APS Graduate Exam case studies
APS Graduate Exam · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The APS Graduate Exam is a multiple-choice assessment designed to test whether a candidate has the working physics knowledge expected at the start of graduate-level study or in a research-adjacent technical role. It is aimed at physics graduates, engineering graduates moving into physics-heavy work, and independent learners who want an external check on their grasp of core theory. The APS Graduate Exam case studies are 5 cases and about 2,872 words.
1Pendulum in a Decelerating Elevator
A student hangs a simple pendulum of length L = 0.80 m and bob mass m = 0.25 kg from the ceiling of an elevator. The elevator is moving upward at 3.0 m/s and begins to decelerate uniformly, coming to rest in 1.5 s.
606 words, about 3 min2Charged Sphere Inside a Conducting Shell
A point charge q = +4.0 microC sits at the center of a neutral, solid conducting sphere of inner radius a = 3.0 cm and outer radius b = 6.0 cm. The conductor is isolated and initially uncharged.
669 words, about 3 min3Two-Slit Pattern with a Phase-Shifting Film
In a double-slit experiment, slit separation d = 0.20 mm, screen distance D = 1.5 m, and light of wavelength lambda = 600 nm in vacuum. A thin film of index n = 1.50 and thickness t = 200 nm is placed over one slit only.
537 words, about 3 min4Free Expansion and the Meaning of Entropy Change
A rigid, insulated container is divided by a partition into two equal halves, each of volume V = 10 L. One half holds n = 0.50 mol of an ideal monatomic gas at T = 300 K; the other half is evacuated.
528 words, about 3 min5Fitting a Damped Oscillator with Noisy Data
A student records the displacement of a damped harmonic oscillator at 200 evenly spaced times over 10 s and fits x(t) = A exp(-gamma t) cos(omega t + phi) using a least-squares routine. The fit returns gamma = 0.48 +/- 0.02 s^-1, omega = 6.28 +/- 0.01 rad/s, and A = 2.0 cm.
532 words, about 3 min