Subject: Physics Mid-Term Exam

Student's Name: ………………………………………………………

Grade: AS ( ) Date: / / 2022

1. Physical quantities are either scalars or vectors.

Select the row of the table, which correctly identifies a scalar quantity and a vector quantity.

2. A car is towed by a truck using a rope. The car is pulled at a constant speed creating a tension
T in the rope.
The horizontal forces acting on the car are shown.

The magnitude of the force exerted by the truck on the car is

AT+F
BT–F
CT
D zero

3. A girl dropped a stone into an empty well. She heard the sound of the stone hitting the bottom
of the well after 4 seconds.
The depth of the well is about
A 20 m
B 40 m
C 80 m
D 160 m
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Subject: Physics Mid-Term Exam

4. A student walks for 6 seconds. The displacement-time graph for the student is shown.

Which row of the table shows the final displacement and velocity of the student?

5. The student uses these values to calculate a value for the density of copper. The correctly
calculated value of density is shown on the student’s calculator as

The student should state the density as

A 8954.166841 kg m–3
B 8950 kg m–3
C 8.95 × 103 kg m–3
D 9.0 × 103 kg m–3

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Subject: Physics Mid-Term Exam

6. The diagram shows a student during a parachute jump on a windy day. The vertical component of
her velocity is 5.0 m s−1. The horizontal component of her velocity is 8.0 m s−1. She descends at
an angle θ to the vertical.

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Subject: Physics Mid-Term Exam

7. A person is pushing a trolley at a constant velocity.

The floor exerts a force P on the person, the person exerts a force Q on the trolley.
The trolley exerts a force R on the person and the total drag force on the trolley is S.

8. A box of weight 150 N is placed on an inclined plane. The component of the box’s weight acting
along the plane is W´.

W´ in newtons is given by
150
A 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 15°

B 150 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 15°

150
C 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 15°

D 150 × 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 15°

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Subject: Physics Mid-Term Exam

9. A beam is balanced on two supports as shown.

10. Which row of the table contains two units that are not equivalent?

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Subject: Physics Mid-Term Exam

11. A student carried out an experiment to obtain a value for the acceleration of free fall g.
A small ball was dropped from rest and the motion of the ball was captured using a digital camera. The
student counted the frames from the recording to measure the time t for the ball to fall to the ground.
A ruler was visible on the recording to enable the student to measure the distance s fallen by the ball.
(a) Use Newton’s second law of motion to show that the acceleration of the ball is independent of its
mass.
(1)

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(b) (i) State the equation that the student should use to calculate the value of g.
(1)

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(ii) A value for g was obtained and was greater than expected.
Explain one possible source of error that would have produced a greater than expected value.
(2)

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(Total for Question 12 = 4 marks)

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Subject: Physics Mid-Term Exam

12. Opposite poles of a magnet attract one another. Using this principle, a student tried to design a toy
car that could be self-propelled using a magnetic force. His design is shown below.

Magnet A is attached to the body of the toy car and magnet B is suspended from the driver’s hand by a
rigid rod. Magnet A is identical to magnet B.
The student stated that as long as the opposite poles of the magnets are facing one another, the
attractive force created should cause the toy car to start moving forward.
Explain why in practice this could never work.
(3)

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(Total for Question 13 = 3 marks)

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Subject: Physics Mid-Term Exam

13. A man is walking at a constant horizontal velocity of 1.2 m s-1 in the rain. To the man the rain
appears to be falling vertically at a velocity of 1.8 m s-1.
Draw a labelled vector diagram, to scale, and use it to determine the actual velocity of the rain.
(5)

Magnitude of the actual velocity of the rain = ........................................................................................

Angle of the rain to the vertical = ........................................................................................

(Total for Question 14 = 5 marks)

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Subject: Physics Mid-Term Exam

14. A slow moving asteroid A was hit by a faster asteroid B. Asteroid B was absorbed by asteroid A as
shown.

(a) State the principle of conservation of linear momentum.

(2)

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(b) Before the collision, asteroid A had a velocity of 2.19 × 103 m s−1 and a momentum of 1.80 × 1017
kg m s−1.
(i) Show that the mass of asteroid A was about 8.2 × 1013 kg.
(2)

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(ii) Calculate the velocity of the asteroids after the collision.
mass of asteroid B = 5.90 × 1012 kg
velocity of asteroid B before the collision = 15.0 × 103 m s−1
(3)

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Velocity of asteroids = .................................................................................
(Total for Question 14 = 7 marks)

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Subject: Physics Mid-Term Exam

15. A stunt motorcyclist wants to jump across a river to land on the other side. The diagram shows the
motorcyclist driving off a ramp at the edge of a river.

The ramp is at an angle of 25° to the horizontal and the height at the end of the ramp is 3.0 m. The
width of the river is 100 m. The initial velocity of the motorcyclist is 35 m s−1.
(a) Calculate the horizontal and vertical components of the motorcycle's initial velocity as it leaves the
ramp.
(2)

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Horizontal component = ......................................................

Vertical component = ......................................................

(b) Deduce whether the rider lands on the other side of the river.
The effects of air resistance can be ignored.
(4)

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Subject: Physics Mid-Term Exam

(c) Explain how air resistance would affect the jump.

(3)

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(Total for Question 15 = 9 marks)

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Subject: Physics Mid-Term Exam

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