Cambridge Past Paper Questions
Browse 23,045questions from 25 years of O-Level & A-Level exams. Click any question to practice.
A street lamp is fixed to a wall by a metal rod and a cable. [Figure showing a street lamp supported by a wall, metal rod, and cable] Which vector ...
Two rigid steel beams XY and YZ are fixed at their lower ends and are hinged at Y. Each beam is inclined at 50° to the horizontal, as shown. A weig...
Air is trapped inside a glass bulb which is immersed in water and attached to a U-tube containing mercury. The densities of water and mercury are ρ...
A ball of mass m is thrown up to height h in air with an initial velocity v, as shown. [Figure showing a ball thrown upwards from P to Q, reaching ...
Car X is travelling at half the speed of car Y. Car X has twice the mass of car Y. Which statement is correct?
During refuelling, a petrol car receives 50 litres of fuel in 90 seconds. The petrol has 34 MJ of energy per litre. For an electric car to receive ...
A bolt is subjected to a tensile force, as shown. [Figure showing a bolt with two sections, one with diameter 2d at X and another with diameter d a...
A rectangular block of steel supporting a very large component of a bridge has a height of 15 cm and a cross-section of 20 cm × 12 cm. It is design...
Which wave is a longitudinal wave?
A vibrating tuning fork is held above a glass cylinder filled to the top with water. The water level is steadily lowered. A loud sound is first hea...
A train that is moving in a straight line along a railway track has a whistle that continuously emits sound of frequency f. A woman standing by the...
Orange light in a vacuum has a wavelength of 600 nm. What is the frequency of this light?
A stationary sound wave has a series of nodes. The distance between the first and the sixth node is 30.0 cm. What is the wavelength of the sound wave?
Which diagram shows the diffraction of water waves in a ripple tank?
A hill stands between a radio transmitter and a house, as shown. [Figure showing a hill between a radio transmitter and a house] The radio transmit...
In an experiment to demonstrate double-slit interference using light, the distance from the slits to the screen is doubled and the slit separation ...
The diagram shows two metal plates connected to a constant high voltage. [Figure showing two parallel metal plates separated by distance d connecte...
An electron moves between two points X and Y in a uniform electric field, as shown. [Figure showing a uniform electric field with points X and Y, w...
Two copper wires are joined together and carry a current, as shown. [Figure showing two copper wires P (diameter d) and Q (diameter 2d) joined in s...
Which graph represents a metallic conductor, where the resistance of the conductor is given by the gradient of the graph?
A typical mobile phone battery has an e.m.f. of 5.0 V and an internal resistance of 200 mΩ. What is the terminal p.d. of the battery when it suppli...
The circuit shown contains a resistor S that is neither in series nor in parallel with the other resistors. [Figure showing a complex circuit diagr...
The diagram shows a potential divider connected to a 12 V supply of negligible internal resistance. [Figure showing a potential divider circuit wit...
The diagram shows a sequence of radioactive decays involving three α-particles and a β⁻ particle. [Figure showing a decay chain: ²³⁷₉₃Np → Q (α) → ...
Which combination of up (u) and down (d) quarks forms a neutron?
The drag force FD acting on a sphere moving through a fluid is given by the expression FD = Kρv² where K is a constant, ρ is the density of the flu...
The variation with time t of the velocity v of two cars P and Q is shown in Fig. 2.1. The cars travel in the same direction along a straight road. ...
A tube is open at both ends. A loudspeaker, emitting sound of a single frequency, is placed near one end of the tube, as shown in Fig. 3.1. The spe...
A wire is designed to ensure that its strain does not exceed 4.0 × 10⁻⁴ when a force of 8.0kN is applied. The Young modulus of the metal of the wir...
Three cells of electromotive forces (e.m.f.) E₁, E₂ and E₃ are connected into a circuit, as shown in Fig. 5.1. The circuit contains resistors of re...
Two parallel metal plates in a vacuum are separated by a distance of 15mm, as shown in Fig. 6.1. A uniform electric field is produced between the p...
Wires are used to connect a battery of negligible internal resistance to a lamp, as shown in Fig. 7.1. The lamp is at its normal operating temperat...
A neutron within a nucleus decays to produce a proton, a β⁻ particle and an (electron) antineutrino. n → p + β⁻ + ν̄
One end of a wire is connected to a fixed point. A load is attached to the other end so that the wire hangs vertically. The diameter d of the wire ...
A spring is attached at one end to a fixed point and hangs vertically with a cube attached to the other end. The cube is initially held so that the...
A stationary nucleus X decays by emitting a ẞ⁺ particle to form a nucleus of carbon-13 (¹³C). An incomplete equation to represent this decay is X →...
Answer all the questions in the spaces provided. (b) All bodies radiate energy. The power P radiated by a body is given by P = kAT⁴ where T is the...
A liquid of density ρ fills a container to a depth h, as shown in Fig. 2.1. [Figure 2.1] The base of the container has area A. (c) The liquid in t...
(a) State the principle of conservation of momentum. (b) Ball A moves with speed v along a horizontal frictionless surface towards a stationary bal...
(a) By reference to the direction of propagation of energy, explain what is meant by a longitudinal wave. (b) A car horn emits a sound wave of freq...
(a) Define electric field strength. (b) Two parallel metal plates in a vacuum are separated by 0.045m. A potential difference V is applied between ...
A filament lamp is rated as 30W, 120V. A potential difference of 120V is applied across the lamp.
(a) A nucleus X decays by emitting a β⁺ particle to form a new nucleus, ²³₁₁Na. State the number of nucleons and the number of neutrons in nucleus ...
In this experiment, you will investigate the motion of a Y-shaped pendulum.
In this experiment, you will investigate the appearance of a line viewed through a jar containing water.
In this experiment, you will investigate the rotational motion of a mass.
In this experiment, you will investigate the equilibrium of a metre rule supported by springs.