Senior Secondary stage of school education is a stage of transition from general education to discipline-based focus on curriculum. The present updated syllabus keeps in view the rigour and depth of disciplinary approach as well as the comprehension level of learners. Due care has also been taken that the syllabus is comparable to the international standards. Salient features of the syllabus include:
- Emphasis on basic conceptual understanding of the content.
- Emphasis on use of SI units, symbols, nomenclature of physical quantities and formulations as per international standards.
- Providing logical sequencing of units of the subject matter and proper placement of concepts with their linkage for better learning.
- Reducing the curriculum load by eliminating overlapping of concepts/content within the discipline and other disciplines.
- Promotion of process-skills, problem-solving abilities and applications of Physics concepts.
Besides, the syllabus also attempts to
- Strengthen the concepts developed at the secondary stage to provide firm foundation for further learning in the subject.
- Expose the learners to different processes used in Physics-related industrial and technological applications.
- Develop process-skills and experimental, observational, manipulative, decision making and investigatory skills in the learners.
- Promote problem solving abilities and creative thinking in learners.
- Develop conceptual competence in the learners and make them realize and appreciate the interface of Physics with other disciplines.
COURSE STRUCTURE :
Unit Title Marks
I. Electrostatics
Chapter - 1: Electric Charges and Fields
Chapter - 2: Electrostatic Potential and 16
Capacitance
II. Current Electricity
Chapter - 3: Current Electricity
III. Magnetic Effects of Current and Magnetism
Chapter - 4: Moving Charges and Magnetism
Chapter - 5: Magnetism and Matter
IV. Electromagnetic Induction and Alternating 17
Currents
Chapter - 6: Electromagnetic Induction
Chapter - 7: Alternating Current
V. Electromagnetic Waves
Chapter - 8: Electromagnetic Waves
VI. Optics 18
Chapter - 9: Ray Optics and Optical Instruments
Chapter - 10: Wave Optics
VII. Dual Nature of Radiation and Matter
Chapter - 11: Dual Nature of Radiation and Matter
VIII. Atoms and Nuclei 12
Chapter - 12: Atoms
Chapter - 13: Nuclei
IX. Electronic Devices
Chapter - 14: Semiconductor Electronics: 07
Materials, Devices and Simple Circuits
Unit I: Electrostatics
Chapter – 1: Electric Charges and Fields
Electric Charges; Conservation of charge, Coulomb's law-force 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 uniform electric fleld.
Electric flux, statement of Gauss's theorem and its applications to find field due to infinitely long straight wire, uniformly charged infinite plane sheet and uniformly charged thin spherical shell (field inside and outside).
Chapter – 2: Electrostatic Potential and Capacitance
Electric potential, potential difference, electric potential due to a point charge, a dipole and system of charges; equipotential surfaces, electrical potential energy of a system of two point charges and of electric dipole in an electrostatic field.
Conductors and insulators, free charges and bound charges inside a conductor. Dielectrics and electric polarisation, capacitors and capacitance, combination of capacitors in series and in parallel, capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor with and without dielectric medium between the plates, energy stored in a capacitor.
Unit II: Current Electricity
Chapter – 3: Current Electricity
Electric current, flow of electric charges in a metallic conductor, drift velocity, mobility and their relation with electric current; Ohm's law, electrical resistance, V-I characteristics (linear and non-linear), electrical energy and power, electrical resistivity and conductivity, Carbon resistors, colour code for carbon resistors; series and parallel combinations of resistors; temperature dependence of resistance. Internal resistance of a cell, potential difference and emf of a cell, combination of cells in series and in parallel, Kirchhoff's laws and simple applications, Wheatstone bridge, metre bridge.
Potentiometer - principle and its applications to measure potential difference and for comparing EMF of two cells; measurement of internal resistance of a cell.
Unit III: Magnetic Effects of Current and Magnetism
Chapter – 4: Moving Charges and Magnetism
Concept of magnetic field, Oersted's experiment.
Biot - Savart law and its application to current carrying circular loop.
Ampere's law and its applications to infinitely long straight wire. Straight and toroidal solenoids (only qualitative treatment), force on a moving charge in uniform magnetic and electric fields, Cyclotron.
Force on a current-carrying conductor in a uniform magnetic field, force between two parallel current-carrying conductors-definition of ampere, torque experienced by a current loop in uniform magnetic field; moving coil galvanometer-its current sensitivity and conversion to ammeter and voltmeter.
Chapter – 5: Magnetism and Matter
Bar magnet, bar magnet as an equivalent solenoid (qualitative treatment only), magnetic field intensity due to a magnetic dipole (bar magnet) along its axis and perpendicular to its axis (qualitative treatment only), torque on a magnetic dipole (bar magnet) in a uniform magnetic field (qualitative treatment only), magnetic field lines.
Magnetic properties of materials- Para-, dia- and ferro - magnetic substances with examples, Magnetization of materials, effect of temperature on magnetic properties.
Unit IV: Electromagnetic Induction and Alternating Currents
Chapter – 6: Electromagnetic Induction
Electromagnetic induction; Faraday's laws, induced EMF and current; Lenz's Law, Eddy currents. Self and mutual induction.
Chapter – 7: Alternating Current
Alternating currents, peak and RMS value of alternating current/voltage; reactance and impedance; LC oscillations (qualitative treatment only), LCR series circuit, resonance; power in AC circuits, power factor, wattless current.
AC generator and transformer.
Unit V: Electromagnetic waves
Chapter – 8: Electromagnetic Waves
Basic idea of displacement current, Electromagnetic waves, their characteristics, their Transverse nature (qualitative ideas only). Electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays) including elementary facts about their uses.
Unit VI: Optics
Chapter – 9: Ray Optics and Optical Instruments
Ray Optics: Reflection of light, spherical mirrors, mirror formula, refraction of light, total internal reflection and its applications, optical fibers, refraction at spherical surfaces, lenses, thin lens formula, lensmaker's formula, magnification, power of a lens, combination of thin lenses in contact, refraction of light through a prism.
Scattering of light - blue colour of sky and reddish appearance of the sun at sunrise and sunset.
Optical instruments: Microscopes and astronomical telescopes (reflecting and refracting) and their magnifying powers.
Chapter – 10: Wave Optics
Wave optics: Wave front and Huygen's principle, reflection and refraction of plane wave at a plane surface using wave fronts. Proof of 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 microscope and astronomical telescope, polarisation, plane polarised light, Brewster's law, uses of plane polarised light and Polaroids.
Unit VII: Dual Nature of Radiation and Matter
Chapter – 11: Dual Nature of Radiation and Matter
Dual nature of radiation, Photoelectric effect, Hertz and Lenard's observations; Einstein's photoelectric equation-particle nature of light.
Experimental study of photoelectric effect
Matter waves-wave nature of particles, de-Broglie relation.
Unit VIII: Atoms and Nuclei
Chapter – 12: Atoms
Alpha-particle scattering experiment; Rutherford's model of atom; Bohr model, energy levels, hydrogen spectrum.
Chapter – 13: Nuclei
Composition and size of nucleus, 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, nuclear fusion.
Unit IX: Electronic Devices
Chapter – 14: Semiconductor Electronics: Materials, Devices and Simple Circuits
Energy bands in conductors, semiconductors and insulators (qualitative ideas only) Intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors- p and n type, p-n junction
Semiconductor diode - I-V characteristics in forward and reverse bias, application of junction diode -diode as a rectifier.