AP Physics B Equation Sheet: What to Use Now

There is no current AP Physics B equation sheet, because AP Physics B is not one of the courses in the AP Physics course descriptions in force today. The algebra-based program is two courses. Use the AP Physics 1 sheet for mechanics and fluids, and the AP Physics 2 sheet for everything else.

Course-level orientation page covering both algebra-based courses: AP Physics 1 (Units 1 to 8) and AP Physics 2 (Units 9 to 15), from the Course and Exam Descriptions effective fall 2024. Equation-sheet contents come from the Table of Information appendix of each description.

There is no current AP Physics B equation sheet

If you came here for the AP Physics B equation sheet, the honest answer is that there is no current one to hand you. AP Physics B is not among the courses covered by the College Board Course and Exam Descriptions in force today. Those four descriptions, all marked Effective Fall 2024, are AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based, AP Physics 2: Algebra-Based, AP Physics C: Mechanics, and AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism.

Two of the four are algebra-based, and they run as a sequence rather than as one standalone course. The Physics 1 description puts its course as equivalent to the first course in an introductory college course sequence in algebra-based physics. The Physics 2 description puts its course as the second course in that same sequence, and states the prerequisite: students should have completed AP Physics 1 or a comparable introductory physics course, and should have taken or be concurrently taking precalculus or an equivalent course.

So the algebra-based material sits in two courses with two separate equation sheets:

The AP Physics 1 equation sheet carries 4 constants and 48 equations, every one of them mechanics or fluids.
The AP Physics 2 equation sheet carries 21 constants and 108 equations, across electricity, magnetism, thermal physics, waves and optics, modern physics, and a full mechanics and fluids block.

If the calculus-based courses are what you actually want, their sheets are AP Physics C: Mechanics and AP Physics C: E&M. All four sit on the equation sheet index.

Which sheet has the equation you want

Route by topic, not by course name. Find your row, then open that sheet.

What you are looking for	On the Physics 1 sheet	On the Physics 2 sheet	Block it sits in
Kinematics with constant acceleration	Yes	Yes	Mechanics and Fluids
Newton's second law, friction, springs, gravitation	Yes	Yes	Mechanics and Fluids
Work, energy, and power	Yes	Yes	Mechanics and Fluids
Momentum and impulse	Yes	Yes	Mechanics and Fluids
Torque, rotational motion, angular momentum	Yes	Yes	Mechanics and Fluids
Simple harmonic motion: period, frequency, displacement	Yes	Yes	Mechanics and Fluids
Density, pressure, buoyancy, continuity, Bernoulli	Yes	Yes	Mechanics and Fluids
Ideal gases and the first law of thermodynamics	No	Yes	Thermal Physics
Electric force, field, potential, capacitors	No	Yes	Electricity
Circuits, resistance, electrical power, RC time constant	No	Yes	Electricity
Magnetic force, magnetic field, induced emf	No	Yes	Magnetism
Reflection, refraction, mirrors, lenses	No	Yes	Waves, Sound, and Optics
Wave speed, interference, diffraction, beats	No	Yes	Waves, Sound, and Optics
Photons, atomic spectra, radioactive decay, mass and energy	No	Yes	Modern Physics

The pattern is simple. Anything mechanical or fluid is on both sheets. Anything electrical, thermal, optical or modern is on the Physics 2 sheet only.

Three specific lines people arrive looking for. The constant-acceleration equations are printed on both algebra-based sheets, and there are three of them rather than four: the kinematic equations guide covers which one is missing and why. Friction is printed once, as a magnitude relation that has to cover the static and the kinetic case together, so static vs kinetic friction is worth reading before you use it, and the coefficient of friction table gives you the values the sheet does not print. Momentum and impulse are on both sheets, but the question students actually want answered is what is conserved in a collision, which no sheet answers.

The Physics 2 sheet reprints the entire mechanics block

If you are holding an old algebra-based reference sheet and want one current page to replace it, this is the part that matters.

The Mechanics and Fluids block on the AP Physics 2 Table of Information is the same 48 equations that make up the whole of the AP Physics 1 sheet, in the same order. Kinematics, center of mass, Newton's second law, gravitation, friction, springs, circular motion, work, energy, power, momentum, impulse, torque, rotational inertia, angular momentum, oscillations and fluids are all reprinted there.

The reverse does not hold. The AP Physics 1 sheet has 4 constants and 48 equations, and every one of them is mechanics or fluids. There is no circuit equation, no lens equation, no gas law and no photon equation anywhere on it.

Here is how the Physics 2 sheet breaks down:

Block on the AP Physics 2 sheet	Lines
Constants and conversion factors	21
Electricity	20
Magnetism	7
Thermal Physics	8
Waves, Sound, and Optics	15
Modern Physics	10
Mechanics and Fluids	48

Those counts are of the constants and physics equations, which is what the sheet pages here reproduce. The official appendix also prints a prefix table, a unit-symbol table, trigonometric values for common angles, a geometry and trigonometry table, and a short list of exam conventions. The conventions are worth your attention and are set out below.

Where the algebra-based syllabus lives now: Units 1 to 15

The two algebra-based courses number their units in one continuous run. AP Physics 1 is Units 1 through 8. AP Physics 2 picks up at Unit 9 and ends at Unit 15. The percentages are each unit's share of the multiple-choice section of its own exam.

Unit	Course	Multiple-choice weighting
1 Kinematics	Physics 1	10-15%
2 Force and Translational Dynamics	Physics 1	18-23%
3 Work, Energy, and Power	Physics 1	18-23%
4 Linear Momentum	Physics 1	10-15%
5 Torque and Rotational Dynamics	Physics 1	10-15%
6 Energy and Momentum of Rotating Systems	Physics 1	5-8%
7 Oscillations	Physics 1	5-8%
8 Fluids	Physics 1	10-15%
9 Thermodynamics	Physics 2	15-18%
10 Electric Force, Field, and Potential	Physics 2	15-18%
11 Electric Circuits	Physics 2	15-18%
12 Magnetism and Electromagnetism	Physics 2	12-15%
13 Geometric Optics	Physics 2	12-15%
14 Waves, Sound, and Physical Optics	Physics 2	12-15%
15 Modern Physics	Physics 2	12-15%

Every AP Physics 1 unit has its own page, reachable from the AP Physics 1 course hub. Unit 8, for instance, is at Fluids. The AP Physics 2 course hub is a single page that lists all seven of its units and every topic inside them.

Reading an old worksheet against the current courses

Take the topic printed at the top of your worksheet and look for it in the unit table above, then in the topic list on the relevant hub page. Each Course and Exam Description states that its topics carry the required learning objectives and essential knowledge statements that form the basis of the assessment on the AP exam, so those topic lists are the assessed content. A topic that appears in neither list is not assessed on either algebra-based exam.

Three things worth checking before you trust an old problem set:

Fluids is Unit 8 of AP Physics 1 and carries 10 to 15% of that exam's multiple-choice section. If your old material files fluids under a second-year course, note where it sits today: see the AP Physics 1 fluids guide and Unit 8.
Oscillations and waves are not the same unit or even the same course. Oscillations is Unit 7 inside AP Physics 1. Waves, Sound, and Physical Optics is Unit 14, inside AP Physics 2.
A four-function, scientific, or graphing calculator is allowed on both sections of both algebra-based exams.

Two things this page deliberately does not tell you, because nothing in the four current Course and Exam Descriptions says them:

When AP Physics B was last administered: NEED_SOURCE.
Whether College Board describes AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 as its formal successors, and how a single-course algebra-based syllabus was divided between them: NEED_SOURCE.

None of the four current descriptions carries a revision history or mentions AP Physics B, so this page routes you by topic rather than asserting dates and transitions it cannot cite.

Constants and conventions worth double-checking

An old reference sheet can agree with a current one on the algebra and still cost you marks on the constants and the sign conventions. Four things to check.

The value of g. Both algebra-based sheets print $g = 9.8\ \text{m/s}^2$ and $g = 9.8\ \text{N/kg}$ in their constants block, but that is not the whole story and an old sheet will not warn you. A boundary statement under Topic 1.3 of the AP Physics 1 course description says that for all situations in which a numerical quantity is required for $g$ , the value $g \approx 10\ \text{m/s}^2$ will be used, and then says students will not be penalized for correctly using the more precise commonly accepted values of $9.81\ \text{m/s}^2$ or $9.8\ \text{m/s}^2$ . Both values are genuinely in play. Is g 9.8 or 10 in AP Physics 1 works out which one to reach for and when.

The Coulomb constant. The Physics 2 sheet prints it as $k = \frac{1}{4\pi\varepsilon_0} = 9.0 \times 10^9\ \text{N} \cdot \text{m}^2/\text{C}^2$ . That is 9.0, not 8.99. Use the printed value so your arithmetic matches the grader's. Coulomb's law works through it.

The thermodynamic sign convention. The Physics 2 sheet prints $W = -P \Delta V$ and $\Delta U = Q + W$ , and its symbol key defines $W$ as work done on a system and $Q$ as energy transferred to a system by heating. If your old notes define $W$ as work done by the gas, every sign in every first-law problem flips. PV diagrams in thermodynamics uses the sheet's convention throughout.

The conventions block, which is not the same on the two sheets. The AP Physics 1 Table of Information states that the following conventions are used in this exam:

The frame of reference of any problem is assumed to be inertial unless otherwise stated.
Air resistance is assumed to be negligible unless otherwise stated.
Springs and strings are assumed to be ideal unless otherwise stated.
Fluids are assumed to be ideal, and pipes are assumed to be completely filled by fluid, unless otherwise stated.

The AP Physics 2 Table of Information states that the following conventions are used in this exam unless otherwise stated:

The frame of reference is inertial.
Frictional forces are negligible.
Strings, springs, batteries, wires, and meters are ideal.
Resistors and lightbulbs are ohmic.
Ideal gases are monatomic.
The electric potential is zero at an infinite distance from an isolated point charge.
Current is conventional current.
Capacitors are air-filled, with $\kappa = 1.0$ .
The small angle approximation is valid for single-slit and double-slit diffraction.

Read the two lists against each other. Physics 1 assumes only that air resistance is negligible, which it has to, because friction is a required topic in Unit 2 of that course. Physics 2 assumes frictional forces are negligible outright, and adds the electrical and optical idealizations its own units need.

What no equation sheet does for you

Both algebra-based exams have the same shape. Three hours: 42 multiple-choice questions in 85 minutes for 50% of the score, then 4 free-response questions in 95 minutes for the other 50%. The four free-response questions are always the same four types, in this order: Mathematical Routines, Translation Between Representations, Experimental Design and Analysis, and Qualitative/Quantitative Translation. A four-function, scientific, or graphing calculator is allowed on both sections of both exams.

Only the first of those four free-response questions is mainly calculation, and none of them is answered by finding the right line on the sheet. The sheet gives you the relationship. It does not tell you which system to draw a boundary around, which direction you called positive, or what happens to the answer when one input doubles.

So treat the sheet as a lookup and spend the practice time elsewhere:

Choose equations by what is missing from the problem rather than by topic. The kinematic equations guide does exactly that, and the kinematics calculator shows every step of the algebra.
Draw the free-body diagram before you touch the sheet. See how to draw a free-body diagram and the free-body diagram builder.
Practice the conservation arguments in words, not just in numbers: conservation of energy and conservation of momentum.
For the Physics 2 half, circuits and optics reward pattern recognition more than recall. Start with Ohm's law, series vs parallel circuits, and wave speed, frequency, and wavelength.
If you are deciding whether to take the first course at all, is AP Physics 1 hard has the 2025 score data.

An old mechanics problem: which sheet, which line

A $2.0$ kg block is already sliding down a ramp inclined at $30^\circ$ to the horizontal. The coefficient of kinetic friction between the block and the ramp is $0.25$ . Find the block's acceleration.

Route it first. This is friction plus Newton's second law, so it lives in the Mechanics and Fluids block, which is printed on the AP Physics 1 sheet and reprinted on the AP Physics 2 sheet. Either sheet answers it.
Declare the axis before any arithmetic: positive is down the slope. The block is sliding down, so kinetic friction acts up the slope and carries a negative sign.
Resolve the gravitational force. Along the slope, $F_{g,\parallel} = mg\sin\theta = (2.0)(9.8)\sin 30^\circ = 9.80$ N. Perpendicular to the slope there is no acceleration, so the normal force is $F_N = mg\cos\theta = (2.0)(9.8)\cos 30^\circ = 16.97$ N.
The sheet prints friction as a magnitude relation, $\left| \vec{F}_f \right| \leq \left| \mu \vec{F}_N \right|$ , because one line has to cover static friction as well. A block that is already sliding takes the equality with the kinetic coefficient: $F_f = \mu_k F_N = (0.25)(16.97) = 4.24$ N, up the slope.
Newton's second law is printed as $\vec{a}_{\text{sys}} = \frac{\sum \vec{F}}{m_{\text{sys}}} = \frac{\vec{F}_{\text{net}}}{m_{\text{sys}}}$ . Along the slope, $F_{\text{net}} = 9.80 - 4.24 = 5.56$ N, so $a = 5.56/2.0 = 2.78\ \text{m/s}^2$ .

$a = 2.8\ \text{m/s}^2$ down the slope, to the two significant figures the data supports. Two lines off the sheet did all of it: the friction relation and Newton's second law, both in the Mechanics and Fluids block. Change the angle and the coefficient in the inclined plane simulator, or follow the full routine in inclined plane problems.

A thermodynamics problem: Physics 2 sheet only

A monatomic ideal gas is compressed at a constant pressure of $1.5 \times 10^5$ Pa from $4.0 \times 10^{-3}\ \text{m}^3$ to $2.5 \times 10^{-3}\ \text{m}^3$ . During the compression, $350$ J of energy leaves the gas by heating. Find the work done on the gas and the change in its internal energy.

Route it. Ideal gases and the first law are in the Thermal Physics block, which appears on the AP Physics 2 sheet and nowhere on the AP Physics 1 sheet. If you only have the Physics 1 sheet in front of you, you have the wrong sheet.
Volume change: $\Delta V = 2.5 \times 10^{-3} - 4.0 \times 10^{-3} = -1.5 \times 10^{-3}\ \text{m}^3$ . Negative, because the gas is compressed.
The sheet prints $W = -P \Delta V$ , and its symbol key defines $W$ as work done on a system. So $W = -(1.5 \times 10^5)(-1.5 \times 10^{-3}) = +225$ J. Positive, which is the right sign: compressing a gas does work on it.
Energy leaving by heating makes $Q$ negative, so $Q = -350$ J. The first law is printed as $\Delta U = Q + W$ , giving $\Delta U = -350 + 225 = -125$ J.

$W = +225$ J done on the gas and $\Delta U = -125$ J. The internal energy falls even though work was done on the gas, because more energy left by heating than arrived as work. Define $W$ as the work done by the gas instead and both signs invert, which is exactly the trap an old reference sheet with the opposite convention sets. PV diagrams in thermodynamics has the graphical version.

One problem, three blocks of the same sheet

A proton starts from rest and is accelerated through a potential difference of magnitude $1200$ V. It then enters a uniform magnetic field of magnitude $0.250$ T, moving perpendicular to the field. Find the proton's speed and the magnitude of the magnetic force on it. Use the sheet's values $e = 1.60 \times 10^{-19}$ C and $m_p = 1.67 \times 10^{-27}$ kg.

Energy first. The Electricity block prints $\Delta U_E = q \Delta V$ , so the magnitude of the energy transferred is $(1.60 \times 10^{-19})(1200) = 1.92 \times 10^{-16}$ J.
The proton starts from rest, so all of that shows up as kinetic energy. The line you need next, $K = \frac{1}{2} m v^2$ , is in the Mechanics and Fluids block of the same sheet.
Solve for speed: $v = \sqrt{2K/m_p} = \sqrt{2(1.92 \times 10^{-16})/(1.67 \times 10^{-27})} = \sqrt{2.30 \times 10^{11}} = 4.80 \times 10^5$ m/s.
Now the Magnetism block: $F_B = q v B \sin\theta$ , with $\theta = 90^\circ$ so $\sin\theta = 1$ . That gives $F_B = (1.60 \times 10^{-19})(4.80 \times 10^5)(0.250) = 1.92 \times 10^{-14}$ N.

$v = 4.80 \times 10^5$ m/s and $F_B = 1.92 \times 10^{-14}$ N. Three different blocks of one sheet answered a single question: Electricity, then Mechanics and Fluids, then Magnetism. That is the practical reason the AP Physics 2 sheet reprints the mechanics equations rather than assuming you kept last year's.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an AP Physics B equation sheet?

Not a current one. AP Physics B is not among the courses covered by the AP Physics Course and Exam Descriptions in force today, so there is no current sheet for it. The two algebra-based sheets now are the AP Physics 1 equation sheet, which is mechanics and fluids only, and the AP Physics 2 equation sheet, which adds electricity, magnetism, thermal physics, waves and optics, and modern physics.

What are the AP Physics courses now?

Four, each with a Course and Exam Description marked Effective Fall 2024: AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based, AP Physics 2: Algebra-Based, AP Physics C: Mechanics, and AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism. The description for Physics 1 calls it equivalent to the first course in an introductory college course sequence in algebra-based physics, and the description for Physics 2 calls it the second course in that sequence, listing AP Physics 1 or a comparable introductory physics course as a prerequisite.

Does the AP Physics 2 equation sheet include mechanics?

Yes. The AP Physics 2 Table of Information carries a Mechanics and Fluids block of 48 equations, which is the same list that makes up the whole AP Physics 1 sheet. Kinematics, Newton's second law, friction, gravitation, work and energy, momentum and impulse, torque, angular momentum, oscillations and fluids are all printed on the Physics 2 sheet as well as the Physics 1 sheet.

Which AP Physics equation sheet has thermodynamics on it?

The AP Physics 2 sheet. Its Thermal Physics block prints eight lines, including the ideal gas law and the first law of thermodynamics, written as the change in internal energy equals Q plus W, with W defined as the work done on the system and equal to minus P times the change in volume. The AP Physics 1 sheet has no thermodynamics on it at all: all 48 of its equations are mechanics or fluids.

Can I still use an old AP Physics B practice test?

Only after checking it topic by topic. Match every question against the unit lists for AP Physics 1, which is Units 1 through 8, and AP Physics 2, which is Units 9 through 15. Each Course and Exam Description states that its topics carry the required learning objectives and essential knowledge statements that form the basis of the assessment on the AP exam, so a question on a topic in neither list is not assessed by either exam. Both exams also have a fixed free-response structure of four questions, only the first of which is mainly calculation.

What value of g is printed on the AP Physics equation sheets?

Both algebra-based sheets print g as 9.8 meters per second squared in their constants block, and also as 9.8 newtons per kilogram for the gravitational field strength at Earth's surface. The AP Physics 1 course description says something else: a boundary statement under Topic 1.3 says that for all situations in which a numerical quantity is required for g, the value of about 10 meters per second squared will be used, and that students will not be penalized for correctly using the more precise commonly accepted values of 9.81 or 9.8 meters per second squared. Both values are genuinely in play, which is why this confuses people. Is g 9.8 or 10 in AP Physics 1 works through which one to use where.

Do AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 have the same exam format?

Yes. Both exams run 3 hours: 42 multiple-choice questions in 85 minutes worth 50% of the score, then 4 free-response questions in 95 minutes worth the other 50%. The four free-response types are Mathematical Routines, Translation Between Representations, Experimental Design and Analysis, and Qualitative/Quantitative Translation. A four-function, scientific, or graphing calculator is allowed on both sections of both exams.