Cambridge Past Paper Questions

A ship uses ultrasound to measure the depth of the sea. There is a time interval of 0.52 s between transmitting and detecting a pulse of ultrasound...

Which row shows a definition of the mass of an object and an instrument used to measure mass? [Table 6.1]

A quantity of water is poured into a measuring cylinder. A small piece of rock is then added carefully. The diagrams show the water levels and the ...

An object is at rest on a table. The length of the arrows in the free-body diagrams represent the magnitude and the direction of the forces acting ...

The load-extension graph for a spring is shown. [Figure 11.1] What does point X show?

A long plank is pivoted at its centre of gravity. Two objects, X and Y, are then placed on the plank. X has a weight of 140 N and is 1.2 m to the l...

Which statement about centre of gravity is correct?

Energy is stored in batteries, fuel and food. What is the name of this energy store?

A rocket has mass M when empty. The rocket carries an additional mass M of fuel. The rocket and fuel travel at a speed v. When the engine of the ro...

What is the definition of efficiency?

An object of mass m is lifted through a vertical distance d in time t. Which equation is used to calculate the power P required to lift the object?

A block of wood is placed on a bench. [Figure 19.1] The pressure exerted on the bench due to the block is 1.0 Pa. The area of the block in contact ...

Different liquids are poured into four different containers. In which container is the force exerted by the liquid on the bottom of the container t...

A student compares the properties of the three states of matter. The partially completed table in the student's notebook for one of the states is s...

Air is trapped in a glass tube by a liquid. When the tube is horizontal, the length of the trapped air is 50 mm and its pressure is 1.0 × 10⁵ Pa. [...

The diagram shows two changes of state, X and Y. [Figure 23.1] Which row gives the names of the two changes of state?

Energy can be transferred by thermal radiation. Four surfaces have different colours and textures. The surfaces are at equal temperatures and have ...

Four copper spheres have identical surface colours and identical surface textures. They have different surface temperatures and surface areas. Whic...

The table shows the speed and the wavelength for different sound waves in four different materials. [Table 26.1] Which waves are ultrasound waves?

Light passes into a transparent material that has a refractive index n. The angle of incidence at the surface of the transparent material is i. Whi...

Which diagram shows a ray of light that is reflected by a plane mirror? [Diagrams A, B, C, D]

An object is placed in front of a plane mirror. Which statement describes the image produced?

A student does an investigation using four thin lenses. The lenses are used to produce focused images of four different objects. The student measur...

Magnets M1, M2 and M3 are joined by iron balls W, X and Y as shown. [Figure 32.1] Magnetic poles are induced in the iron balls W and X as shown. [F...

A cardboard tube has two wires, P and Q, connected to its ends. Inside the tube, wire P and wire Q are connected to two resistors. The potential di...

A resistor of resistance R is connected to a variable resistor, a voltmeter and a power supply of electromotive force (e.m.f.) E. [Figure 34.1] The...

Which device works due to electromagnetic induction?

A beta-particle (β-particle) travels to the right at a constant speed. [Figure 36.1] Which field deflects the particle towards the top of the page?

Which nuclide is produced when thorium-223, ²²³₉₀Th, emits an alpha-particle?

A radioactive source is placed 2.0 cm away from a Geiger-Müller (G.M.) tube that is connected to a counter. A sheet of paper is placed between the ...

Which statement about the Earth is correct?

A teacher asks two students to describe redshift. Student 1 says: It is a decrease in the observed wavelength of electromagnetic radiation from sta...

A car is at rest on a straight horizontal road. At time t = 0, the car begins to accelerate. Fig. 1.1 shows how the momentum of the car varies with...

In a factory, an electric motor is used to lift the boxes shown in Fig. 2.1. The boxes are placed in a cage and the motor winds a cable around a cy...

Fig. 3.1 shows a small block of ice at 0°C and a plastic cup that contains 0.24 kg of water. The initial temperature of the water in the cup is 22....

Fig. 4.1 shows a ray of light striking the left-hand surface of a thin glass converging lens. [Figure 4.1]

An iron beaker containing liquid X is placed on the bench in a laboratory. Liquid X begins to evaporate slowly.

A circuit consists of a battery of e.m.f. 9.0V, a switch, a resistor P, an ammeter, a 4.0Ω resistor and a voltmeter. Fig. 6.1 is the circuit diagra...

An insulating rod is made of plastic and is initially uncharged. The rod is rubbed with a cloth and becomes negatively charged.

The nuclide notation for the radioactive isotope radon-222 is 222 Rn. An atom of radon-222 decays by the emission of an alpha particle (α-particle).

An object moves through space. It is a large distance from any other object.

A car travels along a straight horizontal road, initially at a constant speed. The speed-time graph in Fig. 1.1 shows the motion of the car from ti...

A spherical container is used to carry measuring instruments to the bottom of a lake. Fig. 2.1 shows the container held at rest just below the wate...

Fig. 3.1 shows a firefighter directing a jet of water at a wall. [Figure 3.1] In 1.0s, a volume of 7.5 × 10⁻³ m³ of water hits the wall horizontall...

A large test-tube contains a thermometer and some solid wax at a temperature of 21 °C. At time t = 0, the test-tube is partially immersed in a beak...

The microwave region is one region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

An electric car is driven by a direct current (d.c.) motor that is powered by a direct current power supply.

An electric kettle has an outer casing made of metal. Fig. 7.1 shows the kettle. [Figure 7.1] The heater in the electric kettle is connected to a 2...

The element lithium has several different isotopes.

Fig. 9.1 shows how the Sun and the rest of the Solar System orbit around the centre of the Milky Way in a circular path. [Figure 9.1]