Mechanics - Kinematics, such as velocity, acceleration, motion in one dimension, and motion of projectiles
- Dynamics, such as force, Newton’s laws, statics, and friction
- Energy and momentum, such as potential and kinetic energy, work, power, impulse, and conservation laws
- Circular motion, such as uniform circular motion and centripetal force
- Simple harmonic motion, such as mass on a spring and the pendulum
- Gravity, such as the law of gravitation, orbits, and Kepler’s laws
| 36%-42% |
Electricity and magnetism - Electric fields, forces, and potentials, such as Coulomb’s law, induced charge, field and potential of groups of point charges, and charged particles in electric fields
- Capacitance, such as parallel-plate capacitors and time-varying behavior in charging/ discharging
- Circuit elements and DC circuits, such as resistors, light bulbs, series and parallel networks, Ohm’s law, and Joule’s law
- Magnetism, such as permanent magnets, fields caused by currents, particles in magnetic fields, Faraday’s law, and Lenz’s law
| 18%–24% |
Waves and optics - General wave properties, such as wave speed, frequency, wavelength, superposition, standing wave diffraction, and Doppler effect
- Reflection and refraction, such as Snell’s law and changes in wavelength and speed
- Ray optics, such as image formation using pinholes, mirrors, and lenses
- Physical optics, such as single-slit diffraction, double-slit interference, polarization, and color
| 15%–19% |
Heat and thermodynamics - Thermal properties, such as temperature, heat transfer, specific and latent heats, and thermal expansions
- Laws of thermodynamics, such as first and second laws, internal energy, entropy, and heat engine efficiency
| 6%–11% |
Modern physics - Quantum phenomena, such as photons and photoelectric effect
- Atomic, such as the Rutherford and Bohr models, atomic energy levels, and atomic spectra
- Nuclear and particle physics, such as radioactivity, nuclear reactions, and fundamental particles
- Relativity, such as time dilation, length contraction, and mass-energy equivalence
| 6%–11% |
Miscellaneous - General, such as history of physics and general questions that overlap several major topics.
- Analytical skills, such as graphical analysis, measurement, and math skills
- Contemporary physics, such as astrophysics, superconductivity, and chaos theory
| 4%–9% |
