Grade 12 Physics

Students will review concepts essential to their success in the course: 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 and understanding of the forces involved in uniform circular motion and motion in a plane. They will have investigated forces involved in these modes of motion and have solved related problems. They will analyse technological devices that apply the principles of dynamics of motion, with respect to the effect of g-forces on the human body. (22 hours)

Students will demonstrate an understanding of work, energy, momentum. Drawing from Grade 10 concepts of the laws of conservation of energy, they will extend these ideas to conservation of momentum in one and two dimensions. Through computer simulation and other modes of inquiry they will investigate these phenomena and solve related problems. They will conduct analyses and propose improvements to technologies and procedures that apply principles related to energy and momentum and assess the social and environmental impact of these. (20 hours)

 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 with respect to their interactions with matter. They will investigate these phenomena graphically and through use of other electronic models. They will analyse the operation of technologies that use these fields and discuss the social and environmental impact of these technologies. (22 hours)

Building upon concepts developed during Grade 10, students will study light with respect to its wave nature. Properties of waves will be discussed in a general sense, and the principles of diffraction, refraction, interference, and polarization will be investigated theoretically and through simulation. Technologies that make use of the knowledge of the wave nature of light, and their social and environmental impacts, will be discussed.  (22 hours)

 In this unit, some of the most exciting and counterintuitive concepts in physics, including Einstein's ideas about relativity, photoelectric effect, and particle physics, will be examined. 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, and lead to the development of new technologies.  (21 hours)

  This course includes a proctored exam worth 30% of your final grade.  (3 hours)