<p>I’m a nerd and like to design things (robots, little mechanical contraptions) when I’m bored. To get a better understanding, I want to teach myself physics. I thought the best way to do that was to do mechanics, electricity, and magnetism concepts, since that’s what I’m interested in, and then take the AP test in May just to knock out a second bird with the same stone. Turns out there’s a physics B test, too? Whoops. At my school, there is just an “AP Physics” course, so I assumed there is only one. I’m already about half-way through teaching myself calculus so that I can properly learn calculus-based physics. Do I also need the knowledge from Physics B, or are they each standalone courses? Should I do Physics B instead? Both? What kind of time commitment is Physics B? I’m already estimating about 120 hours for the two Physics C tests, and if Physics B is that demanding I definitely can’t do it, but if its half that or less I should be able to fit it in.</p>
<p>B is C without calculus plus a few extra topics. If you know C, B shouldn’t take much more time (though I have no idea why’d you want to do both). You could probably pass B without any extra studying, in fact; you just have to replace all the d’s with deltas in the equations. </p>
<p>Physics textbooks and prep books for C are written as if you have no prior experience.</p>