JEE Main Physics Syllabus Introduction

The Physics syllabus for the JEE Main examination is generally announced by the authority conducting it - NTA (National Testing Agency). This is based on the subjects covered during 11th and 12th class.

It is important for candidates to understand each and every topic included in the syllabus as questions can be incorporated from any part of it. This will aid you to get better results in the JEE Main exam.

Learn and strengthen your physics foundation with our team of experts, ready to impart knowledge and clarify your doubts. The Physics syllabus for the year 2021 is divided into two sections - Section A and Section B as shown below:

SECTION A (80% weightage):

Physics- Important Topics of Mechanics

Unit 1:Physics and Measurement

• Physics, technology and society, SI units, Fundamental and derived units. Least count, accuracy and precision of measuring instruments, Errors in measurement, Dimensions of Physical quantities, dimensional analysis and its applications.

Unit 2: Kinematics

Frame of reference. Motion in a straight line: Position-time graph, speed and velocity. Uniform and non-uniform motion, average speed and instantaneous velocity Uniformly accelerated motion, velocity-time, position-time graphs, relations for uniformly accelerated motion. Scalars and Vectors, Vector addition and Subtraction, Zero Vector, Scalar and Vector products, Unit Vector, Resolution of a Vector. Relative Velocity, Motion in a plane. Projectile Motion, Uniform Circular Motion.

Unit 3: Motion Law

Static and Kinetic friction, laws of friction, rolling friction. Dynamics of uniform circular motion: Centripetal force and its applications.

Force and Inertia, Newton’s First Law of motion; Momentum, Newton’s Second Law of motion; Impulse; Newton’s Third Law of motion. Law of conservation of linear momentum and its applications, Equilibrium of concurrent forces.

Unit 4: Work, Energy and Power

Work done by a constant force and a variable force; kinetic and potential energies, work-energy theorem, power. Potential energy of a spring, conservation of mechanical energy, conservative and non-conservative forces; Elastic and inelastic collisions in one and two dimensions.

Unit 5: Rotational Motion

Centre of mass of a two-particle system, Centre of mass of a rigid body; Basic concepts of rotational motion; moment of a force, torque, angular momentum, conservation of angular momentum and its applications; moment of inertia, radius of gyration. Values of moments of inertia for simple geometrical objects, parallel and perpendicular axes theorems and their applications. Rigid body rotation, equations of rotational motion.

Unit 6: Gravitation

The universal law of gravitation. Acceleration due to gravity and its variation with altitude and depth, Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. Gravitational potential energy; gravitational potential. Escape velocity. Orbital velocity of a satellite. Geo-stationary satellites.

Unit 7: Properties of Solids and Liquids

Elastic behaviour, Stress-strain relationship, Hooke’s Law, Young’s modulus, bulk modulus, modulus of rigidity. Pressure due to a fluid column; Pascal’s law and its applications. Viscosity, Stokes’ law, terminal velocity, streamline and turbulent flow, Reynolds number. Bernoulli’s principle and its applications. Surface energy and surface tension, angle of contact, application of surface tension – drops, bubbles and capillary rise. Heat, temperature, thermal expansion; specific heat capacity, calorimetry; change of state, latent heat. Heat transfer-conduction, convection and radiation, Newton’s law of cooling.

Physics- Important Topics of Heat and Thermodynamics

Unit 8: Thermodynamics

Thermal equilibrium, zeroth law of thermodynamics, concept of temperature. Heat, work and internal energy. First law of thermodynamics. Second law of thermodynamics: reversible and irreversible processes. Carnot engine and its efficiency.

Unit 9: Kinetic Theory of Gases

Equation of state of a perfect gas, work done on compressing a gas. Kinetic theory of gases-assumptions, the concept of pressure. Kinetic energy and temperature: RMS speed of gas molecules; Degrees of freedom, Law of equipartition of energy, applications to specific heat capacities of gases; Mean free path, Avogadro’s number.

Unit 10: Oscillations and Waves

Periodic motion – period, frequency, displacement as a function of time. Periodic functions. Simple harmonic motion (S.H.M.) and its equation; phase; oscillations of a spring -restoring force and force constant; energy in S.H.M. – Kinetic and potential energies; Simple pendulum – derivation of expression for its time period; Free, forced and damped oscillations, resonance.

Wave motion. Longitudinal and transverse waves, speed of a wave. Displacement relation for a progressive wave. Principle of superposition of waves, the reflection of waves, Standing waves in strings and organ pipes, fundamental mode and harmonics, Beats, Doppler effect in sound

Physics- Important Topics of Electrostatics & Electromagnetism

Unit 11: Electrostatics

Electric charges: Conservation of charge, Coulomb’s law-forces 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 a uniform electric field.

Electric flux, Gauss’s law and its applications to find fields due to infinitely long uniformly charged straight wire, uniformly charged infinite plane sheet and uniformly charged thin spherical shell.

Electric potential and its calculation for a point charge, electric dipole and system of charges; Equipotential surfaces, Electrical potential energy of a system of two point charges in an electrostatic field.

Conductors and insulators, Dielectrics and electric polarization, capacitor, a combination of capacitors in series and in parallel, the capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor with and without dielectric medium between the plates, Energy stored in a capacitor.

Physics- Important Topics of Current Electricity and EMI

Unit 12: Current Electricity

Electric current, Drift velocity, Ohm’s law, Electrical resistance, Resistances of different materials, V-I characteristics of Ohmic and non-ohmic conductors, Electrical energy and power, Electrical resistivity, Colour code for resistors; Series and parallel combinations of resistors; Temperature dependence of resistance.

Electric Cell and its Internal resistance, potential difference and emf of a cell, a combination of cells in series and in parallel. Kirchhoff's laws and their applications. Wheatstone bridge, Metre bridge. Potentiometer – principle and its applications.

Unit 13: Magnetic Effects of Current and Magnetism

Biot – Savart law and its application to current carrying circular loops. Ampere’s law and its applications to infinitely long current carrying straight wire and solenoid. •Force on a moving charge in uniform magnetic and electric fields. Cyclotron.

Force on a current-carrying conductor in a uniform magnetic field. The force between two parallel current-carrying conductors-definition of ampere, Torque experienced by a current loop in a uniform magnetic field; Moving coil galvanometer, its current sensitivity and conversion to ammeter and voltmeter.

Current loop as a magnetic dipole and its magnetic dipole moment. Bar magnet as an equivalent solenoid, magnetic field lines; Earth’s magnetic field and magnetic elements. Para-, dia- and ferro- magnetic substances.

Magnetic susceptibility and permeability, Hysteresis, Electromagnets and permanent magnets.

Unit 14: Electromagnetic Induction and Alternating Currents

Electromagnetic induction; Faraday’s law, induced emf and current; Lenz’s Law, Eddy currents. Self and mutual inductance. Alternating currents, peak and RMS value of alternating current/ voltage; reactance and impedance; LCR series circuit, resonance; Quality factor, power in AC circuits, wattless current. AC generator and Transformers.

Unit 15: Electromagnetic Waves

Electromagnetic waves and their characteristics. Transverse nature of electromagnetic waves.

Electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays). Applications of e.m. waves.

Physics- Important Topics of Optics & Modern Physics

Unit 16: Optics

Reflection and refraction of light at plane and spherical surfaces, mirror formula, Total internal reflection and its applications, Deviation and Dispersion of light by a prism, Lens Formula, Magnification, Power of a Lens, Combination of thin lenses in contact, Microscope and Astronomical Telescope (reflecting and refracting) and their magnifying powers.

Wave optics: wavefront and Huygens’ principle, Laws of reflection and refraction using Huygen’s principle. Interference, Young’s double-slit experiment and expression for fringe width, coherent sources and sustained interference of light. Diffraction due to a single slit, width of central maximum. Resolving power of microscopes and astronomical telescopes, Polarisation, plane polarized light; Brewster’s law, uses of plane-polarized light and Polaroids.

Unit 17: Dual Nature of Matter and Radiation

Dual nature of radiation. Photoelectric effect, Hertz and Lenard’s observations; Einstein’s photoelectric equation; particle nature of light. Matter waves-wave nature of particles, de Broglie relation. Davis son-Germer experiment.

Unit 18: Atoms and Nuclei

Alpha-particle scattering experiment; Rutherford’s model of atom; Bohr model, energy levels, hydrogen spectrum. Composition and size of nucleus, atomic masses, isotopes, isobars; isotones. Radioactivity-alpha, beta and gamma particles/rays and their properties; radioactive decay law. Mass-energy relation, mass defect; binding energy per nucleon and its variation with mass number, nuclear fission and fusion.

Unit 19: Electronic Devices

Semiconductors; semiconductor diode: I-V characteristics in forward and reverse bias; diode as a rectifier; 1-V characteristics of LED, photodiode, solar cell and Zener diode; Zener diode as a voltage regulator. Junction transistor, transistor action, characteristics of a transistor; transistor as an amplifier (common emitter configuration) and oscillator. Logic gates (OR, AND, NOT, NAND and NOR). Transistor as a switch.

Unit 20: Communication Systems

Propagation of electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere; Sky and space wave propagation, Need for modulation, Amplitude and Frequency Modulation, Bandwidth of signals, Bandwidth of Transmission medium, Basic Elements of a Communication System (Block Diagram only).

SECTION B (20% weightage):

Experimental Skills

• Vernier callipers: its use to measure the internal and external diameter and depth of a vessel.
• Screw gauge: its use to determine thickness/diameter of thin sheet/wire.
• Simple Pendulum: dissipation of energy by plotting a graph between square of amplitude and time.
• Metre Scale: the mass of a given object by the principle of moments.
• Young’s modulus of elasticity of the material of a metallic wire.
• The surface tension of water by capillary rise and effect of detergents.
• The coefficient of Viscosity of a given viscous liquid by measuring the terminal velocity of a given spherical body.
• Plotting a cooling curve for the relationship between the temperature of a hot body and time.
• The speed of sound in air at room temperature using a resonance tube.
• The specific heat capacity of a given: Solid, and liquid by method of mixtures.
• The resistivity of the material of a given wire using a meter bridge.
• The resistance of a given wire using Ohm’s law.
• Potentiometer: Comparison of emf of two primary cells and Determination of the internal resistance of a cell.
• Resistance and figure of merit of a galvanometer by half deflection method.
• The focal length of a Convex mirror, Concave mirror, and Convex lens using the parallax method.
• The plot of the angle of deviation vs angle of incidence for a triangular prism.
• Refractive index of a glass slab using a travelling microscope.
• Characteristic curves of a p-n junction diode in forward and reverse bias.
• Characteristic curves of a Zener diode and finding reverse breakdown voltage.
• Characteristic curves of a transistor and finding current gain and voltage gain.
• Identification of Diode, LED, Transistor, IC, Resistor, Capacitor from mixed collection of such items.
• Using the multimeter to: Identify base of a transistor, Distinguish between NPN and PNP type transistor, See the unidirectional flow of current in case of a diode and an LED. Check the correctness or otherwise of a given electronic component (diode, transistor or IC).

JEE Main Physics Preparation Tips: Crucial Topics:

1) Mechanics is one subject in science found by most researchers to be less competitive. To add to the problem, therefore, this is also the topic which, in details of points, constitutes the significant component of JEE (Main). So we can't ignore this subject.

2) Do not forget to look at other scoring topics to a good performance, like Optics, Electricity and Magnetism.

3) Kinematic analysis and dynamics of particles are very interesting physics discussions which appear regularly in the JEE documents.

4) Refer to the earlier JEE papers, make sure you go be thorough with them to get a hang of solving advanced level problems. Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism are really important topics to get a good score in previous years JEE papers. The topics weightage is listed in descending order for your reference of the previous years.

• Mechanics, Electromagnetic Induction, Magnetics,
• Electrostatics & Current Electricity (Equal importance)
• Modern Physics
• Optics & Waves
• Heat and Thermodynamics
• Waves and Sound

From the terminology of both physics and chemistry, quantum physics is essential so focus on those as well.

Since it's always been addressed that the most controversial issues in physics are motion, electromagnetism, it must be held in consideration to provide a good grasp of the fundamental principles of those pages. Vector is one term that participants hear very often when engaging with any of these subjects, so effort must be made to better comprehend it.

• JEE Main Physics Preparation Tips: basic rules to follow: There is no sure shot appropriate strategy, but we suggest some necessary tips which will help you in the exam:
• Solve last 10 years question papers: It'll get the momentum moving, and get you possibly the best-prepared for the ultimate fight. Solve the previous exam papers as the first phase of revision. It will get you in the right zone in the sense of what to expect in the final paper.
• Consult your teachers at every step: When you prepare for an entrance your teacher is your ally, consult them. Let them guide you. Being experienced, your teachers will help you clear your doubts and solve the question that you won’t be able to.
• Be Focussed: One can't help you if you don’t look out for yourself. Do it with determination if you want to crack IIT JEE. The competition is fierce and hence you should be prepared in every way so you don’t falter at the end.

JEE Main Physics Preparation Tips: Key Pointers:

Solve Previous Year Question Paper: After completing your syllabus, you should be more inclined towards solving the previous year questions papers. This platform not only provides you with enough practice but also deliver an idea of what to expect in the JEE Main exam.

Importance of short notes, flashcards and shortcuts- You must make your own JEE Main Physics notes as you go through with each topic of the subject. Mug up the important formulas as this will help you in reaching your answer quickly. Notes serve as a good method during the revision of the exam.

Stay focused and relaxed- It is suggested to complete a topic and take a short break. You should also invest some time in relaxing yourself. Do some activity that will motivate and keep you focused as well.

The basic rule to get the right answer- Adopt this elimination process by removing the options which you feel can’t be right for sure. Try to solve the easiest question first in the limited time frame. It is advised to leave a question if you are not able to get the answer and move to the next one.

Tips to Remember- Start your preparation for the Physics with NCERT books and make your concepts strong. Carry out rigorous practice and attempt mock tests in order to enhance your chances of scoring well. Do not involve yourself in guesswork and be positive and calm to get success in JEE Main 2021.

Chapter-wise Weightage in JEE Main Physics

Knowing the weightage of the topic helps you in getting important topics for the exam. The weightage for the 2021 exam has not been announced yet, but you can take a look at the Physics syllabus with weightage below for the 2020 session as reference:

Recommended Books for JEE Main Physics Preparation

We suggest you not spend your time reading too many books. Just keep with you some important books that will help you in getting the exact pattern, relevant content, well-planned study strategy and some useful tricks. Here is the list of books that we recommended books for Physics:

• Concepts of Physics (volumes 1 and 2) - H.C Verma
• Guide to AIEEE - G.K Publishers
• Problems in General Physics - I.E Irodov
• D.C Pandey (Complete Set) - Arihant.
• Problems in Physics - S.S Krotov
• Solved Papers and 8 Practice sets - GGSIP