AP-Physics

Coram Deo’s high school physics introduces students to Newton's laws, statics, dynamics, thermodynamics, optics, DC circuits, waves, electromagnetics, and special relativity. The topics are covered to a depth appropriate for college students majoring in non-engineering disciplines. All students who are willing to do the homework can succeed in physics, and gifted students who take this course will have great success with the Advanced Placement (AP) Physics B Exam or the SAT Subject Exam in Physics. Relevant topics are covered before the exams are given in early May.

CDA has adopted the Saxon Physics program which allows students to deepen their understanding of physical law through incremental steps. Lessons are kept short, so the majority of the student’s time can be dedicated to practicing past concepts. Since physical laws are written in the language of mathematics, this practice entails working many problems. The core of Saxon Physics lies in the problem set associated with each lesson. With this in mind, students are expected to work every problem in every assigned problem set.

In addition to mathematical problem solving, lab experience is vital to learning physics. Student’s lab exercises will begin in the second quarter and run through the end of the school year. Lab experiments will expand the student’s understanding of important physical concepts and will prepare them for college-level lab courses. Proper lab technique and written analysis are stressed.

Great books readings and discussion round out the curriculum, giving students the opportunity to grapple with foundational questions concerning the history of science and the nature of physical law. Past selections have been drawn from the writings of Galileo, Pascal, Einstein, Whitehead, and Feynman.

Though the course elements are many, their aim is one: to inspire admiration for the regularity and rationality of the created order. We have fulfilled our goal if students, at the end of the course, can offer informed appreciation of the physical world, which as the Psalmist proclaims, gives witness to its Maker:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
       the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;
       night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language
       where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth,
       their words to the ends of the world.

---Psalm 19