Cambridge & Pearson Edexcel Past Paper Questions
Browse 35,704 questions from Cambridge O-Level & A-Level and Pearson Edexcel IGCSE & IAL exams. Click any question to practice.
What could not be a measurement of a physical quantity?
A computer memory stick is labelled as having a storage capacity of 128 GB. The letter B stands for byte, which is a unit. What is the equivalent s...
A man of mass 75.2 kg uses a set of weighing scales to measure his mass three times. He obtains the following readings. mass/kg reading 1 80.2 read...
Which statement about scalar and vector quantities is correct?
How can the acceleration of an object be determined?
A sprinter takes a time of 11.0s to run a 100m race. She first accelerates uniformly from rest, reaching a speed of 10ms⁻¹. She then runs at a cons...
A single horizontal force F is applied to a block X which is in contact with a separate block Y, as shown. [Figure 7.1] The blocks remain in contac...
A car of mass 750 kg has a horizontal driving force of 2.0 kN acting on it. It has a forward horizontal acceleration of 2.0 ms⁻². [Figure 8.1] What...
A rock of mass 2m, travelling in deep space at velocity v, explodes into two parts of equal mass, one of which is then stationary. What is the kine...
A horizontal metal bar PQ of length 50.0 cm is hinged at end P. The diagram shows the metal bar viewed from above. [Figure 11.1] Two forces of 16.0...
A cube WXZY has sides of length 2.0 cm and mass 24.0g. The cube rests on a metre rule of negligible mass. The geometrical centre of the cube is ver...
A rigid sphere is held at rest on the sea bed. When the sphere is released, it rises to the surface of the sea. The seawater has a uniform density....
What is a unit for density?
An escalator is 60 m long and lifts passengers through a vertical height of 30 m, as shown. [Figure 16.1] To drive the escalator against the forces...
A rock of mass 40 kg is released from rest from a height of 20 m above the surface of a planet. The rock has a kinetic energy of 32 kJ when it hits...
A metal wire is stretched. The wire obeys Hooke's law. Which quantity has a value that does not change?
An object is stretched until it reaches the elastic limit. Which statement must describe the stress on the object when it is at the elastic limit?
Which statement about progressive waves is correct?
A cathode-ray oscilloscope (CRO) is used to determine the frequency of a sound wave. The diagram shows the waveform on the screen. [Figure 21.1] Th...
The warning signal on an ambulance has a frequency of 600 Hz. The speed of sound is 330 ms⁻¹. The ambulance is travelling with a constant velocity ...
Brief pulses of red, blue and green light are emitted from the Sun at the same time. The pulses travel the same distance to reach Mars. Assume that...
Two coherent progressive waves from different sources meet at a point. Which condition must be satisfied for there to be zero resultant amplitude a...
A corridor is 13.2 m long and has closed doors that reflect sound at both ends. The speed of sound in the air in the corridor is 330 ms⁻¹. [Figure ...
Water waves of wavelength λ are formed in a ripple tank. The waves are diffracted as they pass through a narrow gap of width d (d is greater than λ...
Two loudspeakers X and Y emit sound waves that are in phase and of wavelength 0.75 m. An observer O is able to stand anywhere on a straight line th...
Light of a single wavelength is incident normally on a diffraction grating. The resulting diffraction pattern is displayed on a screen. Which chang...
For a current-carrying wire, the current can be calculated using the equation shown. I = Anvq What is the meaning of n?
The number of free electrons passing a point in a wire in 24 hours is 6.0 × 10²³. What is the average current in the wire?
In the circuit shown, lamp P is rated 250 V, 50 W and lamp Q is rated 250 V, 200 W. The two lamps are connected in series to a 250 V power supply. ...
A piece of wire has a length of 0.80 m and a diameter of 5.0 × 10⁻⁴ m. The I–V characteristic of the wire is shown. [Figure 32.1] What is the resis...
Ten cells, each of electromotive force (e.m.f.) 1.5 V, are connected together, as shown. [Figure 33.1] What is the combined e.m.f. between terminal...
A cell of electromotive force (e.m.f.) E and internal resistance r is connected to a variable resistor, as shown. [Figure 34.1] The resistance of t...
Each of Kirchhoff's two laws presumes that some quantity is conserved. Which row states Kirchhoff's first law and names the quantity that is conser...
A cell has an electromotive force (e.m.f.) of 8.0 V and negligible internal resistance. The cell forms part of a circuit, as shown. [Figure 36.1] T...
In the circuit shown, the cells have negligible internal resistance and the reading on the galvanometer is zero. [Figure 37.1] What is the value of...
When α-particles are directed at gold leaf: 1 almost all α-particles pass through without deflection 2 a few α-particles are deviated through large...
A nucleus X is radioactive and decays into a nucleus Y. X and Y are isotopes of the same element. Which combination of particles could have been em...
A positively charged meson consists of a quark and an antiquark. What could be the quark and antiquark?
Which row shows a physical quantity and its base unit in the SI system?
A car of mass 850kg is travelling in a horizontal straight line. The diagram shows the two horizontal forces acting on the car in opposite directio...
An object of mass m is suspended by a spring from a fixed point. spring object of mass m The spring has spring constant k. The object is set into v...
An object of fixed mass is initially at rest at point P. The object then moves away from point P with uniform acceleration. Which statement describ...
A projectile is launched at an angle of 25° to the horizontal with a horizontal component of velocity of 13 ms⁻¹. What is the vertical component of...
A ball is released from rest at position X at time zero. At 1.0 s, it bounces inelastically from a horizontal surface and rebounds, reaching the to...
What is the definition of acceleration?
Two balls P and Q, of equal mass, move along a straight line directly towards each other as shown. [Figure showing balls P and Q approaching] Ball ...
A basketball player hits a ball vertically downwards with a speed of 2.4ms⁻¹ from a height of 0.90 m. Air resistance is negligible. What is the spe...
Some small solid cubes each have mass 1.0 kg and sides of length 5.0 cm. These small cubes are stacked together to form a large solid cube with sid...
A borehole of depth 2000 m contains both oil and water, as shown. The pressure due to the liquids at the bottom of the borehole is 17.5MPa. The den...
A rod is pivoted at one end. Initially the angle θ of the rod to the horizontal is 0°. The weight of the rod causes a moment M about the pivot. The...