Class 12 Physics: The Ultimate Syllabus and Curriculum Guide
This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the Class 12 Physics curriculum, syllabus, and micro-syllabus as per the Secondary Education Curriculum 2076.
1. Course Description
Secondary Education Curriculum 2076 – Physics
Grades: 11 and 12
Subject code: Phy. 101 (Grade 11), Phy. 102 (Grade 12)
Credit hrs: 5 | Working hrs: 160
Introduction
This curriculum presumes that students joining grade 11 and 12 science stream come with diverse aspirations. It is designed to provide students with a general understanding of the fundamental scientific laws and principles that govern phenomena in the world. It focuses on developing the scientific knowledge, skill, competences, and attitudes required for any path they choose beyond this level.
This Class 12 Physics curriculum aims to provide sufficient knowledge for all learners to become confident citizens in a technological world. It offers a sound foundation for students who wish to study physics or related fields in higher education. It also promotes science-related attitudes such as a concern for accuracy, a spirit of enquiry, and a willingness to use technology for effective communication. For more resources, you can visit external sites like the official NEB website.
Level-wise Competencies
Upon completion, students are expected to:
- Relate phenomena to physical laws using appropriate scientific vocabulary.
- Use scientific instruments to collect, evaluate, and communicate information accurately.
- Design simple experiments to develop relations among physical quantities.
- Carry out simple scientific research on issues related to physics.
- Construct simple models to illustrate physical concepts.
2. Detailed Class 12 Physics Syllabus
Content Area: Mechanics (24 hrs)
- 1. Rotational dynamics (10 hrs)
- 1.1 Equation of angular motion, Relation between linear and angular kinematics.
- 1.2 Kinetic energy of rotation of rigid body.
- 1.3 Moment of inertia; Radius of gyration.
- 1.4 Moment of inertia of a uniform rod.
- 1.5 Torque and angular acceleration for a rigid body.
- 1.6 Work and power in rotational motion.
- 1.7 Angular momentum, conservation of angular momentum.
- 2. Periodic motion (8 hrs)
- 2.1 Equation of simple harmonic motion (SHM).
- 2.2 Energy in SHM.
- 2.3 Application of SHM: vertical oscillation of mass suspended from coiled spring.
- 2.4 Angular SHM, simple pendulum.
- 2.5 Oscillatory motion: Damped oscillation, Forced oscillation and resonance.
- 3. Fluid statics (6 hrs)
- 3.1 Fluid statics: Pressure in a fluid; Buoyancy.
- 3.2 Surface tension: Theory of surface tension; Surface energy.
- 3.3 Angle of contact, capillarity and its applications.
- 3.4 Fluid Dynamics: Newton’s formula for viscosity in a liquid; Coefficient of viscosity.
- 3.5 Poiseuille’s formula and its application.
- 3.6 Stokes law and its applications.
- 3.7 Equation of continuity and its applications.
- 3.8 Bernoulli’s equation and its applications.
Content Area: Heat and Thermodynamics (16 hrs)
- 4. First Law of Thermodynamics (8 hrs)
- 4.1 Thermodynamic systems.
- 4.2 Work done during volume change.
- 4.3 Heat and work; Internal energy and First law of thermodynamics.
- 4.4 Thermodynamic processes: Adiabatic, isochoric, isothermal and isobaric.
- 4.5 Heat capacities of an ideal gas at constant pressure and volume and relation between them.
- 4.6 Isothermal and Adiabatic processes for an ideal gas.
- 5. Second Law of Thermodynamics (8 hrs)
- 5.1 Thermodynamic systems and direction of thermodynamic processes.
- 5.2 Second law of thermodynamics.
- 5.3 Heat engines.
- 5.4 Internal combustion engines: Otto cycle, Diesel cycle; Carnot cycle.
- 5.5 Refrigerator.
- 5.6 Entropy and disorder (introduction only).
Content Area: Waves & Optics (38 hrs)
- 6. Wave motion (6 hrs)
- 6.1 Progressive waves.
- 6.2 Mathematical description of a wave.
- 6.3 Stationary waves.
- 7. Mechanical waves (4 hrs)
- 7.1 Speed of wave motion; Velocity of sound in solid and liquid.
- 7.2 Velocity of sound in gas.
- 7.3 Laplace’s correction.
- 7.4 Effect of temperature, pressure, humidity on velocity of sound.
- 8. Wave in pipes and strings (6 hrs)
- 8.1 Stationary waves in closed and open pipes.
- 8.2 Harmonics and overtones in closed and open organ pipes.
- 8.3 End correction in pipes.
- 8.4 Velocity of transverse waves along a stretched string.
- 8.5 Vibration of string and overtones.
- 8.6 Laws of vibration of fixed string.
- 9. Acoustic phenomena (5 hrs)
- 9.1 Sound waves: Pressure amplitude.
- 9.2 Characteristics of sound: Intensity; loudness, quality and pitch.
- 9.3 Doppler’s effect.
- 10. Nature and propagation of light (4 hrs)
- 10.1 Huygen’s principle.
- 10.2 Reflection and Refraction according to wave theory.
- 11. Interference (5 hrs)
- 11.1 Phenomenon of Interferences: Coherent sources.
- 11.2 Young’s double slit experiment.
- 12. Diffraction (5 hrs)
- 12.1 Diffraction from a single slit.
- 12.2 Diffraction pattern of image; Diffraction grating.
- 12.3 Resolving power of optical instruments.
- 13. Polarization (3 hrs)
- 13.1 Phenomenon of polarization.
- 13.2 Brewster’s law; transverse nature of light.
- 13.3 Polaroid.
Content Area: Electricity & Magnetism (41 hrs)
- 14. Electrical circuits (8 hrs)
- 14.1 Kirchhoff’s law.
- 14.2 Wheatstone bridge circuit; Meter bridge.
- 14.3 Potentiometer: Comparison of e.m.f., measurement of internal resistances of a cell.
- 14.4 Super conductors; Perfect conductors.
- 14.5 Conversion of galvanometer into voltmeter and ammeter; Ohmmeter.
- 14.6 Joule’s law.
- 15. Thermoelectric effects (2 hrs)
- 15.1 Seebeck effect; Thermocouples.
- 15.2 Peltier effect: Variation of thermoelectric e.m.f. with temperature; Thermopile.
- 16. Magnetic field (12 hrs)
- 16.1 Magnetic field lines and magnetic flux; Oersted’s experiment.
- 16.2 Force on moving charge; Force on a conductor.
- 16.3 Force and Torque on rectangular coil, Moving coil galvanometer.
- 16.4 Hall effect.
- 16.5 Magnetic field of a moving charge.
- 16.6 Biot and Savart law and its application.
- 16.7 Ampere’s law and its applications.
- 16.8 Force between two parallel conductors carrying current- definition of ampere.
- 17. Magnetic properties of materials (3 hrs)
- 17.1 Magnetic field lines and magnetic flux.
- 17.2 Flux density in magnetic material; Relative permeability; Susceptibility.
- 17.3 Hysteresis.
- 17.4 Dia,-para- and ferro-magnetic materials.
- 18. Electromagnetic Induction (8 hrs)
- 18.1 Faraday’s laws; Induced electric fields.
- 18.2 Lenz’s law, Motional electromotive force.
- 18.3 A.C. generators; Eddy currents.
- 18.4 Self-inductance and mutual inductance.
- 18.5 Energy stored in an inductor.
- 18.6 Transformer.
- 19. Alternating Currents (8 hrs)
- 19.1 Peak and rms value of AC current and voltage.
- 19.2 AC through a resistor, a capacitor and an inductor.
- 19.3 Phasor diagram.
- 19.4 Series circuits containing combination of resistance, capacitance and inductance.
- 19.5 Series resonance, quality factor.
- 19.6 Power in AC circuits: power factor.
Content Area: Modern Physics (26 hrs)
- 20. Electrons (4 hrs)
- 20.1 Milikan’s oil drop experiment.
- 20.2 Motion of electron beam in electric and magnetic fields.
- 20.3 Thomson’s experiment to determine specific charge of electrons.
- 21. Photons (4 hrs)
- 21.1 Quantum nature of radiation.
- 21.2 Einstein’s photoelectric equation; Stopping potential.
- 21.3 Measurement of Plank’s constant.
- 22. Semiconductor devices (6 hrs)
- 22.1 P-N Junction.
- 22.2 Semiconductor diode: Characteristics in forward and reverse bias.
- 22.3 Full wave rectification.
- 22.4 Logic gates; NOT, OR, AND, NAND and NOR.
- 23. Quantization of energy (6 hrs)
- 23.1 Bohr’s theory of hydrogen atom.
- 23.2 Spectral series; Excitation and ionization potentials.
- 23.3 Energy level; Emission and absorption spectra.
- 23.4 De Broglie Theory; Duality.
- 23.5 Uncertainly principle.
- 23.6 X-rays: Nature and production; uses.
- 23.7 X-rays diffraction, Bragg’s law.
- 24. Radioactivity and nuclear reaction (4 hrs)
- 24.1 Alpha-particles; Beta-particles, Gamma rays.
- 24.2 Laws of radioactive disintegration.
- 24.3 Half-life, mean-life and decay constant.
- 24.4 Geiger-Muller Tube.
- 24.5 Carbon dating.
- 24.6 Medical use of nuclear radiation and possible health hazard.
- 25. Recent trends in physics (2 hrs)
- 25.1 Seismology: Surface waves, Internal waves, Wave patterns of Gorkha Earthquake 2015.
- 25.2 Gravitational Wave, Nanotechnology, Higgs Boson.
3. Practical Activities
a) Practical Activities for Grade 12
I. Mechanics
- Use of Simple pendulum for the determination of the value of ‘g’ in the laboratory by graphically analyzing the variation of period of oscillations with length of the pendulum.
- Determination of the surface tension of water by capillary tube method by graphically analyzing the variation of height of the liquid against the diameter of capillary tube for five capillaries of different diameters dipped in water simultaneously.
- Determination of the coefficient of viscosity of liquid by Stoke’s method by graphically analyzing the variation of time taken for six metal balls of different diameters to travel the same distance in the given liquid with respect to their diameters.
II. Wave and Optics
- Determination of the wavelength of He-Ne laser light by passing a plane diffraction grating.
- Determination of the frequency of A.C. Mains using sonometer and graphically analyzing the variation of the ratio of resonating lengths with respect to the frequency of tuning fork using tuning forks of different frequencies.
- Determination of velocity of sound in air at NTP using resonance tube.
III. Electricity and magnetism
- Use of potentiometer for the: a) Comparison of emf’s of two cells, b) Determination of the internal resistance of a cell
- Study the variation or resistance of a thermistor with temperature.
- Use of deflection magnetometer to determination of the pole strength and magnetic moment of a bar magnet.
- Determine the magnetic field strength of a bar magnet stuck on table by graphically analyzing the period of torsional motion of a freely suspended bar magnet and its distance from the near pole of the fixed magnet along its long axis.
IV. Modern Physics
- Study the I-V characteristics of a semiconductor diode.
b) Sample Project Works for Grade 12
- Study the traffic noise level in your town using a sound pressure level (SPL) meter.
- Design and construct a step-up transformer.
- Construct a simple device to measure angle of contact of a liquid with a solid surface and also calculate the surface free energy of some hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces.
- Calculate the surface free energy of some hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces.
- Construct a simple DC motor using a disk type magnet and a battery.
- Construct a model of AC generator/dynamo.
- Construct a current balance to measure magnetic flux density of a U-shaped magnet.
- Construction of a step down transformer attached with a full wave rectifier made from semiconductor diodes.
c) Some Examples of Innovative Works for Grade 12
- Construct a thermocouple thermometer and use it to investigate how temperature of a Bunsen burner flame changes with the height of the flame from the top of the burner.
- Study of the status of hydroelectricity in Nepal.
- Study of application of laws and principle of physics in any indigenous technology.
- Verify Joule’ law.
- Investigation on Peltier effect.
- History of space exploration.
- Study on history of nuclear power in Asia.
4. Chapter-wise Notes for Class 12 Physics
5. Class 12 Physics Micro-Syllabus
Content Area: Mechanics
1. Rotational dynamics
- Recall equations of angular motion and compare them with equations of linear motion.
- Derive the expression for rotational kinetic energy.
- Describe the term moment of inertia and radius of gyration.
- Find the moment of inertia of thin uniform rod rotating about its center and its one end.
- Establish the relation between torque and angular acceleration of a rigid body.
- Describe the work and power in rotational motion with expression.
- Define angular momentum and prove the principle of conservation of angular momentum.
- Solve numerical problems and conceptual questions regarding the rotational dynamics.
2. Periodic motion
- Define simple harmonic motion and state its equation.
- Derive the expressions for energy in simple harmonic motion.
- Derive the expression for period for vertical oscillation of a mass suspended from coiled spring.
- Describe angular simple harmonic motion and find its period.
- Derive expression for period of simple pendulum.
- Explain the damped oscillation.
- Describe forced oscillation and resonance with suitable examples.
- Solve the numerical problems and conceptual questions regarding the periodic motion.
3. Fluid statics
- State and explain Archimedes principle and Pascal’s law.
- Define up-thrust, pressure in fluid, buoyancy, center of buoyancy and meta center.
- State and use the law of floatation,.
- Describe surface tension and explain its principle.
- Establish the relation between surface energy and surface tension.
- Define angle of contact and capillarity with examples.
- State the Newton’s Formula for viscosity of a liquid and define coefficient of viscosity.
- Differentiate between laminar and turbulent flow & describe Reynolds number.
- Recall and use the Poiseuille’s formula.
- State Stoke’s law and use it to determine the coefficient of viscosity of given liquid.
- Explain equation of continuity and its application.
- Recall the Bernoulli’s equation and explain its uses.
- Solve the numerical problems and conceptual questions regarding the fluid statics.
Content Area: Heat and Thermodynamics
4. First Law of Thermodynamics
- Clarify the concept of thermodynamic system.
- Explain the meaning of work done by the system and work done on the system, and describe how work done by gas during expansion can be calculated from indicator (P-V) diagram.
- Explain the concept of latent heat and internal energy.
- State and explain first law of thermodynamics.
- Define and explain two specific heat capacities of gas appreciating the relation $C_p – C_v = R$.
- Explain various thermodynamic process (isothermal, isobaric, isochoric and adiabatic) with good concept of their P – V diagram.
- Derive adiabatic equation $PV^\gamma = \text{constant}$.
- Derive expression for work done during isothermal and adiabatic process.
- Give concept of reversible and irreversible process with examples.
- Solve mathematical problems related to first law of thermodynamics and thermodynamic process.
5. Second Law of Thermodynamics
- State and explain second law of thermodynamics (Kelvin’s and Clausius’s statement).
- Compare second and first law of thermodynamics considering indication of direction of flow of heat.
- Explain heat engine as a device to convert heat energy into mechanical energy.
- Discuss Carnot’s cycle with the concept of PV diagram and calculate the work done of each step and corresponding efficiency.
- Describe internal combustion engines, Otto engine and diesel engine with the help of PV diagram to compare their efficiencies.
- Explain refrigerator as heat engine working in reverse direction.
- Introduce entropy as a measure of disorder appreciating its roles in thermodynamic process.
- Solve mathematical problems related to heat engine.
Content Area: Waves & Optics
6. Wave motion
- Define and understand progressive wave.
- Write progressive wave in mathematical form.
- Discuss the condition under which stationary waves can be formed.
- Write stationary wave in mathematical form.
- Calculate frequency, amplitude, velocity, time period, etc of progressive wave.
- Find expression for stationary wave using two progressive waves.
7. Mechanical waves
- Calculate Speed of wave motion.
- Understand and write expression for the Velocity of sound in solid and liquid.
- Describe Velocity of sound in gas.
- Describe Laplace correction.
- Formulate the effect of temperature, pressure, humidity on velocity of sound.
- Solve numerical problems related to velocity of sound in the given medium and condition.
8. Wave in pipes and strings
- Understand the formation of stationery waves in closed and open pipes.
- Define and understand harmonics and overtones.
- Discuss harmonics and overtones in closed and open organ pipes.
- Understand end correction in pipes.
- State and use the formula for velocity of transverse waves along a stretched string.
- Understand Vibration of string and overtones.
- Know the laws of vibration of fixed string.
9. Acoustic phenomena
- Describe sound waves as pressure waves in a medium.
- Characterize the sound using its intensity, loudness, quality and pitch.
- Discuss Doppler’s effect.
- Apply Doppler effect in realistic case where source and observers are in relative motion.
10. Nature and propagation of Light
- Use Huygen’s principle to explain reflection and refraction of light.
11. Interference
- Explain the Phenomenon of Interferences.
- Understand the meaning of coherent sources.
- Describe Young’s double slit experiment and obtain the expression fro nth order maxima.
12. Diffraction
- Describe diffraction at a single slit.
- Understand diffraction pattern of image and derive the expression for the position of nth order minima.
- Explain diffraction through transmission diffraction/grating and use the formula $d\sin\theta_n = n\lambda$ for maxima.
- Explain resolving power of optical instruments.
13. Polarization
- Describe phenomenon of polarization.
- Explain how polarization of light explains the transverse nature of light.
- State and use Brewster’s law.
- Show the understanding of construction, working principle and uses of Potentiometer for comparing emfs and measuring internal resistance of cells.
Content Area: Electricity & Magnetism
14. Electrical circuits
- Understand Kirchhoff’s law as well as use it to calculate unknown parameters in electrical circuits.
- Describe the circuit diagram and working of Wheatstone bridge circuit and understand its importance in real situation.
- Describe Meter bridge and understand it.
- Know construction, working and importance of Potentiometer.
- Understand the concept of super conductors.
- Know the meaning of perfect conductors and distinguish it from superconductor.
- Learn the technique to convert galvanometer into voltmeter and ammeter.
15. Thermoelectric effects
- Explain Seebeck effect and its application in Thermocouples.
- Show understanding of the construction and working principle of thermocouple as a temperature measuring device.
- Explain Peltier effect.
- Understand the construction and working of Thermopile.
16. Magnetic field
- Show understanding of the concept of magnetic field lines and magnetic flux and sketch magnetic field lines around a straight current carrying conductor and long solenoid.
- Explain Oersted’s experiment, its outcome and limitations.
- Discuss force on moving charge in uniform magnetic field.
- Discuss force on a current carrying conductor placed in uniform magnetic field.
- Describe force and Torque on rectangular coil placed in uniform magnetic field.
- Describe moving coil galvanometer and know its applications.
- Explain Hall effect and derive the expression $V_H = \frac{BI}{ntq}$ where t is thickness.
- Use Hall probe to measure flux density of a uniform magnetic field.
- State Biot and Savart law and know its application on (i) a circular coil (ii) a long straight conductor (iii) a long solenoid.
- State Ampere’s law and know its applications to (i) a long straight conductor (ii) a straight solenoid (ii) a toroidal solenoid.
- Discuss force between two parallel conductors carrying current- definition of ampere.
17. Magnetic properties of materials
- Define relative permeability and relative susceptibility of a magnetic material.
- Discuss relationship between relative permeability and susceptibility.
- Discuss Hysteresis of ferromagnetism.
- Understand Dia,-para- and ferro magnetic materials.
18. Electromagnetic Induction
- State and show understanding of Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction.
- State and show understanding of Lenz’s law.
- Discuss construction and working of A.C. generators.
- Define eddy currents, explain how they arise and give a few examples where eddy currents are useful and where they are nuisance.
- Describe self-inductance and mutual inductance and understand their uses.
- State the expression for energy stored in an inductor and use it wherever needed.
- Discuss the construction, working principle and importance of transformer.
- Discuss the sources of energy loss in practical transformer.
19. Alternating Currents
- Understand peak and rms value of AC current and voltage.
- Discuss AC through a resistor, a capacitor and an inductor.
- Understand Phasor diagram in RC and RL circuits.
- Discuss series circuits containing combination of resistance, capacitance and inductance.
- Describe series resonance condition and know its applications.
- Understand the meaning of quality factor.
- Discuss power in AC circuits and know the term power factor.
Content Area: Modern Physics
20. Electrons
- Describe Millikan’s oil drop experiment and explain how it suggests quantization of charge.
- Describe the motion of electrons in electric and magnetic fields and derive appropriate mathematical expressions.
- Describe J.J Thomson’s experiment with suitable diagrams to explain the discovery of electron and its characters.
- Solve numerical problems related to above topics.
21. Photons
- Describe quantum nature of radiation.
- Explain properties of photons.
- Describe work function and photoelectric effect.
- Derive Einstein’s photoelectric equation.
- Describe Millikan’s experiment for the verification of Einstein’s photoelectric equation and calculate Planck’s constant.
- Solve some related problems.
22. Semiconductor devices
- Describe the formation of PN junction and semiconductor diode.
- Plot forward and reverse characteristics of semiconductor diode including the concept of Zener diode.
- Define rectifier.
- Describe full wave rectification using semiconductor diodes.
- Define logic gates and explain operation of different logic gates OR, AND, NOT, NAND and NOR gates with their symbol , Boolean algebra and truth table.
23. Quantization of energy
- Write the postulates of Bohr’s model.
- Derive the expression of radius of nth orbit, velocity of electron in nth orbit and total energy of electron in nth orbit of H-atom.
- Obtain the expression of wavelength of a spectral line.
- Obtain mathematical expressions different spectral series of H-atom.
- Differentiate excitation and ionization potentials.
- Explain emission and absorption spectra.
- Describe de Broglie hypothesis.
- Define x-rays.
- Describe modern Coolidge tube method for the production of x-rays with quality and quantity.
- Illustrate different properties of x-rays along with their applications.
- Solve numerical problems related to quantization of energy.
24. Radioactivity and nuclear reaction
- Explain the meaning of Radioactivity – natural and artificial.
- Differentiate types of radiations coming from radioactive sources – alpha, beta particles and gamma rays and state their properties.
- Explain radioactive disintegration law.
- Obtain the expressions of half-life, decay constant and mean life.
- Explain the working of Geiger-Muller Tube.
- Analyze some medical uses and health hazard of nuclear radiation.
- Work out some related numerical problems.
- Reason conceptual questions.
25. Recent trends in physics
- Seismology: a. Briefly explain the origin of earthquakes. b. Explain different types of surface waves: Rayleigh and Love waves. c. Explain different types of internal waves: S and P-waves. d. Give brief introduction to the wave patterns of Gorkha Earthquake 2015.
- Demonstrate basic ideas on: a. Gravitational Wave. b. Nanotechnology. c. Higgs Boson.