Physics L

Combined Science-Physics

Chapter 1: Linear Motion

Section 1.3 Velocity and Speed

(1)
1. What is speed?
(2)
2. What is the average speed of an object?
(3)
3. [G] In a flight from airport ‘Departure’ to airport ‘Arrival’, a jet airplane flies a
distance of 4,800 km. The flight is scheduled to be a 12-hour long flight. What is the
average speed of such a trip?
(4)
4. [G] Define velocity.

Section 1.4 Acceleration

(5)
5. What can you say about a car moving at: (Take North as the positive sense)
a) 2 m/s2 due North?
b) −2 m/s2 due South?
c) −2 m/s2 due North?

(6)
6.[G] When is an object is accelerating? When is an object decelerating?

Section 1.5 Graphs of Motion

(7)
7. What does the slope of the position-time graph represent?
(8)
8. What does the slope of the velocity-time graph represent?
(9)
9. The velocity-time graph of a moving car is shown below.

Calculate acceleration of the car at t = 6 s.

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(10)
10. [G] Consider the following x-t graph of a toy car.

What is the speed of the toy car at t = 7.0 s?

(11)
11. [G] The position-time graphs of three particles are shown below.

Use the position-time graphs to describe the motion of the particles.

(12)
12. [G] The velocity-time graph of a moving object is shown below.

Describe the state of motion of the object in phases AB, BC, and CD.
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(13)
13. [G] The velocity-time graph of a moving car is shown below.

What is the displacement of the car between t = 4 s and t = 13 s?

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Chapter 2: Forces

Section 2.1 What Is a Force?

(14)
1. What is the result of an interaction between two objects?
(15)
2. [G] a. Name a force that causes a change in motion.
b. Name a force that causes change in the shape of an object.

Section 2.2 Types of Forces

(16)
3. What is friction?
(17)
4. What kind of surface texture results in higher friction?
(18)
5. How is the magnitude of friction related to the force pushing two surfaces together?
(19)
6. What is air resistance?
(20)
7. How does the speed of an object affect the amount of air resistance acting on it?
(21)
8. Which object has a greater air resistance acting on it: a slim rocket or a wide flat
parachute?
(22)
9. What is a drag force?
(23)
10. What is weight?
(24)
11. What is mass?
(25)
12. What is the mathematical expression for weight in terms of mass and acceleration
due to gravity?
(26)
13. [G] A box moving along a rough surface will eventually stops. What is the force
acting on the box and where does it act?
(27)
14. [G] A parachutist is descending vertically as shown below.

What is the frictional force acting on the parachutist?

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(28)
15. [G] The figure below shows two blocks made of the same material, A and B, each
hanging from a spring balance.

How do the weights and the masses of the blocks compare?

(29)
16. [G] What is the gravitational field strength? What is its symbol and its value near
the surface of the Earth?
(30)
17. [G] A 3.00 kg apple is placed on a table. Knowing that the gravitational constant is
9.80 m/s2, what is the weight of the apple?
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Chapter 3: Newton’s Laws of Motion

Section 3.1 Net Force

(31)
1. What is a net force? Is it a scalar or vector quantity?
(32)
2. Describe how to add parallel forces acting in the same direction.
(33)
3. Describe how to add parallel forces acting in opposite directions.
(34)
4. [G] In the diagram below, three forces act on a ball.

Find and draw the resultant R of the given forces showing its direction and
magnitude.

Section 3.2 Newton’s First Law of Motion

(35)
5. Are the forces acting on a box resting on a horizontal surface balanced or
unbalanced?
(36)
6. What happens to an object at rest if a resultant force acts on it?
(37)
7. [G] State Newton’s first law of motion.
(38)
8. [G] What is the effect of a zero net force on an object?

Section 3.3 Newton’s Second Law of Motion

(39)
9. [G] Two teams, the women's team and the men's team, play the game of tug of war.

a. If both teams apply the same resultant force, which team will win?
b. If the women's team applies a larger resultant force on the rope, in which direction
will the winning team move?
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Chapter 4: Energy

Section 4.2 Types of Energy

(40)
1. What are the two main types of energy?
(41)
2. When does an elastic object store elastic potential energy?
(42)
3. An archer is pulling the string of a bow as shown below.

string
arrow

bow

archer

Where is the elastic potential energy stored?

(43)
4. [G] What is kinetic energy?
(44)
5. [G] What is potential energy?

Section 4.3 Forms of Energy

(45)
6. What is thermal energy?
(46)
7. When is electrical energy related to kinetic energy? When it is related as potential
energy?
(47)
8. What is chemical energy?
(48)
9. What is nuclear energy?
(49)
10. [G] What are the different forms of energy? Give examples.
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Section 4.4 Energy Conversion

(50)
11. What is energy conversion?
(51)
12. Into what form(s) of energy is chemical energy stored in a log of wood transformed
when the log is burned?
(52)
13. What energy conversion takes place when stretching and releasing a rubber band?
(53)
14. Describe the energy conversion that takes place in a simple pendulum.
(54)
15. Describe how hydroelectric energy is obtained and how it can generate energy.
(55)
16. When coal is burned in a power station to generate electricity, the efficiency of the
system is about 40%. What does this mean?
(56)
17. [G] How can the energy supplied to the tree by the sun help pull a train?
(57)
18. [G] State the energy transformations that occur in the following devices.

Battery
Candle
Electric motor

Section 4.5 Conservation of Energy

(58)
19. What does the law of conservation of energy state?
(59)
20. An object is dropped from a bridge into a river. Draw an E p -E k graph that shows the
variation of gravitational potential energy E p as function of kinetic energy E k for the
falling object?

Section 4.6 Renewable and Non-Renewable Sources of Energy

(60)
21. How may useful energy be obtained from fossil fuels?
(61)
22. How may useful energy be obtained from biomass?
(62)
23. A windmill uses wind energy to operate a current generator which lights a light bulb.
Which of the following forms of energy is/are not involved in the process? (a) kinetic
(b) heat (c) electrical (d) chemical potential (e) gravitational potential?
(63)
24. How may useful energy be obtained from geothermal?
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(64)
25. Different methods of generating electricity exist. These methods have advantages and
disadvantages. Determine the disadvantages of each of the following methods.
a. wind power
b. hydroelectric energy
c. tidal energy
d. geothermal
(65)
26. [G] Determine the energy transformations in each of the electricity-generating
devices below.
a. wind turbine
b. nuclear reactor
c. solar panel
d. geothermal
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Chapter 5: Work and Energy

Section 5.1 Work

(66)
1. What is work?
(67)
2. What are the two cases in which a force does zero work on an object?
(68)
3. A force F of magnitude 20.0 N acts on a box at an angle of 60° with the horizontal. If
the force applied to the box causes it to move horizontally through 10.0 m, what is the
work done by F?
(69)
4. [G] When does energy transfer occur?
(70)
5. [G] What work is done by the pulling force of a tractor of magnitude 2,000 N over a
distance of 50 m? Assume the force and displacement are in the same direction.

Section 5.2 Work-Kinetic Energy Theorem

(119)
6. Stat the work-energy theorem.
(120)
7. A package of mass 8.0 kg is pushed in a straight line across a smooth horizontal floor
by means of a constant horizontal force of magnitude 16 N. The package has a speed of
3.0 m/s when it passes through point A and a speed of 5.0 m/s when it reaches point B.
Find the distance AB.

Section 5.3 Work and Gravitational Potential Energy

(121)
8. Express the work done by gravity on an object moving upward.
(122)
9. What is the work done by the weight of a 750. g object falling down from a height of
12.0 m? (Use g = 10.0 m/s2)
(123)
10. A woman of mass 60.0 kg takes a ride in a ski lift. Find the work done by gravity on
the woman as she goes up 100. m along a slope of 37.0°. Use g = 10.0 m/s2.
(124)
11. How does the work done by gravity compare to the change in the gravitational
potential energy of an object moving upward?
(125)
12. A box of mass 4 kg is raised vertically upward through a distance of 2 m. Find the
change in the gravitational potential energy of the box. What is the work done by gravity
on the box? (Use g = 10 m/s2)
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(126)
13. Four boxes, initially at the same level, were raised to different heights:
Box A of mass 3 kg was lifted 0.5 m.
Box B of mass 2 kg was lifted 1.0 m.
Box C of mass 1 kg was lifted 1.5 m.
Box D of mass 0.5 kg was lifted 2.0 m.

a. Which box increased its potential energy the greatest amount?

b. If the boxes are now allowed to fall back to the ground, which one will be traveling the
fastest when it reaches the ground?

Section 5.4 Conservation of Energy

(71)
14. Give the mathematical expression that describes the law of conservation of
mechanical energy.
(72)
15. [G] The figure below shows a roller coaster cart of mass 900 kg at point A 20 m
above ground level. Neglect frictional forces and take g = 10 m/s2.

Starting from rest, what is the speed of the roller coaster cart at point B?

Section 5.5 Power

(73)
16. What is power? Give its mathematical expression.
(74)
17. [G] An escalator and an elevator are used to lift a man from the same underground
railway platform up to the street level. The work done by the escalator is W and the
power developed by it is P.
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The escalator takes 20 seconds to carry a man to the

street level.

The elevator takes 30 seconds to carry the same

man to the street level.

How do the work done and the power done by the elevator compare with that of the
escalator?
(75)
18. [G] A man of mass 80.0 kg climbs up 25 stairs each of height 20.0 cm in 20.0 s. What
is the power developed by the man? Use g = 10.0 m/s2.

5.6 Simple Machines

(76)
19. What is the efficiency of a machine?
(77)
20. How does friction affect the efficiency of an inclined plane?

5.7 Compound Machines

(78)
21. What happens to the efficiency of a compound machine when you add more simple
machines to it?
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Chapter 6: Temperature and Heat

Section 6.1 The Kinetic Molecular Theory of Matter

(79)
1. How are the state of matter and the kinetic energy of the particles related?
(80)
2. The diagram below represents the states of matter. Label each diagram with the state it
represents.

(81)
3. How does the motion of particles in a liquid compare to that of particles in the solid
state of the same substance?
(82)
4. Referring to the kinetic theory of matter, how does the motion of gas particles compare
to the motion of liquid particles and solid particles?
(83)
5. [G] Give one description statement for each state of matter.

6.2 Temperature and Kinetic Energy

(84)
6. [G] How are the temperature and the kinetic energy of particles related?

6.3 Thermal Energy and Heat

(127)
7. a. What is thermal energy?
b. What two factors affect the amount of thermal energy in a substance?
(128)
8. How does the thermal energy of a substance change as the
a. substance's temperature changes?
b. substance's mass changes?

(129)
9. Do cold objects have thermal energy? Explain.
(130)
10. Why can an object on its own have a temperature and thermal energy, but not heat?
(131)
11. What is internal energy?
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6.4 Thermometers and Temperature Scales

(132)
12. Name two types of thermometers?
(133)
13. How are liquid-filled thermometers similar to and different from digital
thermometers?
(134)
14. What are the two most common temperature scales?
(135)
15. What is the freezing point and the boiling point of water on the Fahrenheit scale?
(136)
16. What is the freezing point and the boiling point of water on the Celsius scale?
(137)
17. a. What is meant by the absolute zero on a Kelvin scale?
b. What happens to a substance at absolute zero?
(138)
18. What is the equation used to convert temperatures
a. from °C to °F?
b. from °C to K?
(139)
19. The average “room temperature” is equal to 25°C. What is this temperature equal to
on the Kelvin and Fahrenheit scales?

6.5 Thermal Expansion

(85)
20. What is thermal expansion?
(86)
21. According to the kinetic theory of matter, why does a substance expand when its
temperature increases?
(87)
22. According to the kinetic theory of matter, why does a substance contract when its
temperature decreases?
(88)
23. A student wants to understand thermal expansion of different states of matter. He
heats up steel, oil, and hydrogen each of the same volume from 10°C to 50°C. Their
volumes increase. Explain which of these substances has the greatest increase in the
volume.
(89)
24. [G] A wire is held between two pillars, as shown below. The wire is connected very
tightly.

What would happen if the weather becomes too cold? Explain your reasoning.
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6.6 Heat and Temperature Changes

(140)
25. How does heat flow from one body to another?
(141)
26. Why does the temperature of food placed in a freezer decrease?
(142)
27. When are two bodies at thermal equilibrium?
(143)
28. What is the equation of conversion from calorie to joule?
(144)
29. How does doubling the mass of a substance affect the quantity of heat needed to
raise the temperature of the substance by the same amount?
(145)
30. How much heat is needed to raise the temperature of 500. g of water by 70.0°C?
(146)
31. 7. 2,000 J of energy are needed to raise the temperature of 1 kg of paraffin by 1°C.
How much heat is needed to raise the temperature of 2 kg of paraffin by 10°C?
(147)
32. Calculate in calories the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 100 g of water
by 1 °C.
(148)
33. Which substance has the highest specific heat of most common substances?
(149)
34. How is the amount of heat needed to change the temperature of a substance related to the
mass of the substance?
(150)
35. Why does the water in a kettle take longer than the kettle itself to warm up?
(151)
36. A block of wood and a piece of steel of the same mass are heated, raising their
temperature by the same amount. Why does steel require less thermal energy than the
wood?
(152)
37. Consider a liquid at its boiling point.
a. Describe what happens as heat is transferred to this liquid.
b. If heat is transferred to the liquid, explain how the kinetic and potential energies of the
liquid molecules vary.

6.7 Heat and Phase Change

(90)
38. Indicate the change of state corresponding to each label in the diagram below.
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(91)
39. According to the kinetic theory of matter, how does ice turn into liquid water and
later into water vapor?
(92)
40. Explain why liquids cool as they evaporate.
(93)
41. Why will water in a cup cool much faster than water in a jug?
(94)
42. A swamp box is an air cooler made of a fan drawing air through a wet cloth.
a. Name the process responsible for cooling of the air passing through wet cloth.
b. With reference to kinetic molecular theory of matter, explain why cooling occurs.
(95)
43. [G] Describe evaporation.

6.8 Heat Transfer

(96)
44. What materials are good heat conductors?
(97)
45. Why is "warm" clothing, such as wool, a good insulator?
(98)
46. How does house insulation work in winter and in summer?
(99)
47. Describe heat transfer by convection.
(100)
48. What is radiation?
(101)
49. What happens to the particles in a substance that absorbs radiation?
(102)
50. Which objects can transfer thermal energy by radiation?
(103)
51. An electric filament lamp with a clear glass bulb is switched on and gives a bright
white light. The bulb contains a small quantity of argon. Give an account of the parts
played by conduction, convection, and radiation in the loss of heat from the lamp
filament.
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(104)
52. [G] In order to investigate the thermal conductivity of water, the following
experiment is conducted. Ice cubes are held in place at the bottom of a beaker using
a metal mesh. The beaker is filled with water and a heat source is placed near the top
of the beaker.

The experiment shows that water at the top of the beaker start to boil into steam
while the ice at the bottom of the beaker remains intact. What conclusion can you
make?
(105)
53. [G] Which mediums convection takes place in?
(106)
54. [G] A beaker contains a mixture of a liquid and crystals of potassium permanganate.
The beaker is placed on top of a heat source as shown below.

As the crystals in the beaker start to dissolve in the liquid, they produce a circular
pattern. What conclusion can be made from this experiment?
(107)
55. [G] Does thermal energy transfer by thermal radiation require a medium?
(108)
56. [G] Identify which colors are the best emitters, absorbers, and reflectors of radiation.
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(109)
57. [G] The diagram below shows a room is being heated by a heater. The arrows show
the movement of the air within the room.

What happens to the heated air?

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Chapter 7: Mechanical Waves and Sound

7.1 What Is a Mechanical Wave?

(153)
1. [G] a. What is a mechanical wave?
b. How is energy transmitted by a mechanical wave?
(154)
2. [G] Which of the following physical quantities is transmitted as a wave propagates through a
medium?
A. density
B. volume
C. matter
D. energy
E. mass

7.2 Types of Mechanical Waves

(155)
3. [G] a. Define a transverse wave? Give examples.
b. Define a longitudinal wave? Give examples.
(156)
4. Indicate the type of each mechanical wave shown below. Explain your answer.

(157)
5. The figure below shows a small boat at rest above transverse water waves.

s
What is the motion of the boat due to the waves?

7.3 Properties of Mechanical Waves

(158)
6. Differentiate between a pulse and a periodic wave.
(159)
7. Define compression and rarefaction.
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(160)
8. The diagram below shows the displacement of soil during the propagation of a wave
along the surface of Earth after an earthquake.

a. What kind of wave is shown in the above diagram?

b. At which points compressions and rarefactions are observed?
(161)
9. Draw and label a displacement-time graph of a single particle in the wave.
(162)
10. a. A train of waves travels in a stretched spring at the rate of two waves per second. Find the
period.
b. The time for one complete cycle of a musical note is 4 × 10−3 s. Find the frequency of the
sound.
c. A radio station broadcasts at a frequency of 100 MHz. Find the period of the
electromagnetic waves it broadcasts.
(163)
11. [G] A boat is swinging in waves with a frequency of 0.50 Hz. What is the speed of these
waves if the distance between adjacent crests is 3.0 m?
(164)
12. What is the speed of a tsunami wave that has a wavelength of 200 km and a period of 800 s?
(165)
13. Draw and label a displacement-position graph of the particles along the wave train at a
single moment.
(166)
14. [G] Define frequency, wavelength, amplitude, and wave speed.
(167)
15. The diagram below shows a periodic wave in a taut string. Consider three points A, B, and C
as indicated on the string.

Compare the wave’s speed v at points A, B, and C. Explain you reasoning.

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(168)
16. Consider the diagram below of a transverse wave.

a. Which letter(s) represents the amplitude of the wave?

b. Which letter(s) represents the wavelength of the wave?
(169)
17. Consider the displacement-time graph of a sinusoidal wave.

a. What is the amplitude of the wave?

b. What is the period of the wave?

7.4 Wave Phenomena

(170)
18. [G] What is wave reflection?
(171)
19. What does the law of reflection state?
(172)
20. Which wave properties remain unchanged after a wave reflects off a surface?
(173)
21. What wave property changes after a wave reflects off a surface?
(174)
22. How do the energy and amplitude of a periodic wave change upon collision with an
obstacle?
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7.5 Producing Sound Waves

(175)
23. [G] Sound is thought of as a train of pulses traveling in a medium.
a. How sound is produced?
b. Would you expect sound waves in air to be transverse or longitudinal? Explain your
reasoning.
(176)
24. Two cans connected by a rope can form a primitive interphone (telephone). How can you
explain that?

7.6 Properties of Sound Waves

(177)
25. [G] a. Complete the diagram below by naming the three ranges of sound from just above
0 Hz to about 1,000,000,000 Hz.

b. Which sound can humas hear?

(178)
26. A sound wave used for a medical examination has a frequency of 1.5MHz. State and explain
what type of sound wave this is.
(179)
27. Four waves, A, B, C, and D, are travelling in the same medium. Their displacement-time
graphs are to the same scale and are shown below.

a. Which wave has the highest pitch?

b. Which wave is the loudest?
c. Which wave travels the fastest?
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(180)
28. [G] The diagram below shows the waveform of the note from a bell.

a. What is happening to the loudness of the note?

b. What is happening to the pitch o the not?
(181)
29. a. Through which media does sound travel?
b. Through which media sound travel the fastest? Explain you reasoning.
(182)
30. a. Which sound travels faster, a loud sound or a quiet one?
b. Which sound travels faster, the one produced by a guitar or by a drum?

(183)
31. When sound travels from air into water, does the frequency of the wave change? Also, do its
speed and wavelength change? Explain your reasoning.
(184)
32. Consider a musical instrument that emits a sound of frequency 3.8 kHz. If the frequency of
the sound emitted by the instrument is increased to 4.9 kHz and if its amplitude of the sound
is increased as well, what happens to the speed of the sound and the wavelength of the
sound?
(185)
33. When a sound wave travels from a medium in one state into the same medium but in another
state, the speed of the wave changes from 300 m/s to 3,000 m/s. What are the states in which the
sound wave travelled?
A. liquid to gas
B. liquid to solid
C. solid to liquid
D. gas to solid
(186)
34. [G] A sound wave traveling in wood covers 330 meters in 0.1 s. What is the speed of
sound in wood?
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7.7 Sound Waves Phenomena

(187)
35. Does sound pass through and reflect from a barrier simultaneously? If you clap your hands
30 meters from the flat window of a building, can you hear the echo?
Can people inside the building hear you clap as well?
(188)
36. [G] An echo happens when sound waves bounce off a surface and back to your ear.
What wave phenomenon causes an echo to occur?
(189)
37. When does an echo take place, and what can be said about its loudness compared to the
initial wave?

7.8 Using Sound

(190)
38. An ultrasound wave of frequency of 2.0 MHz is being used to scan an internal organ of a
sick patient. The ultrasound wave passes through the human tissue at a speed of 1,500
m/s.
What is then the wavelength of the ultrasound wave in the tissue?
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Revision

R1.1 Physical Quantities and Measurement techniques

(110)
1. What is the length of the object measured by a ruler below? Assume that the lowest
extremity is on the zero.

(111)
2. [G] A student used a measuring cylinder to measure the volume of a liquid. The
diagram below shows part of the cylinder with the liquid inside of it.

What is the volume of the liquid?

(112)
3. [G] A runner completed three laps around a track field.

Her coach uses a stopwatch to record the time at the start of the run, after one lap, and
at the end of the three laps. The readings from the stopwatch are shown below.

What is the average time for one lap of the track?

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(113)
4. [G] An IGCSE student measures the displacement of a pendulum bob from its rest
position. The displacement is 20.1 cm as shown in the diagram below.

What is the displacement of the pendulum in millimeter?

R1.2 Density
(114)
5. What is density?
(115)
6. [G] What is the density of a gold bar having a mass of 70.0 g and a volume of 3.62
cm3?
(116)
7. [G] A student wants to experimentally determine the unknown material of a
rectangular object. He measures the sides of the object using a ruler. The dimensions
are found to be as follows: length = 10 cm, width = 5.0 cm, and height = 2.0 cm.

Using a balance, the mass of the object was found to be 80 g. The table below
summarizes the densities of different materials.

Material Density (g/cm3)

Cork 0.24
Wood 0.80
Styrofoam 1.05
Aluminum 2.7
Steel 7.8

What is the unknown material?

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(117)
8. [G] A student wants to measure the density of an irregular shaped object. He placed
an irregularly shaped stone of mass 114 g in a cylinder containing 9 mL of water.
The diagram below shows the volume of water before and after the stone was
dropped.

What is the density of the stone?

(118)
9. [G] Below are two containers filled with different fluids. Two identical round objects
are dropped inside the containers. In container one, the density of the object is greater
than the fluid. In container two, the density of the object is smaller than the fluid.

Which object sinks?