<p>I'm currently self studying AP Physics C: Mech. and E&M and am using the book Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick and Walker, 8th edition. As those of you who are probably using that book to study know, it has a ton of formulas in it (especially E&M) However, the equation sheet that CB gives us has considerably less formulas. So my question is,
what formulas are we responsible for knowing, only the ones on the equation sheet or all the ones from a textbook?
Please cite your sources if you are getting your facts from somewhere, and thanks for posting! :D</p>
<p>Well, almost all of the formulas in that book can be derived from equations on the AP sheet (they walk you through the derivations in the book). One previous AP FRQ that we did in class asked us to derive one of Kepler’s laws using angular kinematics equations/circular motion equations. Though I don’t know how often derivations are on the test, my teacher makes sure we know how to derive almost all of the specific equations from the general (ie. center of mass, electrostatic force, electric field, etc.). Typically collegeboard will give you the general equation, but the problem will require you to derive/use the equation for particular shapes.</p>
<p>Not sure how much this helps, but hopefully it covers part of your question. Someone who has taken the full tests might be able to help you a little more.</p>
<p>I’m taking AP Physics B this year and I’m planning to memorize every formula I learned this year (these formulas include those that can either be derived from the formulas on the sheet or that are completely unrelated). I’m taking AP Physics C next year and I’m planning to do the same. You should base what formulas you learn on various review books for Physics C and the formula sheet, not from a textbook that probably isn’t specifically targeted towards Physics C. I’m just guessing this is the most useful and effective thing you can do, because it allows you to prepare well by using books written by those who know about the exam while avoiding formulas you don’t need to learn.</p>
<p>Memorizing formulas is not an effective way to learn physics. It can cause many problems especially on tests when you need to modify something given different conditions. If you don’t remember signs or other parts of a formula you’ll get the whole question wrong. You should instead focus on gaining a strong conceptual understanding of the basics such as conservation rules and Newton’s laws. This will allow you to have the flexibility to come up with a relation given any problem by just referring back to fundamental laws.</p>
<p>If you just focus on learning and understanding the material, you should be fine. I’m not sure I even looked at the equation sheet during the exam. For the multiple choice, the questions are more conceptual, so in order to get through them quickly you need to be able to eliminate wrong answers. Dimensional analysis is important, you should also be able to look at limiting cases. So if an answer is in the wrong units you can eliminate that, if say you are looking at the charging of a capacitor all you need to know is that the time constant is RC and understand how it charges and discharges (that the current decays exponentially and that the voltage approaches the voltage across the battery while it charges). Just knowing that you should be able to derive the particular solution to the differential equation that you need. I took both exams last year and received 5s.</p>