Find the idea.
Then find the reading.

Connect position, velocity and acceleration graphs before attempting two-dimensional motion. Section 6.2 is a terminal-speed application; return to A.2 for the force model.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 2.1–2.6, 4.1–4.4, 6.2

Draw the interactions before choosing equations. Supplement the chapter reading with your course treatment of buoyancy and Stokes’ law; the topic label alone does not capture every SL/HL depth difference.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 4.5, 5.1–5.3, 6.1–6.3, 9.2–9.8

Track the system boundary and decide whether work or conservation of energy is the useful starting point.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 7.1–7.6, 8.1–8.5

Connect angular quantities to their linear counterparts. Use the IB guide to select moment-of-inertia and rotational problems at the intended depth.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 9.1, 10.1–10.8, 11.1–11.2, 11.5–11.8, 12.1–12.2

Include spacetime diagrams and worldlines in your practice. Algebraic time-dilation problems alone are not the whole topic.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 4.6–4.7, 37.1–37.4

• Taylor & WheelerSupplementary

  §§ 1.2–1.3, 3.7–3.8

  Spacetime intervals and their invariance.

• Taylor & WheelerSupplementary

  §§ 3.4, 4.9

  Simultaneity in different frames.

• Taylor & WheelerSupplementary

  Ch. 5

  Worldlines and spacetime diagrams.

• Taylor & WheelerSupplementary

  Special Topic L

  More detail on Lorentz transformations.

Start with thermal transfer, heat capacity and latent heat. Section 38.4 is titled “The Birth of Quantum Physics”; its usefulness for this topic still needs a closer content review.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 14.1, 18.1–18.4, 18.6, 19.4

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerOptional depth

  § 38.4

  Quantum origins of thermal radiation: section title checked, exact alignment still to review.

• Ryden & PetersonOptional depth

  § 5.7

  Stellar blackbody radiation as background.

Thermal-radiation physics provides a foundation. Add the climate articles for albedo, the atmosphere and planetary energy balance; the Halliday selections alone are not a complete greenhouse-effect guide.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 18.6, 33.1–33.2

• NASA Earth ObservatorySupplementary
  Climate and Earth’s Energy Budget ↗

  Trace incoming and outgoing energy, albedo and atmospheric absorption.

• UCAR Center for Science EducationSupplementary
  The Energy Budget ↗

  Use the energy-budget diagram to explain how the surface and atmosphere exchange radiation.

Connect the macroscopic gas laws to a particle model, stating the assumptions behind an ideal gas.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 14.1, 19.1–19.4

Keep a consistent sign convention for heat and work, and interpret processes on pressure–volume diagrams.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 18.5, 19.7–19.9, 20.1–20.4

Apply charge and energy conservation to circuits, and distinguish resistance from resistivity. Check your course notes for the required treatment of charge-carrier drift.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 24.1, 26.1, 26.3–26.5, 27.1–27.3

Link the restoring force, acceleration, displacement and energy of an oscillator. Use calculus derivations as support where helpful.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 15.1–15.4

Separate the motion of a particle from the propagation of a wave. Compare mechanical and electromagnetic examples.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 16.1, 17.1–17.2, 33.1

Focus on interpreting interference, diffraction, reflection and refraction. These selections are a starting point; check the syllabus treatment of polarization and avoid treating every undergraduate derivation as required.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 16.5, 33.5–33.6, 35.1–35.3, 36.1–36.2, 36.4–36.5

Identify boundary conditions and allowed modes before using harmonic formulas. Distinguish a driven resonance from a standing-wave pattern.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 15.5–15.6, 16.7, 17.5

State whether the source or observer is moving and identify the wave type. Keep acoustic and relativistic Doppler models distinct.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 17.7, 37.5

Distinguish gravitational field strength, potential, force and potential energy. Use orbit problems to connect these descriptions.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 13.1–13.3, 13.5–13.7

Compare field and potential descriptions. Detailed Gauss’s-law calculations, Biot–Savart applications and magnetic-material models can go beyond the IB treatment.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 21.1–21.3, 22.1–22.2, 23.3, 24.1–24.3, 24.6–24.7, 29.1, 29.4, 32.4

Predict the direction of the force before calculating its size. Separate electric acceleration from magnetic deflection.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 22.6, 28.1–28.2, 28.4, 28.6, 29.2

Prioritize magnetic flux, Faraday’s law and Lenz’s law. The selected AC reading needs careful scoping; quantitative RL transients and full RLC response are optional depth.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 30.1–30.2

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerOptional depth

  § 30.5

  Self-induction; quantitative circuit transients are depth beyond this introductory guide.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerOptional depth

  § 31.3

  Selected AC material only. Full RLC circuit analysis is not presented as required IB reading.

Connect scattering evidence, spectra and energy levels to the development of atomic models.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 21.2, 38.1, 39.5, 40.1, 42.1–42.2

Read for the physical meaning of photons and matter waves. Check the full guide for required content beyond this selection; it is not a complete quantum-physics checklist.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 38.1–38.5

Distinguish activity, decay constant and half-life. Connect nuclear transformations to mass–energy changes.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 37.6, 42.2–42.7

Follow the energy and neutrons through a fission chain reaction. Separate the nuclear process from the engineering of a reactor.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 43.1–43.2

Use Halliday for the nuclear foundations, then select the stellar readings below. Focus on parallax, spectra, H–R diagrams, fusion conditions and mass-dependent evolution. Detailed pulsar physics and named remnant mass limits are enrichment; Cepheid variables are excluded in the referenced IB guide.

• Halliday, Resnick & WalkerMain reading

  §§ 43.4–43.5, 13.1–13.3, 18.6

• Ryden & PetersonSupplementary

  §§ 13.1–13.4

  Observations: parallax, luminosity, surface temperature and stellar radius.

• Ryden & PetersonSupplementary

  §§ 14.2–14.4

  Classification: spectra and H–R diagrams. Prioritize reading the diagram and connecting temperature, luminosity and radius.

• Ryden & PetersonSupplementary

  §§ 14.1, 15.2–15.3

  Pressure balance and fusion: focus on the physical explanation and the conditions needed for fusion.

• Ryden & PetersonSupplementary

  §§ 17.1–17.2, 18.1–18.3

  Evolution and remnants: select the qualitative, mass-dependent pathways. Detailed pulsars, compact-object equations and named mass limits are optional depth.

• Ryden & PetersonOptional depth

  § 15.1

  Equations of stellar structure: an undergraduate extension, not a required IB derivation.