Master Physics from first principles
Texas CBE prep · TEKS §112.45 (NOT AP® Physics 1/2/C). Motion, forces, energy, momentum, waves, electricity, and modern physics. This service prepares Texas HS-level Physics for CBE credit through UT High School / Texas Tech K-12; it is not designed for the College Board AP® Physics exams (1, 2, C: Mechanics, C: E&M). AP® is a registered trademark of the College Board.
Physics 1A: Scientific Processes & Measurement
Lab safety in the physics classroom, the scientific method as a discipline, measurement precision and accuracy, SI units, and how graphs let you read motion. The foundation the CBE expects you already have.
Physics 1A: Motion in One Dimension (Kinematics)
Position, displacement, speed, velocity, and acceleration — the language physicists use to describe motion. The four kinematic equations that solve almost every 1D problem on the Physics Semester A CBE. And how motion graphs let you skip algebra entirely.
Physics 1A: Newton’s Laws & Force Applications
Newton’s three laws — the framework physicists use to explain every motion problem in Physics Semester A. Weight vs mass, free-body diagrams that catch algebra errors before you make them, and the subtleties of action-reaction pairs that most students get wrong.
Physics 1A: Gravitation & Fundamental Forces
Newton’s law of universal gravitation, the inverse-square dependence that changes the answer by a factor of 4 when you double the distance, weight vs mass on different worlds, and where gravity sits among the four fundamental forces.
Physics 1A: Energy, Work, Power & Momentum
The three currencies of mechanics — energy, momentum, and power — and the conservation laws that make almost every problem solvable without tracking each force. Work-energy theorem, kinetic vs potential energy transformations, impulse, and the difference between elastic and inelastic collisions.
Physics 1A: Thermodynamics
Thermodynamics background for Physics 1A: temperature versus heat, temperature scales, specific heat and Q = mcΔT, conduction/convection/radiation, the laws of thermodynamics, entropy, engine efficiency, and thermal expansion. This material is not assessed on the current Physics CBE — the 2020 Physics TEKS moved it off the Physics exam — so treat it as background, not exam content. The one thermal idea the exam does test, energy transformation, lives in the Energy lesson.
Physics 1B: Electric Force, Fields & Coulomb's Law
Coulomb's law and how it echoes gravity — inverse-square, universal, always acting at a distance. Electric fields as the framework for calculating forces without listing every source. Conductors, insulators, and where charge lives.
Physics 1B: Circuits & Ohm's Law
Current as flowing charge, voltage as electric pressure, resistance as the pushback. Ohm's law V = IR, power dissipated as heat P = IV, and the two arrangements — series and parallel — that determine everything about how the components share load.
Physics 1B: Magnetism & Electromagnetic Induction
Magnetic fields, how they exert forces on moving charges and current-carrying wires, and how a changing magnetic flux drives an electric current through a wire — the physics behind generators, motors, and the transformers that step voltages up and down between power plants and your home.
Physics 1B: Waves, Sound & Optics
Simple harmonic motion, transverse vs longitudinal waves, the universal v = λf relationship, and the six behaviors — reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference, resonance, Doppler — that the CBE tests. Plus mirrors, lenses, and Snell's law for optics.
Physics 1B: Atomic, Nuclear & Quantum Physics
The exam half: light as both wave and particle, E = hf and the photoelectric effect that won Einstein his Nobel, atomic emission spectra, the de Broglie wavelength, and the modern quantum phenomena (Malus’s law, uncertainty, quantum computing) added in the 2023 TEKS. The nuclear half — E = mc², binding energy, fission and fusion — is background only: the 2020 Physics TEKS moved it to the Chemistry CBE.