1.
Electrostatics (i) Electric Charges and Fields Electric charges; conservation and
quantisation of charge, Coulomb’s law; 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 field. Electric
flux, Gauss’s theorem in Electrostatics and its applications to find field due to infinitely
long straight wire, uniformly charged infinite plane sheet and uniformly charged thin
spherical shell.
(ii) Electrostatic Potential, Potential Energy 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, energy stored in a
capacitor.
2. Current Electricity Mechanism of flow of current in conductors. Mobility, drift velocity and
its relation with electric current; Ohm’s law and its proof, resistance and resistivity and
their relation to drift velocity of electrons; V-I characteristics (linear and non-linear),
electrical energy and power, electrical resistivity and conductivity. Temperature
dependence of resistance and resistivity. 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, to compare emf of two cells; to measure
internal resistance of a cell.
3. Magnetic Effects of Current and Magnetism (i) Moving charges and magnetism
Concept of magnetic field, Oersted’s experiment. Biot – Savart law and its application. Ampere’s
Circuital law and its applications to infinitely long straight wire, straight solenoid (only qualitative
treatment). Force on a moving charge in uniform magnetic and electric fields. 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 sensitivity. Conversion of galvanometer
into an ammeter and a voltmeter.
(ii) Magnetism and Matter
A current loop as a magnetic dipole, its magnetic dipole moment, magnetic dipole moment of a
revolving electron, magnetic field intensity due to a magnetic dipole (bar magnet) on the axial
line and equatorial line, torque on a magnetic dipole (bar magnet) in a uniform magnetic field;
bar magnet as an equivalent solenoid, magnetic field lines. Electromagnets and factors affecting
their strengths, permanent magnets.
4. Electromagnetic Induction and Alternating Currents (i) Electromagnetic Induction
Faraday’s laws, induced emf and current; Lenz’s Law, eddy currents. Self-induction and mutual
induction. Transformer.
(ii) Alternating Current
Peak value, mean value and RMS value of alternating current/voltage; their relation in
sinusoidal case; reactance and impedance; LC oscillations (qualitative treatment only), LCR
series circuit, resonance; power in AC circuits, wattless current. AC generator.
5. Electromagnetic Waves Basic idea of displacement current. Electromagnetic waves,
their characteristics, their transverse nature (qualitative ideas only). Complete
electromagnetic spectrum starting from radio waves to gamma rays: elementary facts of
electromagnetic waves and their uses.
6. Optics (i) Ray Optics and Optical Instruments
Ray Optics: Reflection of light by spherical mirrors, mirror formula, refraction of light at plane
surfaces, total internal reflection and its applications, optical fibres, refraction at spherical
surfaces, lenses, thin lens formula, lens maker’s formula, magnification, power of a lens,
combination of thin lenses in contact, combination of a lens and a mirror, refraction and
dispersion of light through a prism. Optical instruments: Microscopes and astronomical
telescopes (reflecting and refracting) and their magnifying powers.
(ii) Wave Optics
Wave front and Huygen’s principle. Proof of laws of reflection and refraction using Huygen’s
principle. Interference, Young’s double slit experiment and expression for fringe width(β),
coherent sources and sustained interference of light, Fraunhofer diffraction due to a single slit,
width of central maximum.
7. Dual Nature of Radiation and Matter Wave particle duality; photoelectric effect, Hertz and
Lenard’s observations; Einstein’s photoelectric equation – particle nature of light. Matter
waves – wave nature of particles, de-Broglie relation.
8. Atoms and Nuclei (i) Atoms
Alpha-particle scattering experiment; Rutherford’s atomic model; Bohr’s atomic model, energy
levels, hydrogen spectrum.
(ii) Nuclei
Composition and size of nucleus. Mass-energy relation, mass defect; binding energy per
nucleon and its variation with mass number; Nuclear reactions, nuclear fission and nuclear
fusion.
9. Electronic Devices (i) Semiconductor Electronics: Materials, Devices and Simple
Circuits. Energy bands in conductors, semiconductors and insulators (qualitative ideas
only). Intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors.
(ii) Semiconductor diode: I-V characteristics in forward and reverse bias, diode as a rectifier;
Special types of junction diodes: LED, photodiode and solar cell.
10.Communication Systems Elements of a communication system (block diagram only);
bandwidth of signals (speech, TV and digital data); bandwidth of transmission medium.
Modes of propagation of electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere through sky and
space waves, satellite communication. Modulation, types (frequency and amplitude),
need for modulation and demodulation, advantages of frequency modulation over
amplitude modulation. Elementary ideas about internet, mobile network and global
positioning system (GPS).
Self-explanatory- qualitative only.
