NCERT Class 12 Physics Book Physics Part II: Index and PDFs

The NCERT Class 12 Physics book Physics Part II holds the second half of the Class 12 Physics syllabus for the 2026-27 session: six chapters covering ray and wave optics, dual nature, atoms, nuclei and semiconductor electronics. This page gives you the official PDF for every chapter straight from ncert.nic.in, so you have the file within one scroll.

It also does what the PDF alone cannot — it tells you what is actually inside each chapter, measured from the book itself: how many sections, figures and exercises each one carries.

Download the official Class 12 Physics Part II PDFs

These are NCERT’s own files, hosted on ncert.nic.in — the same PDFs the board links to. Each chapter is a separate file, one row per chapter.

To open the chapter that carries the most numerical work directly, the official ray optics file at ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/leph201.pdf covers mirrors, lenses, prisms and optical instruments across 34 pages — a good starting point for this book. The other five chapters follow the same {% raw %}leph20{% endraw %} numbering pattern up to leph206.pdf.

Class 12 physics pdf: the Part II book at a glance

These totals are counted from the book itself, not estimated:

• 6 chapters — Chapters 9 to 14 of the Class 12 Physics syllabus
• 123 printed pages (pp. 221-343)
• 72 named syllabus sections indexed from the textbook
• 69 verified numbered figures indexed from the textbook
• 71 exercise questions spread across the six chapters
• 0 activities — all six chapters record none, so the learning runs through figures, derivations and exercises

Because no chapter carries activities, every chapter relies on reading and problem work instead of lab-style tasks. The per-chapter breakdown below shows exactly where that work concentrates.

Class 12 physics index: what each chapter teaches

The table above is read straight from the book. A section is one of NCERT’s own numbered headings, a figure is a numbered figure indexed from the textbook, and a question is an end-of-chapter exercise. Every count is checkable by opening the chapter PDF and counting.

Chapter 9: Ray Optics and Optical Instruments (pp. 221-254)

The laws of reflection and refraction hold for every surface and pair of media at the exact point where the ray strikes. A real image formed between \( f \) and \( 2f \) by a convex lens sits on the screen — and it is still there even when the screen is removed, a point that puzzles many students.

Image formation needs regular reflection or refraction, which is why a rough page never forms an image while a mirror does. Thick lenses give coloured images through dispersion, which is why colour appears wherever light is refracted.

1. Reflection of Light by Spherical Mirrors (p. 222)
2. Refraction (p. 228)
3. Total Internal Reflection (p. 229)
4. Refraction at Spherical Surfaces and by Lenses (p. 232)
5. Refraction Through a Prism (p. 239)
6. Optical Instruments (p. 240)

With 34 pages, 17 named sections, 20 indexed figures and 31 of the book’s 71 exercise questions, Chapter 9 is both the longest chapter and the numerical core of the volume. The figures to know by name: Fig. 9.2, the Cartesian sign convention (p. 222); Fig. 9.23, the simple microscope (p. 241); and Fig. 9.26, the Cassegrain telescope (p. 246).

Chapter 10: Wave Optics (pp. 255-273)

Waves from a point source spread in every direction, yet light appears to travel along straight rays; Huygens, Young and Fresnel showed how a wave theory explains both. The genuinely new feature of waves is interference of amplitudes — constructive and destructive — which Young’s experiment displays directly.

Diffraction sets the limit of ray optics, and the wavelength of light fixes how finely a microscope or telescope can distinguish close objects. Most interference and diffraction effects also appear in sound, but polarisation belongs only to transverse waves like light.

1. Huygens Principle (p. 257)
2. Refraction and Reflection of Plane Waves Using Huygens Principle (p. 258)
3. Interference of Light Waves and Young’s Experiment (p. 265)
4. Diffraction (p. 266)
5. Polarisation (p. 269)

Running 19 pages with 11 named sections and 16 indexed figures but only 5 exercise questions, this is a conceptual chapter — it sets up ideas rather than demanding numerical work. Fig. 10.12, Young’s arrangement (p. 265), and Fig. 10.15, the single-slit intensity distribution (p. 267), carry the core diagrams.

Chapter 11: Dual Nature of Radiation and Matter (pp. 274-289)

Free electrons inside a metal can move around, but they cannot leave it on their own — each needs extra energy to escape. The electrons do not all share the same energy; like molecules of a gas they spread over a range, so the additional energy each one needs to get out differs.

The photoelectric observations show that when light meets matter, energy is absorbed in discrete units of \( h\nu \), a conclusion that sets up the particle picture of light.

1. Electron Emission (p. 275)
2. Photoelectric Effect (p. 276)
3. Experimental Study of Photoelectric Effect (p. 277)
4. Photoelectric Effect and Wave Theory of Light (p. 280)
5. Einstein’s Photoelectric Equation: Energy Quantum of Radiation (p. 281)
6. Particle Nature of Light: the Photon (p. 283)
7. Wave Nature of Matter (p. 284)

At 16 pages with 13 named sections, 5 indexed figures and 11 exercise questions, the chapter’s weight sits in its experimental graphs — Fig. 11.5, the stopping potential versus frequency line (p. 279), carries the quantitative argument.

Chapter 12: Atoms (pp. 290-305)

Both early models of the atom are unstable: Thomson’s arrangement fails electrostatically, while Rutherford’s orbiting electron radiates energy and spirals in. Bohr chose to quantise angular momentum because \( h \) itself carries those dimensions and angular momentum matters for circular orbits.

His neat orbital picture could not be squared with the uncertainty principle, so quantum mechanics replaced orbits with regions of probability. Unlike planets in the solar system, electrons here repel each other strongly — the mutual forces cannot be ignored.

1. Alpha-Particle Scattering and Rutherford’s Nuclear Model of Atom (p. 291)
2. Atomic Spectra (p. 296)
3. Bohr Model of the Hydrogen Atom (p. 297)
4. The Line Spectra of the Hydrogen Atom (p. 300)
5. De Broglie’s Explanation of Bohr’s Second Postulate of Quantisation (p. 301)

Equal in length to Chapter 11 at 16 pages, it carries 9 named sections, 7 indexed figures and 8 exercise questions — the Geiger-Marsden figures (Fig. 12.1-12.3, pp. 292-293) and the hydrogen energy level diagram (Fig. 12.7, p. 300) are the ones to know.

Chapter 13: Nuclei (pp. 306-322)

Nuclear matter keeps the same density however large the nucleus grows, unlike an atom whose mass density changes with size. The nuclear radius measured by electron scattering differs slightly from the alpha-particle value, because electrons sense the charge distribution while alpha particles feel the nuclear force.

After \( E = mc^2 \), mass and energy can no longer be conserved separately — one unified law covers both. The binding energy per nucleon curve predicts that fusing light nuclei or splitting heavy ones both release energy.

1. Atomic Masses and Composition of Nucleus (p. 306)
2. Size of the Nucleus (p. 309)
3. Mass-Energy and Nuclear Binding Energy (p. 310)
4. Nuclear Force (p. 313)
5. Radioactivity (p. 314)
6. Nuclear Energy (p. 314)

With 17 pages, 12 named sections and 10 exercise questions but only 2 indexed figures, this is the most text-heavy chapter in the book — Fig. 13.1, the binding energy per nucleon curve (p. 312), and Fig. 13.2, the nucleon potential energy curve (p. 313), carry the visual load.

Chapter 14: Semiconductor Electronics: Materials, Devices and Simple Circuits (pp. 323-343)

The conduction and valence bands of a semiconductor are delocalised — they describe average energies across the whole solid, not locations inside it. In elemental semiconductors like silicon and germanium, n-type and p-type behaviour comes from dopant atoms introduced as defects; in compound semiconductors the same change can come from altering the relative ratio of the elements.

1. Classification of Metals, Conductors and Semiconductors (p. 324)
2. Intrinsic Semiconductor (p. 327)
3. Extrinsic Semiconductor (p. 329)
4. p-n Junction (p. 333)
5. Semiconductor Diode (p. 334)
6. Application of Junction Diode as a Rectifier (p. 338)

Covering 21 pages with 10 named sections and 19 indexed figures but only 6 exercise questions, it is the most diagram-dense chapter after Chapter 9 — Fig. 14.16, the V-I characteristics of a silicon diode (p. 336), and the rectifier circuits Fig. 14.18-14.20 (pp. 338-340) are the core diagrams.

Chapter pages

Each chapter has its own page on this site where its figures and exercise questions are listed in full; the rows below link out where a page is already built.

Physics book class 12: how to use it for revision

The chapters form a natural order, because each one builds on the last:

1. Chapter 9 first — the ray diagrams and thin-lens ideas carry directly into the wave treatment that follows.
2. Chapter 10 next — wave optics extends ray optics rather than replacing it.
3. Chapter 11 — dual nature bridges the classical chapters to modern physics.
4. Chapter 12 — atomic models follow naturally from the energy-quantum idea of Chapter 11.
5. Chapter 13 — nuclear physics builds on the energy ideas met in Chapter 12.
6. Chapter 14 last — semiconductor devices stand apart and lean on the earlier chapters only lightly.

Each chapter demands a different kind of work, so plan your reading accordingly:

One honest limit of this page: Chapters 1 to 8 of Class 12 Physics live in Physics Part I, which this page does not index. And remember that textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official syllabus from the board.

Related Class 12 Physics resources

• NCERT books directory — the full list of books this site indexes by class.
• Class 12 books hub — every Class 12 subject this site covers, including where Physics Part I lives.
• Class 12 Physics hub — both parts of the textbook and their chapter-level detail.
• Ray Optics and Optical Instruments study page — the figure and question detail of Chapter 9.

Sources and data verification

• The figures, section titles and page numbers come from the official NCERT Class 12 Physics Part II textbook (Chapters 9-14, pp. 221-343), read from the ncert.nic.in PDFs.
• The dataset covers the six chapters of this book only — not Physics Part I, not the practical book, not other subjects.
• This listing is maintained for the current session using the NCERT information available to us.
• NCERT settles textbook editions and PDFs; CBSE settles the curriculum, syllabus and examinations.
• Every chapter record is flagged for a final human review of the question extraction; the section and figure counts are internally consistent. No separate expert review is claimed beyond that.

Reference: NCERT Class 12 Physics textbook, official edition on ncert.nic.in. Figure captions and section titles quoted from the textbook; page references are to the official PDF.

FAQs: the Class 12 Physics Part II book

Which chapters are inside the NCERT Class 12 Physics book Physics Part II?

Chapters 9 to 14: Ray Optics and Optical Instruments, Wave Optics, Dual Nature of Radiation and Matter, Atoms, Nuclei, and Semiconductor Electronics. Together they run from p. 221 to p. 343 of the book.

Where are the Class 12 Physics chapters 1 to 8?

Chapters 1 to 8 live in Physics Part I, which this page does not index. Use the Class 12 books hub to find Part I and its chapters.

How many chapters, pages and questions does Physics Part II have?

Six chapters across 123 printed pages, with 72 named sections, 69 verified numbered figures and 71 exercise questions — all counted from the book, not estimated.

Which chapter has the most numerical questions?

Chapter 9, Ray Optics and Optical Instruments, with 31 of the book’s 71 exercise questions across its 34 pages. It is the numerical core of the volume.

Is the Class 12 Physics practical book included on this page?

No — this is the textbook only. Practical work sits in a separate lab manual, and this page indexes only Physics Part II.

Are these the official NCERT PDFs?

Yes. All six links are NCERT’s own files hosted on ncert.nic.in, the same PDFs the board uses.