JEE Mains Physics Syllabus 2021 – A Compilation of all the Topics

JEE Mains is the first phase of JEE and is conducted by NTA (National testing Agency) every year to facilitate admissions into various undergraduate courses offered at NITs, IIITs, and other centrally funded institutes. As it is one of the toughest competitive exams in the world it is obvious that its preparation demands vigorous study.

It is very crucial to know about the syllabus before starting your preparations for JEE. The purpose of this separate article on JEE Mains Physics Syllabus is to let the student know about the content to be studied. Knowing the syllabus beforehand will help in better understanding of the topics relevant to JEE Mains 2018. The Physics Syllabus is itself further subdivided into two sections viz. Section A: 80% weightage (Theory Part) and Section B: 20% weightage (Experimental Skills).

All the chapters of Physics (Section A) are divided into 5 Units as follows:

MECHANICS
HEAT & THERMODYNAMICS
ELECTROSTATICS & MAGNETISM
CURRENT ELECTRICITY & EMI
OPTICS & MODERN PHYSICS

Now, let us see the chapters falling under each unit.

JEE Mains Physics Syllabus – Detailed Version

JEE Mains Physics Syllabus: Section A (80% weightage):

CHAPTER - 1	Physics & Measurement Physics, technology, and society, SI CHAPTERs, Fundamental and derived CHAPTERs. Least count, accuracy and precision of measuring instruments, Errors in measurement, Significant figures. Dimensions of Physical quantities, dimensional analysis, and its applications.
CHAPTER - 2	Kinematics The 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, position-time graphs, relations for uniformly accelerated motion. Scalars and Vectors, Vector addition and Subtraction, Zero Vector, Scalar and Vector products, CHAPTER Vector, Resolution of a Vector. Relative Velocity, Motion in a plane, Projectile Motion, Uniform Circular Motion.
CHAPTER - 3	Laws of Motion Force and Inertia, Newton’s First Law of motion; Momentum, 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. Dynamics of uniform circular motion: Centripetal force and its applications
CHAPTER - 4	Work Energy & Power Work done by a constant force and a variable force; kinetic and potential energies, work-energy theorem, power. The potential energy of a spring, conservation of mechanical energy, conservative and non-conservative forces. Elastic and inelastic collisions in one and two dimensions.
CHAPTER - 5	Rotational Motion Centre of the mass of a two-particle system, Centre of the mass of a rigid body. Basic concepts of rotational motion; the moment of a force, torque, angular momentum, conservation of angular momentum and its applications; the moment of inertia, the radius of gyration. Values of moments of inertia for simple geometrical objects, parallel and perpendicular axes theorems and their applications. Rigid body rotation, equations of rotational motion.
CHAPTER - 6	Gravitation The universal law of gravitation. Acceleration due to gravity and its variation with altitude and depth. Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. Gravitational potential energy; gravitational potential & Escape velocity. Orbital velocity of a satellite. Geostationary satellites.
CHAPTER - 7	Properties of Solids Elastic behavior, Stress-strain relationship, Hooke’s Law, Young’s modulus, bulk modulus, modulus of rigidity. Pressure due to a fluid column; Pascal’s law and its applications. Viscosity, Stokes’ law, terminal velocity, streamline and turbulent flow, Reynolds number. Bernoulli’s principle and its applications. Surface energy and surface tension, the angle of contact, application of surface tension – drops, bubbles and capillary rise. Heat, temperature, thermal expansion; specific heat capacity, calorimetry; change of state, latent heat. Heat transfer-conduction, convection and radiation, Newton’s law of cooling.
CHAPTER - 8	Thermodynamics Thermal equilibrium, zeroth law of thermodynamics, the concept of temperature. Heat, work and internal energy. First law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics: reversible and irreversible processes. Carnot engine and its efficiency.
CHAPTER - 9	Kinetic Theory of Gases The equation of state of a perfect gas, work done on compressing a gas. Kinetic theory of gases: assumptions, the concept of pressure. Kinetic energy and temperature: RMS speed of gas molecules; Degrees of freedom, Law of equipartition of energy, applications to specific heat capacities of gases; Mean free path, Avogadro’s number.
CHAPTER - 10	Oscillations & Waves Periodic motion: period, frequency, displacement as a function of time. Periodic functions. Simple harmonic motion (S.H.M.) and its equation; phase; oscillations of a spring -restoring force and force constant; energy in S.H.M. – kinetic and potential energies; Simple pendulum – derivation of expression for its time period; Free, forced and damped oscillations, resonance. Wave motion: Longitudinal and transverse waves, the speed of a wave. Displacement relation for a progressive wave. The principle of superposition of waves, the reflection of waves, Standing waves in strings and organ pipes, fundamental mode and harmonics, Beats, Doppler effect in sound.
CHAPTER - 11	Electrostatics Electric charges: Conservation of charge, Coulomb’s law-forces 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, Gauss’s law, and its applications to find field due to infinitely long uniformly charged straight wire, uniformly charged infinite plane sheet and uniformly charged thin spherical shell. Electric potential and its calculation for a point charge, electric dipole and system of charges; Equipotential surfaces, Electrical potential energy of a system of two point charges in an electrostatic field. Conductors and insulators, Dielectrics and electric polarization, capacitor, the combination of capacitors in series and in parallel, the capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor with and without dielectric medium between the plates, Energy stored in a capacitor.
CHAPTER - 12	Current Electricity Electric current, Drift velocity, Ohm’s law, Electrical resistance, Resistances of different materials, V-I characteristics of Ohmic and nonohmic conductors, Electrical energy and power, Electrical resistivity, Colour code for resistors; Series and parallel combinations of resistors; Temperature dependence of resistance. Electric Cell and its Internal resistance, potential difference and emf of a cell, the combination of cells in series and in parallel. Kirchhoff’s laws and their applications, Wheatstone bridge, Metre bridge. Potentiometer: principle and its applications. Biot – Savart law and its application to current carrying circular loop.
CHAPTER - 13	Magnetic Effects of Current & Magnetism Ampere’s law and its applications to infinitely long current carrying straight wire and solenoid. Force on a moving charge in uniform magnetic and electric fields, Cyclotron. Force on a current-carrying conductor in a uniform magnetic field. The force between two parallel current-carrying conductors-definition of the ampere. Torque experienced by a current loop in uniform magnetic field; Moving coil galvanometer, its current sensitivity, and conversion to ammeter and voltmeter. Current loop as a magnetic dipole and its magnetic dipole moment. Bar magnet as an equivalent solenoid, magnetic field lines; Earth’s magnetic field and magnetic elements. Para-, dia- and ferro- magnetic substances. Magnetic susceptibility and permeability, Hysteresis, Electromagnets and permanent magnets.
CHAPTER - 14	Electromagnetic Induction & Alternating Currents Electromagnetic induction: Faraday’s law, induced emf and current; Lenz’s Law, Eddy currents. Self and mutual inductance. Alternating currents, peak and rms value of alternating current/ voltage; reactance and impedance; LCR series circuit, resonance; Quality factor, power in AC circuits, wattless current. AC generator and transformer.
CHAPTER - 15	Electromagnetic Waves Electromagnetic waves and their characteristics. Transverse nature of electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, Xrays, gamma rays). Applications of E.M. waves.
CHAPTER - 16	Optics Reflection and refraction of light at plane and spherical surfaces, mirror formula, Total internal reflection and its applications, Deviation and Dispersion of light by a prism, Lens Formula, Magnification, Power of a Lens, Combination of thin lenses in contact, Microscope and Astronomical Telescope (reflecting and refracting) and their magnifying powers. Wave optics: wavefront and Huygens’ principle, Laws of reflection and refraction using Huygen’s principle. Interference, Young’s double slit 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.
CHAPTER -17	Dual Nature of Matter & Radiation Dual nature of radiation. Photoelectric effect, Hertz, and Lenard’s observations; Einstein’s photoelectric equation; particle nature of light. Matter waves-wave nature of the particle, de Broglie relation & Davisson-Germer experiment.
CHAPTER - 18	Atoms & Nuclei Alpha-particle scattering experiment; Rutherford’s model of atom; Bohr model, energy levels, hydrogen spectrum. Composition and size of the nucleus, atomic masses, isotopes, isobars; isotones. Radioactivity-alpha, beta and gamma particles/rays and their properties; radioactive decay law. Mass-energy relation, mass defect; binding energy per nucleon and its variation with mass number, nuclear fission, and fusion.
CHAPTER - 19	Electronic Devices 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). The transistor as a switch.
CHAPTER - 20	Communication Systems Propagation of electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere; Sky and space wave propagation, Need for modulation, Amplitude, and Frequency Modulation. Bandwidth of signals, Bandwidth of Transmission medium, Basic Elements of a Communication System (Block Diagram only)

JEE Mains Physics Syllabus: Section B (20% weightage):

Experimental Skills

Vernier calipers: its use to measure the internal and external diameter and depth of a vessel.
Screw gauge: its use to determine thickness/diameter of thin sheet/wire.
Simple Pendulum: dissipation of energy by plotting a graph between square of amplitude and time.
Metre Scale: the mass of a given object by the principle of moments.
Young’s modulus of elasticity of the material of a metallic wire.
The surface tension of water by capillary rise and effect of detergents.
The coefficient of Viscosity of a given viscous liquid by measuring terminal velocity of a given spherical body.
Plotting a cooling curve for the relationship between the temperature of a hot body and time.
The speed of sound in air at room temperature using a resonance tube.
The specific heat capacity of a given: Solid & liquid by method of mixtures.
The resistivity of the material of a given wire using meter bridge.
The resistance of a given wire using Ohm’s law.
Potentiometer: Comparison of emf of two primary cells & Determination of the internal resistance of a cell.
Resistance and figure of merit of a galvanometer by half deflection method.
The focal length of Convex mirror, Concave mirror & Convex lens using parallax method.
The plot of the angle of deviation vs angle of incidence for a triangular prism.
Refractive index of a glass slab using a traveling microscope.
Characteristic curves of a p-n junction diode in forward and reverse bias.
Characteristic curves of a Zener diode and finding reverse breakdown voltage.
Characteristic curves of a transistor and finding current gain and voltage gain.
Identification of Diode, LED, Transistor, IC, Resistor, Capacitor from mixed collection of such items.
Using the multimeter to: Identify base of a transistor, Distinguish between NPN and PNP type transistor, See the unidirectional flow of current in case of a diode and an LED & Check the correctness or otherwise of a given electronic component (diode, transistor or IC).

All Chapters

Physics & Measurement
Kinematics
Laws of Motion
Work Energy & Power
Rotational Motion
Gravitation
Properties of Solids
Thermodynamics
Kinetic Theory of Gases
Oscillations & Waves
Electrostatics
Current Electricity
Magnetic Effects of Current & Magnetism
Electromagnetic Induction & Alternating Currents
Electromagnetic Waves
Optics
Dual Nature of Matter & Radiation
Atoms & Nuclei
Electronic Devices
Communication Systems

Click on the links below to get detailed syllabus of Chemistry and Maths as well.

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