Cambridge Past Paper Questions

A student uses the volume of a metal coin in order to determine the density of the metal. What is not needed in order to determine an estimate of t...

The speed v of waves on a stretched wire is given by the equation v = T^p μ^q where T is the tension in the wire and μ is the mass per unit length ...

The diagram shows a force F. P is the horizontal component of F, at an angle θ to F. [Figure 3.1] Which graph best shows the variation with θ of th...

A steel ball is dropped and falls through a vertical height h. The time t taken to fall is measured using light gates. The results are given in the...

A stone is thrown vertically upwards from a point X at time t = 0. The variation with time t of the velocity v of the stone is shown. [Figure 6.1] ...

A mass of 5.0 kg is released from rest on a frictionless surface inclined at 30° to the horizontal. Air resistance is negligible. [Figure 7.1] How ...

What is not a statement of one of Newton's laws of motion?

An object falls from a tall building. The graph shows how the velocity of the object changes with time t. [Figure 9.1] The acceleration of free fal...

Two balls, one of mass 2m and one of mass m, collide. The diagrams show the initial and final velocities of the balls. Which collision is not elastic?

The diagram shows a 'ballistic pendulum'. [Figure 11.1] A pellet of mass m travelling at a speed u hits a stationary block of mass M. The pellet be...

A rigid circular disc of radius r has its centre at X. A number of forces of equal magnitude F act at the edge of the disc. All the forces are in t...

In a high-wire circus act, a man of mass 85 kg is standing at rest at the midpoint of the wire. [Figure 14.1] The wire on either side of the man is...

A cylindrical block of ice of cross-sectional area 12 m² is floating, partially submerged, in the sea. The density of the sea water is 1020 kg m⁻³....

A ball is thrown vertically upwards. Air resistance is negligible. Which statement is correct?

The change in gravitational potential energy ∆E of an object of mass m when moving through height ∆h near the surface of the Earth is given by the ...

A racing car has an output power of 300 kW when travelling at a constant speed of 60 m s⁻¹. What is the total resistive force acting on the car?

A mass of 60.0 g is suspended from a spring and the distance from the bottom of the spring to the floor is measured to be 16.4 cm. The mass is repl...

The graph shows the force-extension graph for a wire. [Figure 21.1] The wire is already extended by a force of 60 N. How much work is done to incre...

The speed v of waves in deep water is given by the equation v² = gλ / (2π) where λ is the wavelength of the waves and g is the acceleration of free...

An emergency vehicle sounds its siren as it accelerates along a straight road between two points X and Y, as shown in the diagram. [Figure 25.1] Th...

Part of the electromagnetic spectrum is shown. [Figure 26.1] What is the name of the shaded region and what is the order of magnitude of a waveleng...

The three waves shown in each diagram have the same amplitude and frequency but different phase. They are added together to give a resultant wave. ...

A transmitting mast sends out microwaves of wavelength 1.5 cm and radio waves of wavelength 1.5 km. [Figure 28.1] A receiving aerial behind a mount...

An experiment is carried out to demonstrate double-slit interference using light of wavelength 500 nm. The distance between bright fringes in the i...

Light of a single frequency is incident on a diffraction grating. Seven bright spots are observed on a screen. Which change will result in an incre...

A molecule behaves as an electric 'dipole' consisting of two equal point charges of opposite sign, separated by a fixed distance. The molecule move...

Two parallel metal plates are connected to a battery of negligible internal resistance. [Figure 32.1] One of the plates is slowly moved towards the...

Four point charges, each of charge Q, are placed on the edge of an insulating disc of radius r. The disc rotates at a rate of n revolutions per uni...

In the circuit shown, a fixed resistor X is connected in series with a battery and a variable resistor. [Figure 34.1] The power dissipated in resis...

A resistor and a filament lamp are connected in series with a power supply. The I-V characteristics of the resistor and of the lamp are shown below...

A car battery has an electromotive force (e.m.f.) of 12 V and an internal resistance of 0.05 Ω. The battery is connected to the starter motor of a ...

A cell of negligible internal resistance is connected to a network of resistors and a voltmeter, as shown. [Figure 37.1] The reading on the voltmet...

A voltmeter is connected into a circuit with the polarity shown in the diagram. [Figure 38.1] The sliding contact is moved to end P of the potentio...

What is a conclusion from the alpha-particle scattering experiment?

Which particle is a hadron?

A small block is lifted vertically upwards by a toy aircraft, as illustrated in Fig. 2.1. [Figure 2.1] As the block is moving upwards, the string b...

A ball falls vertically downwards towards a horizontal floor and then rebounds along its original path, as illustrated in Fig. 3.1. [Figure 3.1] Th...

Define, for a wire:

A progressive wave Y passes a point P. The variation with time t of the displacement x for the wave at P is shown in Fig. 5.1. [Figure 5.1] The wav...

A stationary wave on a string has nodes and antinodes. The distance between a node and an adjacent antinode is 6.0 cm.

The current in the circuit is I.

A cylinder is suspended from the end of a string. The cylinder is stationary in water with the axis of the cylinder vertical, as shown in Fig. 2.1....

A spring is fixed at one end and is compressed by applying a force to the other end. The variation of the force F acting on the spring with its com...

A rigid plank is used to make a ramp between two different horizontal levels of ground, as shown in Fig. 4.1. [Figure 4.1] Point A at one end of th...

Microwaves with the same wavelength and amplitude are emitted in phase from two sources X and Y, as shown in Fig. 5.1. [Figure 5.1] A microwave det...

A network of three resistors of resistances R1, R2 and R3 is shown in Fig. 6.1. [Figure 6.1] The individual currents in the resistors are I1, I2 an...

Answer all the questions in the spaces provided. (a) An electromagnetic wave has a wavelength of 85 µm.