AIPMT Physics Syllabus (Detailed)

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, 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, general vectors and notation, equality of vectors, multiplication of vectors by a real number; addition and subtraction of vectors. Relative velocity.

• Unit vectors. Resolution of a vector in a plane-rectangular components.
  • Scalar and Vector products 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 uniform rod.
• Moment of a force,-torque, angular momentum, conservation of angular momentum with some examples.
  • Equilibrium of rigid bodies, rigid body rotation and 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 Green House 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 the 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.

CONTENTS OF 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  diploes  in  an electrostatic field.

• Scattering of light- blue colour of the sky and reddish appearance of the sun at sunrise and sunset.
  • Optical  instruments:  Human  eye,  image  formation  and  accommodation,  correction  of  eye  defects  (myopia  and hypermetropia) using lenses.
  • Microscopes and astronomical telescopes (reflecting and refracting) and their magnifying powers.
    • Wave  optics:  Wavefront  and  Huygens’  principle,  reflection  and  refraction of  plane  wave  at  a  plane  surface  using wavefronts.
    • Proof of laws of reflection and refraction using Huygens’ principle.
    • Interference,  Young’s  double  hole  experiment  and  expression  for  fringe  width,  coherent  sources  and  sustained Interference of light.

• Diffraction due to a single slit, width of central maximum.
• Resolving power of microscopes and astronomical telescopes.  Polarisation, plane polarized light; Brewster’s law, uses of plane polarized light and Polaroids.

UNIT VII: Dual Nature of Matter and Radiation

• Photoelectric effect, Hertz and Lenard’s observations; Einstein’s photoelectric equation- particle nature of light.
  • Matter waves- wave nature of particles, de Broglie relation.  Davisson-Germer experiment (experimental details should be omitted; only conclusion should be explained).

UNIT VIII: Atoms and Nuclei

• Alpha- particle scattering experiments; Rutherford’s model of atom; Bohr model, energy levels, hydrogen spectrum. Composition and size of nucleus, atomic masses, isotopes, isobars; isotones.

• Radioactivity- alpha, beta and gamma particles/ rays and their properties decay law.  Mass-energy relation, mass defect; binding energy per nucleon and its variation with mass number, nuclear fission and fusion.

UNIT IX: Electronic Devices

• Energy bands in solids (qualitative ideas only), conductors, insulators and semiconductors; semiconductor diode- I-V characteristics in forward and reverse bias, diode as a rectifier; I-V characteristics of LED, photodiode, solar cell, and Zener diode; Zener diode as a voltage regulator.   Junction transistor, transistor action, characteristics of a transistor; transistor as an amplifier (common emitter configuration) and oscillator.  Logic gates (OR, AND, NOT, NAND and NOR). Transistor as a switch.