PHYSICS SYLLABUS (THEORY)

CLASS XII (12th)

EDUCATIONAL YEAR 2025-2026

Unit – I

Electrostatics

Chapter–1: Electric Charges and Fields

• Electric charges,
• Conservation of charge,
• Coulomb’s law-force between two-point charges,
• forces between multiple charges;
• 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,
• statement of Gauss’s theorem and its applications to find field due to infinitely long straight wire,
• uniformly charged infinite plane sheet and uniformly charged thin spherical shell (field inside and outside).

Chapter–2: Electrostatic Potential 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 polarization,
• capacitors and capacitance,
• combination of capacitors in series and in parallel,
• capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor with and without dielectric medium between the plates,
• energy stored in a capacitor (no derivation, formulae only).

Unit – II

Current Electricity

Chapter–3: Current Electricity

• Electric current,
• flow of electric charges in a metallic conductor,
• drift velocity,
• mobility and their relation with electric current;
• Ohm’s law,
• V-I characteristics (linear and non-linear),
• electrical energy and power,
• electrical resistivity and conductivity,
• temperature dependence of resistance,
• Internal resistance of a cell,
• potential difference and emf of a cell,
• combination of cells in series and in parallel,
• Kirchhoff’s rules,
• Wheatstone bridge.

Unit – III

Magnetic Effects of Current and Magnetism

Chapter–4: Moving Charges and Magnetism

• Concept of magnetic field,
• Oersted’s experiment.

• Biot – Savart law and its application to current carrying circular loop.

• Ampere’s 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;
• Current loop as a magnetic dipole and its magnetic dipole moment,
• moving coil galvanometer-its current sensitivity and conversion to ammeter and voltmeter.

Chapter–5: Magnetism and Matter

• Bar magnet,
• bar magnet as an equivalent solenoid (qualitative treatment only),
• magnetic field intensity due to a magnetic dipole (bar magnet) along its axis and perpendicular to its axis (qualitative treatment only),
• torque on a magnetic dipole (bar magnet) in a uniform magnetic field (qualitative treatment only),
• magnetic field lines.

• Magnetic properties of materials- Para-, dia- and ferro – magnetic substances with examples,
• Magnetization of materials,
• effect of temperature on magnetic properties.

Unit – IV

Electromagnetic Induction and Alternating Currents

Chapter–6: Electromagnetic Induction

• Electromagnetic induction;
• Faraday’s laws,
• induced EMF and current;
• Lenz’s Law,
• Self and mutual induction.

Chapter–7: Alternating Current

• Alternating currents,
• peak and RMS value of alternating current/voltage;
• reactance and impedance;
• LCR series circuit (phasors only),
• resonance,
• power in AC circuits,
• power factor,
• wattless current.

• AC generator,
• Transformer.

Unit – V

Electromagnetic waves

Chapter–8: Electromagnetic Waves

• Basic idea of displacement current,
• Electromagnetic waves,
• their characteristics,
• their transverse nature (qualitative idea only).

• Electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays) including elementary facts about their uses.

Unit – VI

Optics

Chapter–9: Ray Optics and Optical Instruments

Ray Optics:

• Reflection of light,
• spherical mirrors,
• mirror formula,
• refraction of light,
• total internal reflection and optical fibers,
• refraction at spherical surfaces,
• lenses,
• thin lens formula,
• lens maker’s formula,
• magnification,
• power of a lens,
• combination of thin lenses in contact,
• refraction of light through a prism.

Optical instruments:

• Microscopes and astronomical telescopes (reflecting and refracting) and their magnifying powers.

Chapter–10: Wave Optics

Wave optics:

• Wave front and Huygen’s principle,
• Reflection and refraction of plane wave at a plane surface using wave fronts.
• Proof of laws of reflection and refraction using Huygen’s principle.
• Interference,
• Young’s double slit experiment and expression for fringe width (No derivation final expression only),
• Coherent sources and sustained interference of light,
• Diffraction due to a single slit,
• Width of central maxima (qualitative treatment only).

Unit VII

Dual Nature of Radiation and Matter

Chapter–11: Dual Nature of Radiation and Matter

• Dual nature of radiation,
• Photoelectric effect,
• Hertz and Lenard’s observations;
• Einstein’s photoelectric equation-particle nature of light.

• Experimental study of photoelectric effect

• Matter waves-wave nature of particles,
• de-Broglie relation.

Unit VIII

Atoms and Nuclei

Chapter–12: Atoms

• Alpha-particle scattering experiment;
• Rutherford’s model of atom;
• Bohr model of hydrogen atom,
• Expression for radius of nth possible orbit, velocity and energy of electron in his orbit of hydrogen line spectra (qualitative treatment only).

Chapter–13: Nuclei

• Composition and size of nucleus, nuclear force

• Mass-energy relation,
• mass defect;
• binding energy per nucleon and its variation with mass number;
• nuclear fission,
• nuclear fusion.

Unit IX

Electronic Devices

Chapter–14: Semiconductor Electronics:

Materials, Devices and Simple Circuits:

• Energy bands in conductors,
• Semiconductors and insulators (qualitative ideas only)
• Intrinsic and Extrinsic semiconductors – p and n type, p-n junction

• Semiconductor diode – I-V characteristics in forward and reverse bias,
• application of junction diode -diode as a rectifier.