Practice Paper 1A (SL IB Physics)

A parachutist of mass 75 kg is falling vertically through the air at a constant speed of 0.6 m s^–1. 

What is the resultant force on the parachutist? 

The power generated by the nuclear reactions in the core of the reactor is 35 GW.

If the efficiency of the power station is 60%, how much power goes into producing wasted energy?

A ball of mass 4.0 kg, initially at rest, is acted on by a force F which varies with t.

What is the velocity of the ball after 14 s?

Sankey diagrams are used to represent energy transfers. 

Which Sankey diagram shows the most efficient lightbulb?

A horizontal disc rotates uniformly at a constant angular velocity about a central axis normal to the plane of the disc.

Point X is on a distance 3L from the centre of the disc. Point Y is a distance L from the centre of the disc. Point Y has a linear speed v and a centripetal acceleration a.

What is the linear speed and centripetal acceleration of point X?

A sealed cylinder contains water at 10 °C and ice at 0 °C. The system has been thermally isolated from the surroundings. The ice and the water reach thermal equilibrium.

What happens to the total internal energy of the system in order for equilibrium to be reached?

The black body temperature of Venus is 90% of the black body temperature of Earth.

Which of the following correctly shows the ratio:

A black body has absolute temperature T and surface area A. The total power radiated by the body is P. What is the value of power if the surface area is reduced to one third of A, and the temperature increased to three times T?

A power cable X has resistance R and carries current I. A second cable Y has resistance 2R and carries current .

What is the ratio ?

Two resistors are connected to a cell.

Assuming both resistors are made from wires of the same length, which graph shows how the potential V varies along the line XY?

A mass of 5 × 10⁻³ kg of hydrogen is split between two gas bottles Y and Z. Y and Z are connected by a tube that has a negligible volume compared with the volume of each bottle. 

Initially the valve X is closed and gas bottle Y has a volume 4V and contains hydrogen at a pressure p. Gas bottle Z has a volume V and contains Hydrogen at a pressure of 3p. Y and Z are initially at the same temperature. 

X is now opened.

What is the new gas pressure assuming there is no change in temperature?

The star Deneb emits EM waves of wavelengths 500 µm, 5 µm, 0.5 µm and 0.005 µm.

Which row correctly identifies the areas of the EM spectrum to which these wavelengths belong?

A pendulum oscillating with simple harmonic motion has an amplitude and a maximum kinetic energy E_k.

What is the potential energy of the system when the pendulum bob is at a distance 0.4 from its maximum displacement?

A particle, P, oscillates on the line XZ about its equilibrium point Y, in simple harmonic motion.

At the point shown, which statement could be correct about the motion of the particle?

A student is investigating the interference of waves. They set up coherent waves produced at points S and T and travel outwards in all directions.

The line XY is halfway between S and T and perpendicular to the joining line S and T. The distance XY is much greater than the distance ST.

Which line or lines would an interference pattern be seen along?

Point charges, each of magnitude Q are placed at three corners of a square as shown in the diagram.

What is the direction of the resultant electric field at the corner with no charge?

A mass at point P gives rise to a gravitational field strength g at point X as shown.

An identical mass is placed at point Q as shown.

What is the resultant gravitational field strength at X in this new situation?

A charged particle in an electric field will experience a force on it that will cause it to move. The three particles X, Y and Z are experiencing a force which deflects their motion as shown. What three particles could X, Y and Z be?

The inverse square law means that halving the radius of a planet results in quadrupling the gravitational field strength at its surface.

The centres of two planets are separated by a distance R. The gravitational force between the two planets is F. What will the force between the planets be when their separation increases to 4R?

A straight wire PQ carrying a constant current I is placed perpendicularly to a uniform magnetic field, as represented by the dotted line in the diagram below.

The current-carrying wire is then rotated anti-clockwise through an angle θ about an axis perpendicular to the plane of the diagram.

Which of the following graphs shows how the magnitude of the magnetic force F on the wire varies with θ in the rangeradians?

Tau Ceti is one of the closest stars to the Sun. Tau Ceti has a surface temperature of 5300 K and a luminosity of 0.55 L_Sun, where L_Sun is the luminosity of the Sun.

Which of the following is the correct description of Tau Ceti?

In a nuclear reactor, a self-sustained chain reaction is possible because:

I.    More neutrons are released in each fission reaction.

II.   Every neutron released in a fission reaction immediately initiates a further fission reaction.

III.  The fast neutrons are slowed down by the moderator.

Which statements are correct?

A pure sample of a radioactive nuclide undergoes a decay resulting in a stable daughter nuclide. What fraction of the sample is made up of the daughter nuclide after five half-lives?

Which of the following statements about stars in positions P, Q, R and S is correct?