Cambridge Past Paper Questions
Browse 23,045questions from 25 years of O-Level & A-Level exams. Click any question to practice.
Piezo-electric transducers are used for the generation of ultrasonic waves.
A geostationary satellite orbits the Earth with a period of 24 hours.
A rigid copper wire is held horizontally between the pole pieces of two magnets, as shown in Fig. 9.1. [Figure 9.1] The width of each pole piece is...
An X-ray beam is used to produce an image of a model of a thumb. A parallel beam of X-ray radiation of intensity I₀ is incident on the model, as il...
A student is investigating the force between two charged metal spheres S and T, as shown in Fig. 1.1. [Figure 1.1] Each sphere may be charged by co...
A student is investigating monochromatic light passing through a diffraction grating. A series of maxima are produced on a screen, as shown in Fig....
A student is investigating the reflection of light from a compact disc (CD), as shown in Fig. 1.1. [Figure 1.1] The student observes on the screen ...
A student is investigating the charging of a capacitor. A circuit is set up as shown in Fig. 2.1. [Figure 2.1] The capacitor is initially discharge...
What is equivalent to 2000 microvolts?
What is the number of SI base units required to express electric field strength and power?
The Planck constant h has SI units Js. Which equation could be used to calculate the Planck constant?
Two cables are attached to a bracket and exert forces as shown. [Figure 4.1] What are the magnitudes of the horizontal and vertical components of t...
A student wishes to determine the density ρ of lead. She measures the mass and diameter of a small sphere of lead: mass = (0.506 ± 0.005) g diamete...
Two quantities p and q are directly proportional to each other. Experimental results are taken and plotted in a graph of q against p. Which graph s...
The graph shows how a physical quantity varies with time. [Figure 8.1] Which event could best be represented by the graph?
What describes the mass of an object?
A car has mass m. A person needs to push the car with force F in order to give the car acceleration a. The person needs to push the car with force ...
Two bar magnets P and Q are mounted on floats which can slide without friction along an air track. [Figure 11.1] The two magnets slide towards each...
A submarine descends vertically at constant velocity. The three forces acting on the submarine are viscous drag, upthrust and weight. Which relatio...
A small positive charge can move inside a uniform electric field. [Figure 13.1] The charge moves along different straight paths between points P, Q...
A car of mass m travels at constant speed up a slope at an angle θ to the horizontal, as shown in the diagram. Air resistance and friction provide ...
A volume of 1.5 m³ of water is mixed with 0.50 m³ of alcohol. The density of water is 1000 kg m⁻³ and the density of alcohol is 800 kg m⁻³. The vol...
A combined heat and power (CHP) station generates electrical power and useful heat. The diagram shows the input and output powers for a CHP station...
A bungee jumper jumps off a high bridge, when attached to it by a long elastic rope which obeys Hooke's law. The gravitational potential energy of ...
A train on a mountain railway is carrying 200 people of average mass 70 kg up a slope at an angle of 30° to the horizontal and at a speed of 6.0 m ...
A wire X is stretched by a force and gains elastic potential energy E. The same force is applied to wire Y of the same material, with the same init...
The diagram shows the arrangement of atoms in a particular crystal. [Figure 21.1] Each atom is at the corner of a cube. The mass of each atom is 3....
The stress-strain graphs for loading and unloading four different materials are shown. Which material exhibits purely elastic behaviour?
The diagram illustrates the position of particles in a progressive sound wave at one instant in time. [Figure 23.1] The speed of the wave is v. P a...
A wave moves along the surface of water. The diagram shows the variation of displacement s with distance along the wave at time t = 0. [Figure 24.1...
In an experiment to determine the wavelength of sound in air, a stationary wave is set up in an air column. The distance between a node and an adja...
In one of the first experiments to demonstrate the Doppler effect, a train was filled with trumpeters all playing a note of frequency 440 Hz. The d...
The electromagnetic spectrum consists of waves with different wavelengths. Which row correctly identifies regions of the electromagnetic spectrum?
A cathode-ray oscilloscope (CRO) is used to display the trace from a sound wave. The time-base is set at 5 µs mm⁻¹. [Figure 28.1] What is the frequ...
Monochromatic light is directed at a diffraction grating, as shown. [Figure 29.1] Which diagram could show all the possible directions of the light...
Why can an observable interference pattern never be obtained between two monochromatic beams of light from different lamps?