calculus to solve problems.
Note: Save your lab notebooks and reports; colleges may ask to see them before granting you credit.
Skills You'll Learn
Interpreting and describing visual representations of physical situations
Coming up with a hypothesis and designing an experiment to test it
Creating graphs and diagrams to represent data and physical situations
Analyzing data shown in a graph
Determining the relationship between physical qualities
Solving physics problems using mathematical relationships
Developing and supporting a scientific claim with evidence
Equivalency and Prerequisites
College Course Equivalent
A semester-long, introductory calculus-based college course in physics.
Recommended Prerequisites
You should have taken calculus or be taking calculus at the same time as this course.
Exam Date
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Tue, May 9, 2023,
2 PM LocalAP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism Exam
This is the regularly scheduled date for the AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism Exam.
About the Units
The course content outlined below is organized into commonly taught units of study that provide one possible sequence for the course. Your teacher may choose to organize the course content differently based on local priorities and preferences.
Course Content
Unit 1: Electrostatics
You’ll begin your study of the electric force with an exploration of electric charges.
Topics may include:
- Coulomb’s Law
- Electric field and electric potential
- Electric potential due to point charges and uniform fields
- Gauss’s Law
- Fields and potentials of other charge distributions
On The Exam
26%–34% of multiple-choice score
Unit 2: Conductors, Capacitors, Dielectrics
You’ll explore how electric charge can move through an object and the factors that affect the way charge moves.
Topics may include:
- Electrostatics with conductors
- Capacitors
- Dielectrics
On The Exam
14%–17% of multiple-choice score
Unit 3: Electric Circuits
You’ll build on your knowledge of electrical components to investigate the nature of electric circuits and explore current, resistance, and power.
Topics may include:
- Current and resistance
- Current, resistance, and power
- Steady-state direct-current circuits with batteries and resistors only
- Gauss’s Law
On The Exam
17%–23% of multiple-choice score
Unit 4: Magnetic Fields
You’ll begin your exploration of magnetism by learning how magnetic fields are generated, how they behave, and how they relate to electricity.
Topics may include:
- Forces on moving charges in magnetic fields
- Forces on current carrying wires in magnetic fields
- Fields of long current carrying wires
- The Biot-Savart Law and Ampère’s Law
On The Exam
17%–23% of multiple-choice score
Unit 5: Electromagnetism
You’ll build on what you’ve learned about charges, currents, and electric and magnetic fields to explore electromagnetic forces and their properties.
Topics may include:
- Electromagnetic induction (including Faraday’s Law and Lenz’s Law)
- Inductance (including LR circuits)
- Maxwell’s equations
On The Exam
14%–20% of multiple-choice score
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Course Resources
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AP Classroom Resources
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AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism Course and Exam Description
This is the core document for the course. It clearly lays out the course content and laboratory requirement and describes the exam and the AP Program in general.
See Where AP Can Take You
AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism can lead to a wide range of careers and college majors
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Majors
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