AS & A Level Physics - 9702 Paper 1 2010 Winter Zone 1

A signal has a frequency of 2.0 MHz.
What is the period of the signal?

A metal sphere of radius $r$ is dropped into a tank of water. As it sinks at speed $v$, it experiences a drag force $F$ given by $F = krv$, where $k$ is a constant.
What are the SI base units of $k$?

Which physical quantity would result from a calculation in which a potential difference is multiplied by an electric charge?

The diagram shows a cathode-ray oscilloscope (c.r.o.) being used to measure the rate of rotation of a flywheel.

The flywheel has a small magnet M mounted on it. Each time the magnet passes the coil, a voltage pulse is generated, which is passed to the c.r.o. The display of the c.r.o. is 10 cm wide. The flywheel is rotating at a rate of about 3000 revolutions per minute.

Which time-base setting will display clearly separate pulses on the screen?

A fixed quantity $x_0$ is measured many times in an experiment that has experimental uncertainty. A graph is plotted to show the number $n$ of times that a particular value $x$ is obtained.

Which graph could be obtained if the measurement of $x_0$ has a large systematic error but a small random error?

A ball is thrown horizontally in still air from the top of a very tall building. The ball is affected by air resistance.

What happens to the horizontal and to the vertical components of the ball's velocity? 

The velocity-time graph below is for a stone thrown vertically up into the air. Air resistance is negligible.

The stone is thrown up at time zero.

Area X represents a distance of 5 m. Area Y represents a distance of 3 m.

What is the displacement of the stone from its initial position at time $t$? 

In order that a train can stop safely, it will always pass a signal showing a yellow light before it reaches a signal showing a red light. Drivers apply the brake at the yellow light and this results in a uniform deceleration to stop exactly at the red light.

The distance between the red and yellow lights is $x$.

What must be the minimum distance between the lights if the train speed is increased by 20%, without changing the deceleration of the trains?

The gravitational field strength on the surface of planet P is one tenth of that on the surface of planet Q.

On the surface of P, a body has a mass of 1.0 kg and a weight of 1.0 N.

What are the mass and weight of the same body on the surface of planet Q?

A body, initially at rest, explodes into two masses $M_1$ and $M_2$ that move apart with speeds $v_1$ and $v_2$ respectively. What is the ratio $\frac{v_1}{v_2}$? 

Two experiments are carried out using two trolleys of equal mass. All moving parts of the trolleys are frictionless, as is the surface that the trolleys move over. In both experiments, trolley X moves towards trolley Y, which is initially stationary.

After the collision in experiment 1, X is stationary and Y moves off to the right. After the collision in experiment 2, the trolleys join and move off together. What types of collision occur in these experiments? 

A rigid L-shaped lever arm is pivoted at point P. Three forces act on the lever arm, as shown in the diagram

What is the magnitude of the resultant moment of these forces about point P? 

Two parallel forces, each of magnitude $F$, act on a body as shown.

What is the magnitude of the torque on the body produced by these forces? 

A street lamp is fixed to a wall by a metal rod and a cable.

Which vector triangle represents the forces acting at point P? 

What is the internal energy of a system?

A steam turbine is used to drive a generator. The input power to the turbine is $P_I$ and the output power $P_O$. The power loss in the turbine is $P_L$, as shown below.

What is the efficiency of the turbine? 

The diagram shows a lift system in which the elevator (mass $m_1$) is partly counterbalanced by a heavy weight (mass $m_2$).

At what rate does the motor provide energy to the system when the elevator is rising at a steady speed $v$?

($g =$ acceleration of free fall)

The Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean has a depth of about 10 km.

Assuming that sea water is incompressible and has a density of about 1020 kg m^-3, what would be the approximate pressure at that depth?

A student writes some statements about solids, liquids and gases.

1. Solids are rigid because the molecules in a solid vibrate.
2. Liquids flow because the molecules in a liquid are closer than in a gas.
3. Gases are less dense than liquids because the molecules in a gas move randomly.

Which statements are correct?

The graph shows how force depends on extension for a certain spring.

What is the energy stored in the spring when the extension is 30 mm?

A wire consists of a 3.0 m length of metal X joined to a 1.0 m length of metal Y. The cross-sectional area of the wire is uniform.

A load hung from the wire causes metal X to stretch by 1.5 mm and metal Y to stretch by 1.0 mm. The same load is then hung from a second wire of the same cross-section, consisting of 1.0 m of metal X and 3.0 m of metal Y. What is the total extension of this second wire? 

The graph shows how the displacement of a particle in a wave varies with time.

Which statement is correct?

The diagram shows a vertical cross-section through a water wave moving from left to right. At which point is the water moving upwards with maximum speed?

When plane-polarised light of amplitude $a$ is passed through a polarising filter as shown, the amplitude of the light emerging is $a \cos \theta$.

The intensity of the initial beam is $I$.

What is the intensity of the emerging light when $\theta$ is 60.0°?

A stationary wave is produced by two loudspeakers emitting sound of the same frequency.

When a microphone is moved between X and Y, a distance of 1.5 m, six nodes and seven antinodes are detected.

What is the wavelength of the sound? 

Which electromagnetic wave would cause the most significant diffraction effect for an atomic lattice of spacing around $10^{-10} \text{ m}$?

An electron is in an electric field of strength $5 \times 10^4 \text{ V m}^{-1}$. The field is the only influence on the electron.

The mass and charge of an electron are known.

Which quantity can be calculated without any more information?

Electrons are accelerated and then directed into the uniform electric field between two parallel plates in a vacuum.

What best describes the shape of the path followed by the electrons in the field? 

A charged particle is in the electric field between two horizontal metal plates connected to a source of constant potential difference, as shown. There is a force $F$ on the particle due to the electric field. 

 The separation of the plates is doubled.

 What will be the new force on the particle? 

The current in the circuit shown is 4.8 A.

What is the direction of flow and the rate of flow of electrons through the resistor R?

Which component has the $I-V$ graph shown?

A copper wire is cylindrical and has resistance $R$.
What will be the resistance of a copper wire of twice the length and twice the radius?

A relay is required to operate 800 m from its power supply. The power supply has negligible internal resistance. The relay requires 16.0 V and a current of 0.60 A to operate.
A cable connects the relay to the power supply and two of the wires in the cable are used to supply power to the relay.
The resistance of each of these wires is 0.0050 \( \Omega \) per metre.
What is the minimum output e.m.f. of the power supply?

The diagram shows part of a circuit.

What is the total resistance of the combination of the three resistors?

The diagram shows an arrangement of resistors.
What is the total electrical resistance between X and Y?

In the circuit below, P is a potentiometer of total resistance 10 \( \Omega \) and Q is a fixed resistor of resistance 10 \( \Omega \). The battery has an e.m.f. of 4.0 V and negligible internal resistance. The voltmeter has a very high resistance.

The slider on the potentiometer is moved from X to Y and a graph of voltmeter reading \( V \) is plotted against slider position.
Which graph would be obtained?

Uranium-235 may be represented by the symbol $^{235}_{92}\text{U}$.
Which row shows the numbers of nucleons, protons and neutrons in a $^{235}_{92}\text{U}$ nucleus?
[Table_1]

When a magnesium nucleus $^{25}_{12}\text{Mg}$ is hit by a gamma ray, a sodium nucleus $^{24}_{11}\text{Na}$ is formed and another particle is emitted.
What are the nucleon number (mass number) and proton number (atomic number) of the other particle produced in this nuclear reaction?
[Table_1]

Which nuclear equation shows the beta decay of a nucleus of argon (Ar) into potassium (K)?