General Certificate of Education (Adv.

Level) Examination, August

Paper class PHYSICS

Sisira Hettiarachchi
19 (B. Sc. Hon's)
Time : 2 hours

MCQ
MCQ

01) The amplitude of a damped oscillator of mass m varies with time t as

A = Ao e(-at / m)
The dimensions of a are
(1) ML0T– 1 (2) M0LT– 1 (3) MLT– 1 (4) ML– 1T (5) LT– 2

02) A particle starts from rest. Its acceleration at time t a 5ms–2

= 0 is 5 ms–2 which varies with time as shown in
figure. The maximum speed of the particle will be
1) 7.5 ms–1 2) 30 ms–1 3) 2.5 ms–1
4) 1.5 ms–1 5) 6 ms–1
0 t

03) A steel rod and a copper rod have lengths LS and LC respectively at a certain temperature. It is found
that the difference between their lengths remains constants at all temperatures. If S and C are their
respective coefficients of linear expansion, the ratio LS/LC is given by,
 C   S  S  S2 C
1) 1   2) 1   3) 4) 5)
 S    C  C  C2 S

04) A metal block of mass 10 kg is dragged on a horizontal rough road with a constant speed of
5 ms–1. If the coefficient of friction between the block and the road is 0.5, the rate at which
heat is generated in (J s–1) is
1) 100 2) 245 3) 9.8 4) 10 5) 120

05) A thermodynamic process is shown in figure. The pressures and

volumes corresponding to some points in the figure are,
PA = 3 x 104 Pa, VA = 2 x 10–3 m3, PB = 8 x 104 Pa, P B C
VD = 5 x 10–3 m3. In process AB, 600 J of heat and in process BC,
200 J of heat is added to the system. The change in the internal
energy in process AC would be,
1) 800 J 2) 600 J 3) 560 J A D
4) 640 J 5) 400 J V
06) A vessel contains 4 moles of oxygen and 2 moles of argon at absolute temperature T. The total internal
energy of the gas mixture is,
1) 6 RT 2) 9 RT 3) 11 RT 4) 13 RT 5) 5 RT

07) If the temperature of a gas is increased from 27 C to 92.7 C, the root mean square speed of its
molecules,
1) becomes half 2) is doubled 3) becomes 4 times
4) becomes 3 times 5) remains unchanged.

Physics - 19-2023 1 Sisira Hettiarachchi

08) Two perfect gases at absolute temperatures T1 and T2 are mixed. There is no loss of energy in this
process. If n1 and n2 are the respective number of molecules of the gases, the temperature of the mixture
will be
n1T1  n 2 T2 n 2 T1  n1T2 n2
1) 2) 3) T1 + T2
n1  n 2 n1  n 2 n1
n1 n 1n 2 T1T2
4) T2 + T1 5)
n2 (n1  n 2 )

09) A screw gauge with a pitch of 0.5 mm and a circular scale with 50 divisions is used to measure the
thickness of a thin sheet of Aluminum. Before starting the measurement, it is found that when the two
jaws of the screw gauge are brought in contact, the 45th division coincides with the main scale line and
that the zero of the main scale is barely visible. What is the thickness of the sheet if the main scale
reading is 0.5 mm and of the sheet if the main scale reading is 0.5 mm and the 25th division coincides
with the main scale line?
1) 0.80 mm 2) 0.70 mm 3) 0.50 mm 4) 0.75 mm 5) 0.27 mm

10) A girl angrily throws her engagement ring from the top of a building 12 m high towards her boy friend
with an initial horizontal speed of 5 ms-1, the speed with which the ring touches the ground is,
1) 5 ms-1 2) 14.3 ms-1 3) 1.5 ms-1
4) 16.2 ms-1 5) 17.6 ms-1

11) Two bodies of mass m and 4m are placed at a distance r. The gravitational potential at a point on the
line joining them where the gravitational field is zero is,
 4Gm  6Gm  9Gm  5Gm
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Zero
r r r r
A
12) A block A of mass 10 kg, connected to another hollow block B of same size
and negligible mass, by a spring of spring constant 500 N/m, floats in water
as shown in Figure. The compression in the spring is,
(water = 1 x 103 kg/m3, g = m/s2) B
1) 10 cm 2) 20 cm 3) 50 cm
4) 100 cm 5) 25 cm

13) A sound wave of wavelength  travels towards the right horizontally with a velocity v. It strikes and
reflects from a vertical plane surface, traveling at a speed v towards the left. The number of positive
crests striking in a time interval of three seconds on the wall is,
3(V  v) 3(V  v) (V  v) ( V  v) (V  v)
1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
  3 3 9

14) 1 mole of an ideal gas is contained in a cubical volume V,

ABCDEFGH at 300 K (Figure) One face of the cube (EFGH) is made B
D
up of a material which totally absorbs a ny gas molecule incident on it,
At any given time, A C
A) The pressure on EFGH would be zero.
B) The pressure on all the faces will be equal. G
F
C) The pressure of EFGH would be double the pressure on ABCD.
E H
D) The pressure of EFGH would be half that on ABCD.
E) Non of these.

Physics - 19-2023 2 Sisira Hettiarachchi

15) The temperature drop through a two layered furnace wall is 9000C.
Each layer is of equal area of cross section. Which of the following
actions will result in lowering the temperature  of the interface? Inner Outer
A) By increasing the thermal conductivity of outer layer. 10000C 1000C
layer layer
B) By increasing the thermal conductivity of inner layer.
C) By increasing thickness of outer layer.
D) By increasing thickness of inner layer.
only,
1) A is true 2) A and B are true 3) B and C are true
4) C and D are true 5) A and D are true

16) A long string with a charge of  per unit length passes through an imaginary cube of edge . The
maximum flux of the electric field through the cube will be,
a 2 a 6 a 2 3 a 4 a
1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
0 0 0 0 23 0

17) Light is incident normally on face AB of prism as shown in figure. A liquid of refractive index  is
3
placed on face AC of the prism. The prism is made of glass of refractive index . The limits of  for
2
which total internal reflection to takes place on face AC is,
Liquid
A 0
C
3 3 3 3 3 60 300
1)  2)   3)   3
4 2 4 900
3 3
4)   5)  
2 2 B

18) Four particles of equal mass M move along a circle of radius R under the action of their mutual
gravitational attraction. The speed of each particle is,
GM  GM   GM  2 2  1 
1) 2)   3)   
 r   
R  R  4 

4)
 GM
 R  
2 1  5) Non of these.
 
Q
C
19) Two point charges q1 = 1C and q2 = 2C are placed at
points A and B 6 cm apart as shown in figure. A third 8 cm
charge Q = 5C is moved from C to D along the arc of a
circle of radius 8 cm as shown. the change in the potential
energy of the system is, q2
1) 3.0 J 2) 0.6 J 3) 5.0 J
q1
4) 7.5 J 5) 3.6 J A 6 cm BD

Physics - 19-2023 3 Sisira Hettiarachchi

20) The figure shows a positive, point – like charge A
moving along a straight path between two fixed equal 
negative point charges.
The variation of magnitude F of the net force on the positive
+ x
charge due to the two negative charges, with the distance x, x=0
is best represented by,
F F F 
B

0 x 0 x 0 x
0 0 0
1) F 2) F 3)

0 x 0 x
0 0
4) 5)
5)
21) A ring of charge with radius 0.5 m has 0.002  m gap. If the ring carries a + + +
1 +
charge of +1C, the electric field at the centre is ( = 9 x 109 Nm2 C-2 ) +
4 0
+ +
1) 7.5 x 107 NC-1 2) 7.2 x 107 NC-1 3) 6.2 x 107 NC-1 + + +

4) 6.5 x 107 NC-1 5) 5.5 x 107 NC-1

22) A, B, C, D, P and Q are points in a uniform electric field. The

potentials at these points are V(A) = 2V, V(P) = V(B) = V(D) = 5V,
and V(C) = 8v. Find the electric field at P.
5
1) 15 Vm-1 2) 15 2 Vm-1 3) Vm-1
2

4) 30 2 Vm-1 5) 10 2 Vm-1
f1=30 cm
23) The above figure shows a system of tenses used to f2
convert a parallel beam of light of diameter 18 cm to a
narrow beam of 9 cm. The focal length of the convex 19 m 9 cm
lens is 30 cm and the distance between the two lenses
is 20 cm. The focal length of the concave lens can be,

1) 2cm 2) 5cm 3) 10cm 4) 20cm 5) 30cm

24) An object of mass 150 g in air was immersed in a certain liquid. When the temperature of the liquid
was 20C. The apparent mass was 50 g and at 50C the apparent mass was 52 g. The linear expansion
of the material of the object is 9 10–6 C-1. The mean volumetric expansion of the liquid
approximately will be,
1) 6.6  10-4C-1 2) 1  10-3C-1 3) 1.1  10-3C-1 4) 3  10-3C-1 5) 3.3  10-3C-1

Physics - 19-2023 4 Sisira Hettiarachchi

25) The figure shows the velocity – time graph of motion of an
object during 20 s period. what is the ratio of the
displacement of the object during the first 2 s in BC and
first 2 s in AB,
1) 4 2) 8 3) 12
4) 16 5) 20

26) Two conductive spheres A and B of masses 150 g are connected to the 45o 45o
free ends of two light identical strings which are tied to a point O. They
are both given charges of 6 C. The spheres are at the state of
A B
equilibrium with a repulsion, as shown in the figure. The electric force
(FE) on a conductive sphere the normal reaction (R) acted by the sphere 60 cm
by the plane the co-efficient of static friction () between the plane and
1
the sphere are given by, tension of each string N
2
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
FE 0.9N 0.9N 1N 1N 0.9N
R 0.1N 0.1N 0.9N 0.9N 1N
 4N 0.4N 0.4N 0.4N 0.4N

27) An object starting from rest travels from A to B at a

constant acceleration, and from B to C at 2a constant
D
acceleration. Then it turns around instantly and travels
from C to D at constant velocity. The distance – time A B C
graph (d-t) of this motion is,
d d d d d

0 t 0 t 0 t 0 t 0 t
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

28) For a person suffering from short sight the far point is 2 m and near point is 25 cm. To correct the far
point to infinity, what is the focal length of the required lens and what is the new range of vision of the
person respectively.
1) 2 m, (28.6 cm – ) 2) 2 m, (28.6 cm – 2 m) 3) 2 m, (25 cm – 2 m)
4) 2 m, (25 cm – ) 5) 2 m, (25 cm – 28.6 m)

29) AB and CD are identical heat conductance rods and CD is

insulated as shown in the figure. It a heating coil is used to
heat the rods, at steady state condition, the variation of l l
A BC D
temperature along the rods is best depicted by,
    

A B,C D A B,C D A B,C D A B,C D A B,C D

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Physics - 19-2023 5 Sisira Hettiarachchi

30)

AB is a heavy string while BC is a light string. C is a rigid boundary. A pulse or iginated from B moves
towards C as shown above. What is the correct behavior of the reflected wave from C to A?

31) Shown here is the variation of electro static potential in a region where an electric field exist along X
and Y directions in a horizontal plane,

Charge of an electron = 1.6 x 10-19 C.

Components of the force acting on an electron placed on the same plane along X and Y directions are,
1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
-16 -16 -16 -16
x 4 x 10 N 1.6 x 10 N -4 x 10 N -4 x 10 N 1.6 x 10-16 N
y -1.6 x 10-16 N -4 x 10-16 N 1.6 x 10-16 N -1.6 x 10-16 N 4 x 10-16 N

32) Consider 75 cm length of sonometer wire under tension between two wooden pegs. Two consecutive
transverse resonant frequencies of the wire are 420 Hz and 315 Hz. Fundamental resonant frequency of
the wire and the speed of transverse waves along the wire respectively are,
1) 52.5 Hz, 157.5 ms-1 2) 105 Hz, 78.75 ms-1 3) 52.5 Hz, 78.75 ms-1
4) 105 Hz, 52.5 ms-1 5) 105 Hz, 157.5 ms-1

33) A well insulated container (with its open end sealed with a lid) contains 1 kg of ice at 0 0C and 2 kg of
water at 00C. The not – so – rigid container is completely filled with ice and water. Which of the
following situations is possible after sometime?
1) mass of ice increases as water is converted sometime?
2) mass of water increases as ice melts.
3) neither the mass of water nor that of ice change.
4) Both masses of water and ice decreases.
5) Both masses of water and ice increases.

Physics - 19-2023 6 Sisira Hettiarachchi

34) Two thin wire rings, each having a radius R, are placed at a distance d apart with their axes coinciding.
The charges on the two rings are +q and -q. The potential difference between the centers of the two
rings is,

Q 1 1  Q 1 1 
1)    2) zero 3)   
40 R R 2  d2  20 R R 2  d2 

Q 2
4) QR / 40 d2 5) x
40 P

35) Which of the following expressions are true about the spectrometer?
a) When the telescope is adjusted, the parallel rays incident on its objective are focused on the cross
wires.
b) Once the collimator is adjusted, the distance from the slit of the collimator to its lens is equal to the
focal length of that lens.
c) Once the prism table is leveled, the image of the slit is symmetrical with respect to the horizontal
wire.
1) a and b only 2) a and c only 3) b and c only
4) all a, b, c 5) none of a, b, c

36) Which of the following statements is incorrect?

1) Saturated vapour pressure varies with temperature.
2) Isothermal compression of an unsaturated vapour makes it saturated.
3) The difference between the readings of wet and dry bulb thermometers gives an idea about the
amount of water vapour in the atmosphere
4) When water boils, saturated vapour pressure exceeds the atmospheric pressure.
5) The temperature of the atmosphere is equal to the dew point when water vapour in that space
begins to condense.

k k
37) Two springs of force constant and are joined in series and connected to a mass m. The frequency
4 5
of oscillation is,
1 k 3 k 1 k
1) 2) 3)
6 m 2 m 3 m
1 k 3 k
4) 5)
2 m 2 20 m

38) A horizontal electric field (E = (mg) / q) exists in space as shown in

figure and a mass m is attached at the end of a light rod. If mass m is
released from the position shown in figure find the angular velocity  = 450
of the rod when it passes through the bottom most position,
 E = mg/q
g 2g 3g
1) 2) 3)
l l l m m
+q
5g 9
4) 5)
l 2l

Physics - 19-2023 7 Sisira Hettiarachchi

 water
39) The rod shown by the diagram is connected to boiling oil
at 1500C and melting ice at 00C. Another water vessel is
connected to the rod as shown if water evaporates
temperature vitiation along the wire, 1500C Rod

Boiling oil ice 00C

Q Q Q Q Q

L L L L L
1) 2) 3) 4) 5)

40) An artificial colony is constructed in a tube having inner

1
and outer radius "r" and 1 r. If "N".
2
Number of people are stationary on the surface as shown they feel
acceleration g which is equal to earths gravitational acceleration. r
Assume mass of them are equal and mass of the tube and ladders 1
1 r
are negligible now half of tem climb along the ladder up to inner 2
circle. New acceleration felt by the people on the most outer
surface is g then, this rotates
2 2 2
 18  9 3
1)   g 2)   g 3)   g
 13   13  2
2 2
4  19 
4)   g 5)   g
3  13 

41) A vessel of uniform rectangular cross-section with height h0 and

mass M contains a certain amount of oil having mass m and
density oil as shown in the figure. The vessel floats vertically in
water of density w (> oil) with height h1 under water. A certain
volume of oil is now replaced by an equal volume of water. If the
maximum volume of oil that can be replaced while keeping the
vessel floating is V and the initial volume of oil is V0, then the ratio
V
is given by (Assume that at the end of the process there is a
V0
certain amount of oil left in the vessel.)
( h 0  h1 )( M  m) oil h 0 ( M  m ) oil h1  w
1) 2) 3) .
h1m( w   oil ) h 1m ( w   oil ) h 0  oil
(h 0  h1 )( M  m)oil h 0 (M  m)oil
4) 5)
h 0 m( w  oil ) M (h 0  h1 )( w  oil )

Physics - 19-2023 8 Sisira Hettiarachchi

42) Shown in the graph is the variation of the electrostatic
potential (V) with the distance (r) in an electrostatic field.
The graph that best expresses the corresponding variation
of the electrostatic field intensities (E) is,

y
43) Three charges -q1, +q2 and -q3 are placed as shown in -q3
figure. The x-component of the force on -q1 is proportional
to,
q 2 q3 q2 q3 
1)  Sin  2)  Cos  a
b2 a2 b2 a2
b
-q1 x
q q q q q q -q2
3) 2  3 Sin  4) 2  3 Cos  5) 2  3 Tan 
b2 a2 b2 a2 b2 a2

44) Consider the points A, B and C on two equipotential surface as shown in the figure. When a proton
moves from A to B the electric field does a work of 3.2 x 10 –19 J on it. Charge of an electron is
– 1.5 x 10–19 C. The electric potential differences VAB VBC and VCA respectively are,
1) 2V, - 2V and 0V
2) 2V, - 2V and 2V A C
3) -2V, 2V and 0V equipotent
4) 0.5V, - 0.5V and 0V B surfaces
5) -0.5V, 0.5V and 0V

45) A celestial object is located at the mid point of the line joining the centres of the earth and the moon at
a certain time. The mass of the moon is 0.0123 times the mass of the earth. Assume that the distance
between the centres of the moon and the earth is 60 times the radius of the earth. The acceleration of
the object due to the gravity of both the earth and the moon in terms of g is approximately.
1) 1.1 x 10–6 g 2) 1.1 x 10–3 g 2) 3.3 x 10–3 g
4) 0.5 g 5) 1.0 g

46) Units of eV is equivalent to (e – charge of an electron V – potential difference)

1) power 2) charge 3) electric flux 4) energy 5) potential difference

47) In the figure shown. A is a fixed changed B (of mass m) is

given a velocity V perpendicular to line AB. At this V
moment the radius of curvature of the resultant path of B
is,
40 r 2 mv 2 r
1) 0 2) infinity 3) A B
q2 +q +q
4) r 5) 2r

Physics - 19-2023 9 Sisira Hettiarachchi

48) Two conductive spheres A and B of masses 100 g are
connected to the free ends of two light identical strings O

which are tied to a point O. They are both given charges of 45o 45o
2 C. The spheres are at the state of equilibrium with a
repulsion, as shown in the figure. The electric force (FE)
A B
on a conductive sphere the normal reaction (R) acted by
the sphere by the plane the co-efficient of static friction 60 cm
() between the plane and the sphere are given by,
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
FE 0.9N 0.9N 1N 1N 0.9N
R 0.1N 0.1N 0.9N 0.9N 1N
 4N 0.4N 0.4N 0.4N 0.4N

49) P - V diagram of an ideal gas is as shown in Figure. work

P
done by the gas in the process ABCD is, C
2P0
1) 4P0V0 2) 2P0V0
3) 3P0V0 4) P0V0 P0 A
B
4P0V0 V
5)
V0 2V0 3V0

50) A piece of ice of mass 0.1 kg at –500C is heated uniformly by providing heat energy at a constant rate
of 10 W. If the specific heat capacity of ice is , in SI units, the values of the other relevant quantities
in terms of  can be given approximately as follows.
Specific heat capacity of water = 2
Latent heat of fusion of ice = 160
Latent heat of vaporization of water = 1200
Which of the following graphs best represents the variation of the temperature () of the system with
time (t)?

Physics - 19-2023 10 Sisira Hettiarachchi