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current & resistance.
Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to do no less
than 3/4 of the following. (Note: Since there is insufficient time to
cover all topics included in the textbook during a single semester, each
instructor omits a few topics of their choice.)
1. Define speed; give examples of units for speed; distinguish between
current & resistance.
instantaneous & average speed.
2. Define acceleration & give examples of units for acceleration.
3. Solve problems involving distance, time, speed & constant acceleration
4. Describe the motion of freely falling objects & projectiles & the
effect of air resistance on a freely falling object.
5. Distinguish between mass & weight
6. State Newton's laws of motion; give examples illustrating each; solve
problems involving the second law.
7. Define momentum & impulse; explain and give examples of the relation-
ship between momentum & impluse; explain what is meant by conservation
of momentum & give examples.
8. Define the concepts of energy, work, kinetic energy, potential
energy, & power.
9. State the principle of conservation of energy & give examples
illustrating the principle.
10. Explain/define the concepts of rotational inertia, torque, center of
gravity & angular momentum; solve problems involving balanced torques
11. Explain the concept of centripetal force & give & identify examples
involving centripetal forces.
12. Explain what keeps planets, moons & satellites in orbit; explain how
the sun & moon produce ocean tides.
13. Describe the structure of an atom, including the particles that make
up an atom; distinguish between an atom & a molecule.
14. List the 4 states of matter & indicate what distinguishes each state
from the other states.
15. Define density & give units in which it can be expressed.
16. Define pressure; give units in which it is expressed; distinguish
between force & pressure.
17. Explain the concept & cause of buoyant forces.
18. State Archimedes', Pascal's & Bernoulli's principles & recognize &
give examples of each.
19. Indicate the relationships between pressure, volume & temperature in
gases & solve problems involving these relationships.
20. Distinguish between heat & temperature; give the freezing point &
boiling point for water on the Celsius, Fahrenheit & Kelvin
temperature scales.
21. Explain the concepts of specific heat, latent heat of fusion & latent
heat of vaporization; recognize & give examples involving specific
heats & latent heats.
22. Recognize & give examples of heat transfer by conduction, convection
and radiation.
23. Explain what a wave is; distinguish between a transverse & longitudi-
nal wave; draw a sine wave & label its crest, trough, amplitude &
wavelength; solve problems involving the velocity, frequency &
wavelength of a wave.
24. Explain interference of waves; distinguish between constructive &
destructive interference; explain what a standing wave is & how
it is produced.
25. Describe the Doppler effect & give examples that illustrate it.
26. Explain the phenomenon of resonance & give examples.
27. Define/explain pitch, loudness & quality of a sound.
28. Define the concepts of electrical charge,field, current & resistance
29. Describe/explain charging by friction, by conduction or contact & by
induction.
30. Distinguish between series & parallet circuits; state Ohm's law; solve
problems involving voltage, current & resistance.
31. Explain the difference between a conductor, insulator, semiconductor
& superconductor.
32. Define the concept of a magnetic field; describe the magnetic field
produced by a current carrying wire; describe the earth's magnetic
field.
33. Explain the operation of an electric motor.
34. Explain Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction and explain the
operation of an electric generator and a transformer.
35. Describe/explain an electromagnetic wave and identify the order of the
waves in the electromagnetic spectrum.
36. State the primary colors of light and pigments; explain the additive
and subtractive mixing of colors; identify complementary colors.
37. State the law of relection; distinguish between real & virtual images;
describe the images formed by plane, convex and concave mirrors.
38. Describe refraction & give and recognize examples of refraction;
describe the images formed by converging and diverging lenses.
39. Describe/explain diffraction, interference & polarization of light
and recognize & give examples of each.
40. Describe/explain emission spectra, absorption spectra, fluoresecence
and phosphorescence.
41. Explain the operation of a laser.
42. Explain the concepts of quanta, quantization, & energy levels;
describe the photoelectric effect.
43. Describe the structure of atomic nuclei; define/explain the concepts
of isotopes, atomic number, mass number, radioactive decay & half-life
44. Describe the processes of nuclear fission & fusion and the operation
of a fission reactor.
45. State the two postulates of the special theoryof relativity; describe
the relativistic effects of length contraction, time dilation, lack
of agreement on simultaneity of events & the twin paradox.
46. State the principle of equivalence for the general theory of
relativity; describe gravitational effects on light, time & space.
