Physics, Grade 12, University Preparation
Curriculum Policy
Science, The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12, 2008 (Revised)

Course Description:
This course enhances students’ comprehension of fundamental physics concepts and theories. Students will delve into energy transformations and the forces influencing motion while investigating electrical, gravitational, and magnetic fields, as well as electromagnetic radiation. The curriculum includes an exploration of the wave nature of light, quantum mechanics, and special relativity. Students will refine their scientific investigation skills, learning to analyze data qualitatively and quantitatively across various physics principles. Additionally, the course encourages students to evaluate the societal and environmental implications of technological applications of physics.
Chapters and descriptions:

• Dynamics
  Students will review essential concepts for success in the course, including scientific notation, significant digits, vector operations, and fundamental mathematical tools. Principles of kinematics and free body diagrams will also be reviewed and extended. By the end of the unit, students will demonstrate an understanding of the forces involved in uniform circular motion and motion in a plane. They will investigate the forces involved in these modes of motion and solve related problems, analyzing technological devices that apply the principles of dynamics concerning the effect of g-forces on the human body.
• Energy and Momentum
  Students will demonstrate an understanding of work, energy, and momentum. Building on Grade 10 concepts regarding the laws of conservation of energy, they will extend these ideas to conservation of momentum in one and two dimensions. Through computer simulations and other inquiry methods, they will investigate these phenomena and solve related problems. Students will conduct analyses and propose improvements to technologies and procedures that apply principles related to energy and momentum while assessing their social and environmental impacts.
• Gravitational, Electric, and Magnetic Fields
  By the end of this unit, students will demonstrate an understanding of the concepts, properties, principles, and laws related to gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields, particularly regarding their interactions with matter. They will investigate these phenomena graphically and through other electronic models. Students will analyze the operation of technologies that utilize these fields and discuss the social and environmental impact of these technologies.
• The Wave Nature of Light
  Building upon concepts developed in Grade 10, students will study light concerning its wave nature. Properties of waves will be discussed generally, and the principles of diffraction, refraction, interference, and polarization will be investigated theoretically and through simulation. Technologies that utilize the knowledge of the wave nature of light and their social and environmental impacts will also be discussed.
• Revolutions in Modern Physics: Quantum Mechanics and Special Relativity
  In this unit, some of the most exciting and counterintuitive concepts in physics will be examined, including Einstein’s ideas about relativity, the photoelectric effect, and particle physics. Quantum mechanics and special relativity will be investigated mathematically, and related problems will be solved. Considering the revolutionary ideas studied in this unit, students will discuss how the introduction of new conceptual models can influence and change scientific thought, leading to the development of new technologies.