Maharashtra Board 12th Physics Syllabus 2025-26: Download PDF Below

Units

Competency Statements

Unit 1:

Rotational Motion and Mechanical Properties of fluids

• Distinguish between centrifugal and centripetal forces.
• Visualise the concepts of moment of inertia of an object.
• Relate the moment of inertia of a body with its angular momentum.
• Differentiate between translational and rotational motions of rolling objects.
• Relate the pressure of a fluid to the depth below its surface.
• Explain the measurement of atmospheric pressure by using a barometer.
• Use Pascal's law to explain the working of a hydraulic lift and hydraulic brakes.
• Relate the surface energy of a fluid to its surface tension.
• Distinguish between fluids that show capillary rise and fall.
• Identify processes in daily life where surface tension plays a major role.
• Explain the role of viscosity in everyday life.
• Differentiate between streamline flow and turbulent flow.

Unit 2:

Kinetic theory and Thermodynamics

• Relate various gas laws to form the ideal gas equation.
• Distinguish between an ideal gas and a real gas.
• Visualise the mean free path as a function of various parameters.
• Obtain the degrees of freedom of a diatomic molecule.
• Apply the law of equipartition of energy to monatomic and diatomic molecules.
• Compare the emission of thermal radiation from a body with blackbody radiation.
• Apply Stefan’s law of radiation to hot bodies .
• Identify thermodynamic processes in everyday life.
• Relate mechanical work and thermodynamic work.
• Differentiate between different types of thermodynamic processes.
• Explain the working of a heat engine, a refrigerator and an air conditioner.

Unit 3:

Oscillations and Waves

• Identify periodic motion and simple harmonic motion.
• Obtain the laws of motion for a simple pendulum.
• Visualise damped oscillations.
• Apply wave theory to understand the phenomena of reflection, refraction, interference and diffraction.
• Visualise polarised and unpolarized light.
• Apply concepts of diffraction to calculate the resolving power.
• Distinguish between the stationary waves in pipes with open and closed ends.
• Verify laws of vibrating string using a sonometer.
• Explain the physics involved in musical instruments

Unit 4:

Electrostatics and electric current

• Use Gaus's law to obtain the electric field for a charge distribution.
• Relate potential energy to work done to establish a charge distribution.
• Determine the electrostatic potential for a given charge distribution.
• Distinguish between conductors and insulators.
• Visualise polarisation of dielectrics.
• Categorise dielectrics based on molecular properties.
• Know the effect of the dielectric material used between the plates of a capacitor on its capacitance.
• Apply Kirchhoff’s laws to determine the current in different branches of a circuit.
• Find the value of an unknown resistance by using a meter bridge.
• Find the emf and internal resistance of a cell using a potentiometer.
• Convert a galvanometer into a voltmeter and an ammeter by using a suitable resistor.

Unit 5:

Magnetism

• Realise that the Lorentz force law is the basis for defining the unit of magnetic field.
• Visualise cyclotron motion of a charged particle in a magnetic field.
• Analyse and calculate the magnetic force on a straight and arbitrarily shaped current-carrying wire and a closed wire circuit.
• Apply the Biot-Savart law to calculate the magnetic field produced by various distributions of currents.
• Use Ampere’s law to get magnetic fields produced by a current distribution.
• Compare gravitational, magnetic and electrostatic potentials.
• Distinguish between paramagnetic, diamagnetic and ferromagnetic materials.
• Relate the concept of flux to the experiments of Faraday and Henry.
• Relate Lenz’s law to the conservation of energy.
• Visualise the concept of eddy currents.
• Determine the mutual inductance of a given pair of coils.
• Apply the laws of induction to explain the working of a generator.
• Establish a relation between the power dissipated by an AC current in a resistor and the value of the rms current.
• Visualise the concept of phases to represent AC current.
• Explain the passage of AC current through circuits having resistors, capacitors and inductors.
• Explain the concept of resonance in LCR circuits.

Unit 6:

Modern Physics

• Establish the validity of the particle nature of light from experimental results.
• Determine the necessary wavelength range of radiation to obtain photocurrent from given metals.
• Visualise the dual nature of matter and the dual nature of light.
• Apply the wave nature of electrons to illustrate how better resolution can be obtained with an electron microscope.
• Check the correctness of different atomic models by comparing the results of various experiments.
• Identify the constituents of atomic nuclei.
• Differentiate between electromagnetic and atomic forces.
• Obtain the age of a radioactive sample from its activity.
• Judge the importance of nuclear power.
• Explain the use of p-n junction diode as a rectifier.
• Find applications of special-purpose diodes for everyday use.
• Explain the working of a solar cell, LED and a photodiode.
• Relate the p-n junction diode and special-purpose diodes.
• Realise the transistor as an important building block of electronic circuits, and analyse situations in which a transistor can be used.