What Are the Best Quizlet Decks for AP Physics 1?

Unit 1: Kinematics

• Velocity: the displacement per elapsed time; it is defined as a vector because it gives a numerical value and the direction of the motion.
• Speed: commonly confused with velocity, how fast an object is traveling without a specified direction; it is a scalar quantity because only a number is associated with the measure.
• Free Fall: an object is under the influence of the force of gravity only; air resistance is negligible in this case.

Unit 2: Dynamics

• Newton’s First Law: "An object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by a net external force. Likewise, an object moving at a constant speed will continue moving unless acted upon by an external force."
• Frictional Forces: the force exerted when an object moves across a surface (resists motion); friction always resists motion in a parallel direction to the surface.
• Air Resistance: a type of frictional force acting upon objects as they travel through the air; since the force due to gravity is always downwards, the object slows down if air resistance is in the upward direction.

Unit 3: Circular Motion & Gravitation

• Uniform Circular Motion: an object travels along a circular path along an external axis, where the speed remains constant but the object can accelerate; the object can accelerate with constant speed because there is a change in direction.
• Gravitational Mass: the amount of matter that measures an object’s response to gravitational force (inertial mass measures an object’s resistance to any force).
• Frequency: the number of cycles a revolving object can complete within a certain amount of time, measured in Hertz per second, and is the inverse of a period (amount of time it takes for an object to complete one full cycle).

Unit 4: Energy

• Law of Conservation of Energy: "Energy cannot be created nor destroyed but can be converted into different forms from one form" (i.e. potential and kinetic).
• Mechanical Energy: the energy possessed by an object based on its position or ability to do work; can either be potential or kinetic energy.
• Closed Energy System: a system in which no energy can from external sources enter and no energy from the inside can escape outside; internal forces don’t affect the conservation of energy.

Unit 5: Momentum

• Angular Momentum: the amount of rotation an object undergoes - a product of its moment of inertia and angular velocity.
• Elastic Collision: a collision in which the total kinetic energy is conserved between two bodies; none of the heat is dissipated in any way (radiation or another form).
• Impulse Momentum Theorem: "The impulse is equal to the change in momentum where the impulse is a vector and the momentum is equal to the mass times the velocity of an object."

Unit 6: Simple Harmonic Motion

• Spring Constant: the ratio of the force affecting the spring to the displacement caused by it.
• Elastic Energy: occurs when an object, typically a spring, is stretched or compressed; describes the mechanics of solid bodies and materials.
• Amplitude: the maximum displacement traveled by a point on a vibrating body/wave that can be measured from the object’s equilibrium position.

Unit 7: Torque and Rotational Motion

• Conservation of Angular Momentum: "If no external torque acts on the rotating system, then the angular momentum of that system is constant."
• Torque: the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis; the force that causes twisting.
• Angular Acceleration: the rate of change in angular velocity (the rate of change in angular displacement).

Summing It Up