Practice Paper 1B | SL IB Physics Practice Paper Questions 2025

5 marks

A group of students investigate the rise of a liquid in a capillary tube. The students use a travelling microscope to measure the height $h$ reached by the liquid when one end of the capillary tube is immersed into it.

A travelling microscope is a measuring instrument consisting of a simple microscope that can be moved vertically along a vernier scale. The students take measurements of the positions of the top and bottom of the liquid column.

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The students used a capillary tube with an internal radius r equal to 0.10 mm and recorded the following readings from the vernier scale.

Bottom of liquid column / cm	Top of liquid column / cm
12.00	27.10

(i)

State the uncertainty in each of these readings.

[1]

(ii)

Calculate the percentage uncertainty in the student’s value of $h$ .

[2]

(iii)

The students repeated the measurement of

h

for capillary tubes of different radii. The table shows the student’s final data.

*$r / mm$*	$\frac{1}{r}$	*$h / cm$*
0.09	11.1	16.56
0.10	10.0	15.1
0.12	8.3	12.6
0.15	6.7	10.33

Discuss the values that the students have recorded.

[2]

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7 marks

The students suggest the following theoretical relationship between $h$ and $r$

$h = \frac{k}{r}$

where $k$ is a constant.

To verify the relationship, the variation of $h$ with $\frac{1}{r}$ is plotted.

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(i)

Determine

k

by drawing a line of best fit.

[3]

(ii)

Determine the height of the liquid column that the student could expect for a tube with an internal radius of 0.11 mm.

[1]

(iii)

Assess the extent to which the student’s data supports the theoretical relationship.

[3]

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2 marks

A group of students investigate the motion of a simple pendulum to determine a value for the acceleration of free fall $g$ .

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The group measures the length $l$ of the pendulum with a metre rule and obtains the following repeated readings.

$l / cm$
$l_{1}$	$l_{2}$	$l_{3}$	$l_{4}$
85.5	86.0	87.5	85.5

The group divides into two subgroups, A and B, to analyse the data.

Group A quotes the mean value of $l$ as 86.125 cm.

Group B quotes the mean value of $l$ as 85.7 cm.

Discuss the values that the groups have quoted.

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2 marks

Theory predicts that

$g \propto l^{x} T^{y}$

Calculate $x$ and $y$ .

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4 marks

The group sets the pendulum into oscillations with small amplitude and uses a stopwatch to determine the time period.

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The stopwatch is started when the pendulum is released at A. Measurements of the time period are taken over 5 oscillations and divided by 5. The procedure is repeated twice and the mean period is determined to be $T = 1.86 \pm 0.02 s$ .

(i)

Calculate their value of

g

and the percentage uncertainty in this value.

[3]

(ii)

Suggest a modification to the method that could reduce the uncertainty in their value of

T

[1]

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Practice Paper 1B (SL IB Physics)

Practice Paper Questions