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Varsity Science Questions - Physics
Varsity Science Questions - Physics
Varsity Science Questions - Physics
Q: If the rate of change of current in a circuit is one ampere per second and the resulting
electromotive force is one volt, what is the inductance of the circuit?
A: 1 henry
Q: What quantity may be defined as “the amount of work done or energy transferred per unit
of time”?
A: power
A: 3
Q: Augustin-Jean Fresnel is associated with what branch of physics? Other pioneers of this
field include Christian Huygens and Willebrord Snell.
A: optics
Q: The Higgs boson is believed to be responsible for the origins of what fundamental
physical property? The property itself measures the inertia of an object, and can be
equated to energy through Einstein’s famous equation.
A: mass
Q: What term means “a continuous, amorphous substance whose molecules move freely past
one another and that has the tendency to assume the shape of its container”? Liquids and
gases are examples.
A: Fluid
A: electron
A: Planck’s
A: (electric) charge
Q: What fundamental subatomic particles have charge values of minus 1/3 and plus 2/3?
A: quarks
Q: What electrical property measures the amount of charge stored for a given electrical
potential? In the SI system, this quantity is expressed in farads.
A: Capacitance
A: henry
A: ohm
A: lumen
A: volt
Q: What physicist has the unit for radiant flux named after him? The same unit also
describes power.
A: James Watt
Q: What vector quantity may be defined as the time rate change of velocity?
A: acceleration
Q: What SI unit equals one kilogram-meter squared per second squared? It can also be
thought of as one Joule per second.
A: watt
A: Photoelectric effect
Q: What quantity, denoted with a capitol C, is defined as the amount of heat required to raise
the temperature of an object by one degree Celsius?
A: heat capacity
Q: How many laws describe the frequency of vibrating strings, as influenced by other
factors?
A: 4
Q: To two significant figures, and expressed in scientific notation, what is the value of the
electrostatic constant, k, in Newton meters squared per coulomb squared?
Q: Whose principle states that when measuring conjugate quantities, increasing the accuracy
of the measurement of one quantity increases the uncertainty of the simultaneous
measurement of the other quantity? The most familiar of these pairs is the position and
momentum.
A: Heisenberg
Q: What quantity may be computed by multiplying the frequency of a wave and its
wavelength?
Q: What is the term for the upper limit of a substance’s vaporization curve on its phase
diagram?
A: Critical point
Q: What term refers to the tendency of a system to absorb more energy when the frequency
of the oscillations matches the system’s natural frequency of vibration? The phenomenon
is usually considered when constructing musical instruments.
A: Resonance
Q: What term refers to the bending and spreading of waves when they meet an obstruction?
A: diffraction
Q: The Greek letter rho signifies what quantity in electrical formulae? According the to law
of resistance the resistance of a wire is equal to this quantity times the length of the wire,
times its cross-sectional area.
A: resistivity
Q: What phenomenon occurs when vibrations, such as sound waves, are induced by a
vibrating source of approximately the same frequency? This has the effect of increasing
the amplitude of the waves.
A: Resonance
Q: The Greek letter mu is used to represent what quantity, which is proportional to the force
resisting motion between two touching surfaces?
A: coefficient of friction
Q: What name is given to the quantity of heat required to change 1 kilogram of a substance
from liquid to gas?
A: Heat of vaporization
Q: What material property may be defined as the ratio of the friction force to the normal
friction?
A: coefficient of friction
Q: What constant, unique for each substance, is defined as the change in length per unit
length of a sold when its temperature is changed one degree?
Q: Whose law states that, within an object’s elastic limit, the extension is proportional to the
force producing it?
A: Hooke
Q: What term may be defined as “the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one
mole or one gram of a substance by one degree Celsius without change of phase”?
A: heat capacity
Q: Atoms of what element would be formed by the beta decay of atoms of carbon?
A: Nitrogen
Q: What term may be defined as “the force per unit cross-sectional area applied
perpendicularly to the cross-section that is required to break a rod or wire of a given
material”?
A: tensile strength
Q: What type of circuit may be defines as “any circuit in which two or more components are
connected across two common points in the circuit to provide separate conducting paths
to the current”?
A: Parallel
Q: The equation T = 2 pi times the square root of L over g, where T is period, L is length,
and g is the acceleration of gravity, is used to analyze the motion of what type of object?
A: Pendulum
Q: An atom with atomic number 55 and mass number 114 undergoes two alpha decays
followed by two beta decays. What is the mass number of the resulting atom?
A: 106
Q: An atom with atomic number 60 and mass number 144 undergoes two alpha decays
followed by two beta decays. What is the mass number of the resulting atom?
A: 136
Q: What is the power output of a direct current circuit that bears a total current of 4.0
amperes if its total resistance is 1.5 ohms?
A: 24 watts
Q: A parallel circuit contains elements with resistances of 4.0 ohms and 8.0 ohms. What is
the resultant resistance in the circuit? Give your answer with the proper number of digits.
A: 2.7 ohms
Q: Resistences of 6 ohms and 3 ohms are parallel to each other, and together are in
series
with a 3 ohm resistance. What is the resultant resistance of this circuit?
A: 5 ohms
Q: What is the total resistance of a one ohm resistor, a two ohm resistor, and a four ohm
resistor all in parallel? Express your answer as a fraction.
A: 4/7 ohms
Q: Six 3.00 ohm resistors are connected in series in a circuit with a potential difference of
30.0 volts. What is the current in the circuit? Express your answer with three significant
figures.
A: 1 amp or ampere
Q: When a 10 volt EMF is applied to a circuit with 5.0 ohms of resistance what current is
produced?
A: 2 amperes
Q: A circuit contains resistance of 4.0 ohms and 2.0 ohms in parallel. What voltage is
required to regenerate a current of 1.0 amperes in the circuit?
A: 1.3 volts
Q: Six 5.00 ohm resistors are connected in series. What EMF is required to generate a
current of 2.5 amperes in this circuit?
A: 75 volts
Q: A circuit contains a 12 volt power supply. How many 2 ohm resistors would be required
to yield a current of 0.3 amperes?
A: 20
Q: A truck driven off the side of a cliff takes 10.0 seconds to strike the ground. How high is
the cliff? Express your answer with 2 significant digits.
A: 490 meters
Q: An 8.0 kilogram object is dropped into free fall. Compute its momentum with 3
significant figures 2.00 seconds after being dropped?
Q: An 2.0 kilogram object is dropped into free fall. Compute its momentum with 2
significant figures 1.0 seconds after being dropped?
Q: A 10 nanogram mass contained in very long vacuum tube is released into free fall
near
Earth’s surface. How far will it fall in 6.0 seconds?
A: 180 meters
Q: Determine the momentum of a 6 kilogram hammer after 1 second in free fall. Express
your answer with one significant figure.
Q: Determine the momentum of a 15 pound bowling ball after 3 seconds in free fall. Use 32
feet per second squared for g. Express your answers with two significant digits.
Q: Compute the momentum of a 100.0 kilogram mass after 3.0 seconds of free fall. Use a
value of g with 2 significant digits and express your answer with the same number of
digits?
Q: A 12.0 kilogram mass is acted on by a 400.0 Newton force for 6.00 seconds. What is the
velocity of the mass after the force has acted? Express your answers with 3 significant
digits.
A: 200 m/s
Q: A 15 kilogram mass is suspended 15 meters above the earth’s surface. If the mass is
released. What kinetic energy will it achieve the instant it strikes the surface?
A: 225 Joules
Q: A 100.0 gram ball collides with a 2.00 kilogram ball that is initially at rest. After the
collision, the lighter ball is at rest and the heavier ball is moving at 2.0 meters per second.
Neglecting friction and any other outside forces, what was the speed of the 100.0 gram
ball prior to the collision?
Q: Determine the kinetic energy of a 10 kilogram object the instant it strikes the ground
following a drop from 20 meters. Express your answer with only one significant digit.
A: 2000 Joules
Q: What is the kinetic energy of a 22 kilogram mass moving at a constant velocity of 4.0
meters per second?. Express your answer with the proper number of significant figures.
A: 180 Joules
Q: If Earth’s mass were doubled but the radius kept the same, what should be the
acceleration of gravity on the surface? Answer to the nearest tenth.
Q: What is the gravitational potential energy of a 44 kg block atop a 2.0m table? Express
your answers with 2 significant digits.
A: 860 Joules
Q: A concave mirror has a focal length of 10.0 centimeters. What is its radius of curvature?
Express your answers with three significant figures.
A: 20.0 centimeters
A: 0.08
Q: A 5.0 Kilogram mass begins sliding along a surface when a 20 Newton force is applied.
What is the coefficient of friction for the object? Expressed your answer with two
significant digits.
A: 0.41
Q: An ideal heat engine has an efficiency of 40 percent. What is the exhaust temperature in
Celsius if the intake temperature is 17 degrees Celsius? Express your answers to the
nearest 10 degrees.
A: 210
Q: A machine is capable of lifting 20.0 kilograms to a height of 8.0 meters in 2.0 seconds.
What is the power output of the machine? Use a value of g with two significant digits,
and express your answer with two digits as well.
A: 780 watts
Q: Identify these “B” terms:
1. baryon
2. beat
3. boson
4. beta particle
1. Image
2. Internal Energy
3. Isothermal
4. Illumanance
Q: Identify these “N” terms:
1. Normal
2. Node
3. Nucleon
4. Noise
1. Graham’s law
2. Grand Unified Theory
3. Ground state
4. Graviton
1. Simple
2. pendulum
3. oscillation
4. amplitude
1. fission
2. fussion
3. neutrino
4. gamma decay
Q: Answer the following about formulae involving conductors moving in magnetic fields:
1. Process in which a particle meets its corresponding antiparticle and both vanish.
2. Process in which a particle disappears and in its place two or more different
particles appear.
3. A gas of charged particles.
4. General term for particles that exist only for an extremely brief instant as an
intermediary in a process.
1. Annihilation
2. Decay
3. Plasma
4. Virtual
1. What principle states that it is not possible to exactly determine the position of an
object and its momentum simultaneously?
2. How many quantum numbers are needed to describe the state of an electron in an
atom?
3. What letter represents the principle quantum number?
4. What quantum number is symbolized by m sub L?
Q: Compute the potential difference across these direct current circuits. Express your
answer with two significant digits.
1. A circuit with a current of 20.0 amperes passing through it with 6 1.0 ohm
resistors in series.
2. A circuit with a current of 20.0 amperes passing through it with 6 1.0 ohm
resistors in parallel.
3. A circuit with a current of 10.0 amperes passing through it with resistances of 5.0,
6.0, and 10.0 ohms in parallel.
4. A circuit with a current of 5.0 amperes passing through it with 10 5.0 ohm
resistors in series
1. 120 volts
2. 3.3 volts
3. 21 volts
4. 250 volts
Q: Compute the potential difference across these direct current circuits. Express your
answer with two significant digits.
1. A circuit with a current of 24.0 amperes passing through it with 6 1.0 ohm
resistors in series.
2. A circuit with a current of 24.0 amperes passing through it with 6 1.0 ohm
resistors in parallel.
3. A circuit with a current of 12.0 amperes passing through it with resistances of 5.0,
6.0, and 10.0 ohms in parallel.
4. A circuit with a current of 12.0 amperes passing through it with 10 5.0 ohm
resistors in series
1. 140 volts
2. 4.0 volts
3. 26 volts
4. 600 volts
Q: Give the resultant total resistances when 4 ohm, 12 ohm, 12 ohm, and 8 ohm resistances
are connected in the following ways. Leave all fractional answers in improper form .
1. all in series
2. all in parallel
3. a series with the 4 and one 12 ohm resistance parallel to a series of the 8 and other
12 ohm resistances.
4. a series with the 4 and two 12 ohm resistances parallel to the 8 ohm resistance.
1. 36 ohms
2. 24/13 ohms
3. 80/9 ohms
4. 56/9 ohms
Q: Given a circuit with a 15 volt EMF and resistances of 4.0 and 2.0 ohms in parallel, find
the following expressing all answers with 2 significant digits, and using only 2 digits as
you propagate answers:
1. 1.3 ohms
2. 12 amperes (12 amps)
3. 3.8 amperes (3.8 amps)
4. 180 watts (also accept 170 watts and 190 watts)
Q: Resistances of 2.0 ohm, 4.0 ohms, and 16.0 ohms are in a circuit. If they are connected in
series, the resultant resistance is 22 ohms, but four other total resistances can be achieved.
Identify them, expressing all answers to the nearest tenth.
1. 2 ohms
1. 8 ohms
3. 3 ohms
4. 4 ohms
Q: Resistances of 2.0 ohms, 6.0 ohms, and 8.0 ohms are in a circuit. One of the five
different total resistances can be achieved is 16.0 ohms. What are the other four?
Express to the nearest tenth:
1. 1.3 ohms
2. 4.0 ohms
3. 3.8 ohms
4. 1.8 ohms
Q: Determine the equivalent resistance for complete circuits containing the following
resistances, all in parallel with each other. Express all answers with 2 significant digits.
1. 0.80 ohms
2. 0.71 ohms
3. 0.20 ohms
4. 9.9 ohms
Q: Determine the equivalent resistance for complete circuits containing the following
resistances. Express all answers with 2 significant digits.
1. 14 ohms
2. 1.5 ohms
3. 3.2 ohms
4. 3.3 ohms
Q: Determine the equivalent resistance for complete circuits containing the following
resistances. Express all answers with 2 significant digits.
1. 15 ohms
2. 1.6 ohms
3. 0.28 ohms
4. 2.9 ohms
Q: Determine the equivalent resistance for complete circuits containing the following
resistances. Express all answers with 2 significant digits.
1. 12 ohms
2. 1.3 ohms
3. 2.9 ohms
4. 2.3 ohms
Q: A 50.0 kilogram mass is dropped into free fall. Determine the following for 3.0 seconds
after the object is released. Express all answers with 2 significant figures.
1. speed
2. distance fallen
3. kinetic energy
4. momentum
1. Magnitude of accelaeration
2. Speed
3. Distance fallen
4. Momentum
Q: Compute the following quantities for a 22 kilogram object in free fall for 6.0 seconds.
Use a value of g with 2 significant digits, express all answers with 2 significant digits.
Q: Compute the following quantities for a 36 kilogram object in free fall for 4.0 seconds.
Use a value of g with 2 significant digits, express all answers with 2 significant digits.
Q: A 10.0 kilogram object is released into free fall from a height of 10.0 meters. Determine
the following quantities, using a value of g with 1 significant digit, but expressing all
answers with 2 significant digits:
1. 500 Joules
2. 9500 Joules
3. 4500 Joules
4. 5500 Joules
Q: A 20kg mass is continually acted on by a 50 N force. Find the following, expressing all
answers with 2 significant digits:
1. 3 seconds
2. 30 meters per second
3. 500 kilogram-meters per second
4. 7000 Joules (or 8000 Joules)
Q: Answer the following about the formula capital Q equals capital I squared, Capital R
lower case t all over capital J:
Q: Given the electrical formula capital R equals rho times lower case l over capital A,
Answer the following:
1. upper case Q
2. upper case T
3. lower case c
4. upper case S
1. Young’s Modulus
2. (distorting) force
3. length
4. (Cross-sectional) area
1. Leonardo De Vinci
2. Galileo (Galilei)
3. Isaac Newton
4. James Clark Maxwell
1. Momentum
2. Power
3. Index of refraction
4. Illumination