AP® Physics 2: Algebra-Based

Flashcards

232 cards with the terms and ideas you need to know cold. The ones you find hard come back sooner.

Multiple choice practice

404 exam-style questions, timed like the real exam, with every answer explained.

Practice exam

The whole multiple choice section: 42 questions in 1 hour 25 minutes, weighted by unit like the real exam. A fresh mix every time.

Must-know sheet

The facts, rules and terms to know cold on exam day, on one page. Filter it by unit, or print it.

Free-response practice

24 free-response questions like the ones on the exam. Score your answer with the rubric and a model answer, or sign in for free AI scoring.

Thermodynamics

6 topics · 36 videos

• Temperature measures the average kinetic energy of a system's atoms
• Gas pressure comes from countless atoms colliding with surfaces
• Heating and work are the two ways energy enters or leaves a gas
• The first law of thermodynamics is conservation of energy
• Energy spreads out on its own, so an isolated system's entropy never decreases

Electric Force, Field, and Potential

7 topics · 44 videos

• Charge is conserved and comes in multiples of the elementary charge
• Like charges repel, opposite charges attract, and the force weakens with the square of the distance
• Fields describe force per charge; potential describes energy per charge
• Electric fields point toward lower electric potential
• Capacitors store energy in the field between their plates

Electric Circuits

8 topics · 48 videos

• Current is the rate charge flows, and it isn't used up
• Ohm's law links potential difference, current and resistance
• Series elements share current; parallel branches share potential difference
• Kirchhoff's loop rule is energy conservation; the junction rule is charge conservation
• A capacitor acts like a wire at first and like a break after a long time

Magnetism and Electromagnetism

4 topics · 27 videos

• Magnetic fields come from moving charges and form closed loops
• A magnetic force acts only on a moving charge, at right angles to its velocity and the field
• Current-carrying wires make magnetic fields and feel magnetic forces
• A changing magnetic flux induces an emf
• Induced currents oppose the change that causes them

Geometric Optics

4 topics · 25 videos

• A light ray points the way the light travels, perpendicular to the wavefronts
• The angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence, both measured from the normal
• Light bends because it changes speed in a new material: n₁ sin θ₁ = n₂ sin θ₂
• Mirrors and lenses form images you can find with ray diagrams or the same equation
• Real images form where light actually meets; virtual images only seem to come from a point

Waves, Sound, and Physical Optics

9 topics · 54 videos

• Waves transfer energy, not matter, and mechanical waves need a medium
• For any periodic wave, v = fλ, and the frequency never changes when a wave enters a new medium
• Overlapping waves add their displacements, which creates interference, beats and standing waves
• Light is an electromagnetic wave that needs no medium
• Diffraction and interference patterns show light's wave nature

Modern Physics

8 topics · 48 videos

• Light and matter both act like waves and like particles
• A photon's energy is proportional to its frequency: E = hf
• Atoms absorb or emit only photons whose energy matches the gap between two energy levels
• The photoelectric effect and Compton scattering are evidence that light comes in photons
• Nuclear reactions conserve nucleon number, charge and energy, with mass counted as energy: E = mc²