Ningbo Huamao International School, Ningbo

Mid-Semester Examinations, Nov. 2023

Grade: 12
Subject & level: Physics HL
Total marks: 80 Score:
Time: ___2 hr____
Name of Student: _______________
Name of Teacher: ____Chinmay Bhave_______
Materials Required: Calculator, Dictionary and Data booklet
Instructions to Candidates:

• Do not open this examination paper until instructed to do so.

• A calculator is required for this paper.
• Unless otherwise stated in the question, all numerical answers should be
given exactly or correct to three significant figures.
• A clean copy of the Physics formula booklet is required for this paper.
• The maximum mark for this examination paper is [80 marks]
• A clean copy of DICTIONARY is required.
1. A radioactive material has a half-life of 6 days. How long will it take for 75 % of a pure
sample of the material to decay?

A. 3 days

B. 6 days

C. 12 days

D. 18 days

[1]

2. Three claims are made about the structure of the atom.

I. Most of the atom is empty space.

II. The positive charge of the atom is concentrated in a small volume.
III. The electrons have discrete energy levels.

Which of these claims can be deduced from the Rutherford-Geiger-Marsden scattering

experiment?

A. I and II only

B. I and III only

C. II and III only

D. I, II and III

[1]
3. The energy levels E of an atom are shown.

Which emission spectrum represents the transitions?

[1]
4. A nucleus of platinum (Pt) undergoes alpha decay to form an osmium (Os) nucleus as
represented by the following reaction.

What are the number of protons and the number of neutrons in the osmium nucleus?

Number of protons Number of neutrons

A. 74 93

B. 76 93

C. 74 95

D. 76 95

[1]

5. Which statement about atomic spectra is not true?

A. They provide evidence for discrete energy levels in atoms.

B. Emission and absorption lines of equal frequency correspond to transitions between the same
two energy levels.

C. Absorption lines arise when electrons gain energy.

D. Emission lines always correspond to the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

[1]

6. A satellite is orbiting Earth in a circular path at constant speed. Three statements about
the resultant force on the satellite are:

I. It is equal to the gravitational force of attraction on the satellite.

II. It is equal to the mass of the satellite multiplied by its acceleration.
III. It is equal to the centripetal force on the satellite.

Which combination of statements is correct?

A. I and II only

B. I and III only

C. II and III only

D. I, II and III

[1]
7. The centre of the Earth and the Moon are a distance 𝐷 apart. There is a point X between
them where their gravitational fields cancel out. The distance from the centre of the Earth to X is
𝑑. The mass of the Earth is 𝑀E and the mass of the Moon is 𝑀M .

What is correct at X?

𝑀E 𝑀M
A. =
𝑑 𝐷−𝑑

𝑀E 𝑀M
B. 𝐷−𝑑
= 𝑑

𝑀𝐸 M𝑀
C. 𝑑2
= (𝐷−𝑑) 2

𝑀𝐸 𝑀M
D. =
𝑑2 𝐷 2 −𝑑2

[1]

8. A mass attached to a string rotates in a gravitational field with a constant period in a vertical
plane.

How do the speed of the mass and the tension of the string compare at P and Q?

[1]
9. A car on a road follows a horizontal circular path at a constant speed. What is the direction
of the net force acting on the car and the direction of the instantaneous velocity of the car?

[1]

10. A tennis ball is dropped from rest from a height. It hits the ground and bounces back to a
lower height. Air resistance is negligible.

What is correct about the collision of the tennis ball with the ground?

A. Elastic because momentum of the system is conserved

B. Elastic because the kinetic energy of the system is conserved

C. Inelastic because momentum of the system is not conserved

D. Inelastic because the kinetic energy of the system is not conserved

[1]

11. The input power of an electric motor is 200 W. It is used to raise a mass of 10 kg at
constant speed.
If the efficiency of the motor is 40 %, through what height will the mass be raised in 1 second?

A. 0.5 m

B. 0.8 m

C. 1.2 m

D. 2.0 m

[1]
12. A block of mass 2.0 kg accelerates uniformly at a rate of 1.0 m s−2 when a force of 4.0 N
acts on it.
The force is doubled while resistive forces stay the same. What is the block’s acceleration?

A. 4.0 m s−2

B. 3.0 m s−2

C. 2.0 m s−2

D. 1.0 m s−2

[1]

13. A ball attached to a string is made to rotate with constant speed along a horizontal circle.
The string is attached to the ceiling and makes an angle of θ ° with the vertical. The tension in
the string is T.

What is correct about the horizontal component and vertical component of the net force on the
ball?

Horizontal component Vertical component

A. 𝑇cos 𝜃 𝑇 sin 𝜃

B. 𝑇 sin 𝜃 𝑇cos 𝜃

C. 𝑇cos 𝜃 0

D. 𝑇 sin 𝜃 0

[1]
14. A ball is projected at an angle to the horizonal on Earth reaching a maximum height H and a
maximum range R. The same ball is projected at the same angle and speed on a planet where
the acceleration due to gravity is three times that on Earth. Resistance effects are negligible.

What is the maximum range and the maximum height reached on that planet?

Maximum range Maximum height

reached

A. 𝑅 𝐻
3 3
B. 𝑅 𝐻
3
C. 𝑅 𝐻
9
D. 𝑅 𝐻
3 9

[1]

15. An object of mass M is accelerated vertically upwards by a motor at a constant

acceleration.
The object is initially at rest and reaches a vertical speed of 4.0 m s−1 in 2.0 s.

What is the average power output of the motor?

A. 8M

B. 24M

C. 32M

D. 48M

[1]
16. A car engine has a useful power output of 20 kW and an efficiency of 50 %. The engine
consumes 1 × 10−5 m3 of fuel every second. What is the energy density of the fuel?

A. 2 MJ m−3

B. 4 MJ m−3

C. 2 GJ m−3

D. 4 GJ m−3 [1]

17. An object is released from rest at X and slides to Y. The vertical distance between X and Y
is 10 m. During the motion, 20 % of the object’s initial gravitational potential energy is lost as
friction.

What is the speed of the object at Y?

16
A.
√𝑔

B. 2√𝑔

C. 4√𝑔

D. 8𝑔

[1]

18. A rectangular sheet of paper has dimensions of (30.0 ± 0.5) cm and (20.0 ± 0.5) cm.

What is the percentage uncertainty of the perimeter of the paper?

A. 1 %

B. 2 %

C. 2.5 %

D. 4 %

[1]
 19. Two forces, F and G, act on a system.

F is reversed in direction and G is halved. Which vector correctly represents the new resultant
force?

[1]

20. A student measures the time for 20 oscillations of a pendulum. The experiment is repeated four
times. The measurements are:

10.45 s

10.30 s

10.70 s

10.55 s

What is the best estimate of the uncertainty in the average time for 20 oscillations?

A. 0.01 s

B. 0.05 s

C. 0.2 s

D. 0.5 s

[1]
21. Two surfaces X and Y emit radiation of the same surface intensity. X emits a radiation of peak
wavelength twice that of Y.
𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑋
What is 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑌 ?

1
A.
16

1
B. 2

C. 2

D. 16

[1]

22. The nucleus of the isotope hydrogen-2 has a radius R and a density 𝜌.

What are the approximate radius and density of a nucleus of oxygen-16?

[1]

23. Which emission shows a continuous energy spectrum?

A. Photons during energy transitions between atomic energy states

B. Gamma photons from the nuclei of radioactive isotopes

C. Beta particles from the nuclei of radioactive isotopes

D. Alpha particles from the nuclei of radioactive isotopes

[1]
24. A student quotes three equations related to atomic and nuclear physics:
−13.6
I. 𝐸= 𝑛2
eV

II. 𝑁 = 𝑁0 e−𝜆𝑡
𝑛ℎ
III. 𝑚𝑣𝑟 = 2𝜋

Which equations refer to the Bohr model for hydrogen?

A. I and II only

B. I and III only

C. II and III only

D. I, II and III

[1]

25. Monochromatic electromagnetic radiation ejects photoelectrons from a metal surface. The
minimum frequency for which this is possible is 𝑓.

When radiation of frequency 2𝑓 is incident on the surface, the kinetic energy of the
photoelectrons is K.

What is the kinetic energy of the photoelectrons when the frequency of the radiation is 4𝑓?

A. K

B. 2K

C. 3K

D. 4K

[1]

26. The decay constant, 𝜆, of a radioactive sample can be defined as

A. the number of disintegrations in the radioactive sample.

B. the number of disintegrations per unit time in the radioactive sample.

C. the probability that a nucleus decays in the radioactive sample.

D. the probability that a nucleus decays per unit time in the radioactive sample.

[1]
27. What is evidence for wave–particle duality?

A. Line spectra of elements

B. Electron-diffraction experiments

C. Rutherford alpha-scattering experiments

D. Gamma-ray spectra [1]

28. Light with photons of energy 8.0 × 10−20 J are incident on a metal surface in a photoelectric
experiment.

The work function of the metal surface is 4.8 × 10−20 J. What minimum voltage is required for the
ammeter reading to fall to zero?

A. 0.2 V

B. 0.3 V

C. 0.5 V

D. 0.8 V [1]
𝑃(𝑟)
29. Which graph shows a possible probability density function |Ψ|2 = for a given wave function
𝛥𝑉
Ψ of an electron?

[1]
30. The dashed line represents the variation with incident electromagnetic frequency 𝑓 of
the kinetic energy EK of the photoelectrons ejected from a metal surface. The metal surface
is then replaced with one that requires less energy to remove an electron from the surface.

Which graph of the variation of EK with 𝑓 will be observed?

[1]
31. A toy rocket is made from a plastic bottle that contains some water.

Air is pumped into the vertical bottle until the pressure inside forces water and air out of the
bottle. The bottle then travels vertically upwards.

The air–water mixture is called the propellant.

The variation with time of the vertical velocity of the bottle is shown.

The bottle reaches its highest point at time T1 on the graph and returns to the ground at time T2.
The bottle then bounces. The motion of the bottle after the bounce is shown as a dashed line.
(a) Estimate, using the graph, the maximum height of the bottle. [3]

(b) Estimate the acceleration of the bottle when it is at its maximum height. [2]

(c) The bottle bounces when it returns to the ground.

(c.i) Calculate the fraction of the kinetic energy of the bottle that remains after the bounce. [2]
(c.ii) The mass of the bottle is 27 g and it is in contact with the ground for 85 ms.

Determine the average force exerted by the ground on the bottle.

Give your answer to an appropriate number of significant figures. [3]

(d) After a second bounce, the bottle rotates about its centre of mass. The bottle rotates at 0.35
revolutions per second.

The centre of mass of the bottle is halfway between the base and the top of the bottle.

Assume that the velocity of the centre of mass is zero.

Calculate the linear speed of the top of the bottle. [3]

(e) The maximum height reached by the bottle is greater with an air–water mixture than with only
high-pressure air in the bottle.

Assume that the speed at which the propellant leaves the bottle is the same in both cases.

Explain why the bottle reaches a greater maximum height with an air–water mixture. [2]
32. (a) Describe the quark structure of a baryon. [2]

(b) The Feynman diagram shows a possible decay of the K+ meson.

Identify the interactions that are involved at points A and B in this decay. [2]

(c) The K+ meson can decay as

K+ → μ+ + vμ.

State and explain the interaction that is responsible for this decay. [2]
33. An experiment is carried out to determine the count rate, corrected for background
radiation, when different thicknesses of copper are placed between a radioactive source and a
detector. The graph shows the variation of corrected count rate with copper thickness.

(a) Outline how the count rate was corrected for background radiation. [1]

(b) When a single piece of thin copper foil is placed between the source and detector, the count
rate is 810 count minute−1. The foil is replaced with one that has three times the thickness.
Estimate the new count rate. [2]
(c) Further results were obtained in this experiment with copper and lead absorbers.

Comment on the radiation detected from this radioactive source. [4]

(d) Another radioactive source consists of a nuclide of caesium that decays to barium

. Write down the reaction for this decay. [2]

34. A mass is attached to one end of a rod and made to rotate with constant speed in a vertical
circle.

(a) The scale diagram shows the weight W of the mass at an instant when the rod is horizontal.

Draw, on the scale diagram, an arrow to represent the force exerted on the mass by the rod. [2]

(b) Explain why the magnitude of the force exerted on the mass by the rod is not constant. [3]
35. A planet is in a circular orbit around a star. The speed of the planet is constant.

(a.i) Explain why a centripetal force is needed for the planet to be in a circular orbit. [2]

(a.ii) State the nature of this centripetal force. [1]

(b) Determine the gravitational field of the planet. [2]

The following data are given:

Mass of planet = 8.0 × 1024 kg

Radius of the planet = 9.1 × 106 m.

36.

(a) Outline, by reference to nuclear binding energy, why the mass of a nucleus is less than the
sum of the masses of its constituent nucleons. [2]

Polonium-210 (Po-210) decays by alpha emission into lead-206 (Pb-206).

The following data are available:

Nuclear mass of Po-210 = 209.93676 u

Nuclear mass of Pb-206 = 205.92945 u

Mass of the alpha particle = 4.00151 u

(b.i) Calculate, in MeV, the energy released in this decay. [2]

(b.ii) The polonium nucleus was stationary before the decay.

Show, by reference to the momentum of the particles, that the kinetic energy of the alpha particle
is much greater than the kinetic energy of the lead nucleus. [3]

(b.iii) In the decay of polonium−210, alpha emissions can be accompanied by the emissions of
gamma photons, all of the same wavelength of 1.54 × 10−12 m.

Discuss how this observation provides evidence for discrete nuclear energy levels. [3]
(c) A sample contains 5.0 g of pure polonium-210. The decay constant of polonium-210 is
5.8 × 10−8 s−1. Lead-206 is stable.

Calculate the mass of lead-206 present in the sample after one year. [3]