JEE Advanced Physics Syllabus

1. General

• Units and dimensions, dimensional analysis; least count, significant figures.
• Methods of measurement and error analysis for physical quantities pertaining to the following experiments: Experiments based on using Vernier calipers and screw gauge (micrometer), Determination of g using simple pendulum, Young’s modulus by Searle’s method, Specific heat of a liquid using calorimeter, focal length of a concave mirror and a convex lens using u-v method, Speed of sound using resonance column, Verification of Ohm’s law using voltmeter and ammeter, and specific resistance of the material of a wire using meter bridge and post office box.

2. Mechanics

• Kinematics in one and two dimensions (Cartesian coordinates only), projectiles; Uniform circular motion; Relative velocity.
• Newton’s laws of motion; Inertial and uniformly accelerated frames of reference; Static and dynamic friction; Kinetic and potential energy; Work and power; Conservation of linear momentum and mechanical energy.
• Systems of particles; Centre of mass and its motion; Impulse; Elastic and inelastic collisions.
• Law of gravitation; Gravitational potential and field; Acceleration due to gravity; Motion of planets and satellites in circular orbits; Escape velocity.
• Rigid body, moment of inertia, parallel and perpendicular axes theorems, moment of inertia of uniform bodies with simple geometrical shapes; Angular momentum; Torque; Conservation of angular momentum; Dynamics of rigid bodies with fixed axis of rotation; Rolling without slipping of rings, cylinders and spheres;
• Equilibrium of rigid bodies; Collision of point masses with rigid bodies.
• Linear and angular simple harmonic motions.
• Hooke’s law, Young’s modulus.
• Pressure in a fluid; Pascal’s law; Buoyancy; Surface energy and surface tension, capillary rise; Viscosity (Poiseuille’s equation excluded), Stoke’s law; Terminal velocity, Streamline flow, equation of continuity, Bernoulli’s theorem and its applications.
• Wave motion (plane waves only), longitudinal and transverse waves, superposition of waves; Progressive and stationary waves; Vibration of strings and air columns; Resonance; Beats; Speed of sound in gases; Doppler effect (in sound).

3. Thermal physics

• Thermal expansion of solids, liquids and gases.
• Calorimetry, latent heat; Heat conduction in one dimension.
• Elementary concepts of convection and radiation.
• Newton’s law of cooling.
• Ideal gas laws.
• Specific heats (Cv and Cp for monoatomic and diatomic gases).
• Isothermal and adiabatic processes, bulk modulus of gases.
• Equivalence of heat and work; First law of thermodynamics and its applications (only for ideal gases).
• Blackbody radiation: absorptive and emissive powers.
• Kirchhoff’s law.
• Wien’s displacement law.
• Stefan’s law.

4. Electricity and magnetism

• Coulomb’s law.
• Electric field and potential.
• Electrical potential energy of a system of point charges and of electrical dipoles in a uniform electrostatic field.
• Electric field lines.
• Flux of electric field.
• Gauss’s law and its application in simple cases, such as, to find field due to infinitely long straight wire, uniformly charged infinite plane sheet and uniformly charged thin spherical shell.
• Capacitance: Parallel plate capacitor with and without dielectrics; Capacitors in series and parallel; Energy stored in a capacitor.
• Electric current: Ohm’s law; Series and parallel arrangements of resistances and cells; Kirchhoff’s laws and simple applications; Heating effect of current.
• Biot–Savart’s law and Ampere’s law.
• Magnetic field near a current-carrying straight wire, along the axis of a circular coil and inside a long straight solenoid.
• Force on a moving charge and on a current-carrying wire in a uniform magnetic field.
• Magnetic moment of a current loop.
• Effect of a uniform magnetic field on a current loop.
• Moving coil galvanometer, voltmeter, ammeter and their conversions.
• Electromagnetic induction: Faraday’s law, Lenz’s law; Self and mutual inductance; RC, LR and LC circuits with d.c. and a.c. sources.

5. Optics

• Rectilinear propagation of light.
• Reflection and refraction at plane and spherical surfaces.
• Total internal reflection.
• Deviation and dispersion of light by a prism.
• Thin lenses.
• Combinations of mirrors and thin lenses.
• Magnification.
• Wave nature of light: Huygen’s principle, interference limited to Young’s doubleslit experiment.

6. Modern physics

• Atomic nucleus.
• α, β and γ radiations.
• Law of radioactive decay; Decay constant; Half-life and mean life; Binding energy and its calculation.
• Fission and fusion processes; Energy calculation in these processes.
• Photoelectric effect; Bohr’s theory of hydrogen-like atoms.
• Characteristic and continuous X-rays, Moseley’s law.
• de Broglie wavelength of matter waves.