The exam topics
Physics 1
Kinematics, dynamics of particles and rigid bodies, work and energy, collisions, oscillations, gravitation, fluids and thermodynamics.
Physical quantities, units and vectors
How a physical quantity is measured in the International System, how formulas and results are checked with dimensional analysis and significant figures, and how to operate with the vectors that describe displacements, forces, work and torques.
Kinematics in one dimension
How the motion of a point along a straight line is described with the equation of motion, velocity and acceleration, how uniform motion, uniformly accelerated motion and free fall are solved, and how the position is obtained from graphs and from the acceleration.
Motion in a plane: projectiles and circular motion
How position, velocity and acceleration become vectors in the plane, how projectile motion and uniform and nonuniform circular motion are described, and how velocities and trajectories change when passing from one reference frame to another in translational motion.
Newton’s laws and forces
The three laws of dynamics, the forces that appear in mechanics problems (weight, constraint force, tension, friction, elastic force) and the method for writing and solving the equation of motion of a body or of a system of bodies, also in circular motion and in noninertial reference frames.
Work and energy
How to compute the work of a constant or variable force, what power measures, how the work-energy theorem and the conservation of mechanical energy give speeds without solving the equations of motion, and how a potential energy curve describes motion and equilibrium.
Oscillations and harmonic motion
What simple harmonic motion is, how to recognize it from the equation $\ddot{x} = -\omega^2 x$, how to compute the period and energy of the spring and of pendulums, and how damping and a driving force lead to resonance.
Systems of particles, momentum and collisions
How momentum, impulse and the center of mass describe systems of several bodies, why the total momentum is conserved in the absence of external forces, and how this law, together with energy, solves collisions, explosions and the motion of a rocket.
Rigid body dynamics
How the rotation of a rigid body is described, how torque, moment of inertia and angular momentum determine its motion, and when the body rolls without slipping or remains in equilibrium.
Gravitation
The law of universal gravitation, the gravitational field and potential energy, the variation of g with altitude, circular orbits of satellites, escape velocity and Kepler's laws derived from dynamics.
Fluid mechanics
How density and pressure describe a fluid, how Stevin's law, Pascal's principle and Archimedes' principle explain liquids at rest and flotation, and how the continuity equation and Bernoulli's theorem describe fluids in motion.
Temperature, heat and the first law of thermodynamics
How temperature is measured, how heat changes the temperature and state of bodies, how an ideal gas is described and how the first law connects heat, work and internal energy in processes and cycles.
Second law, heat engines and entropy
How the second law limits the conversion of heat into work, why the Carnot cycle sets the maximum efficiency between two temperatures and how entropy measures the irreversibility of processes.