Cambridge & Pearson Edexcel Past Paper Questions

A vehicle is at rest on a slope. It is considered to have three forces acting on it to keep it in equilibrium. They are its weight W, a normal rea...

All external forces on a body cancel out. Which statement must be correct?

A uniform beam of mass 1.4 kg is pivoted at P as shown. The beam has a length of 0.60 m and P is 0.20 m from one end. Loads of 3.0kg and 6.0kg are ...

A ball is thrown vertically upwards. Neglecting air resistance, which statement is correct?

A bow of mass 400g shoots an arrow of mass 120g vertically upwards. The potential energy stored in the bow just before release is 80 J. The system ...

A train on a mountain railway is carrying 200 people of average mass 70kg up a slope at an angle of 30° to the horizontal and at a speed of 6.0 ms⁻...

A gas is enclosed inside a cylinder which is fitted with a frictionless piston. [Figure showing a cylinder with a piston, gas inside, external pre...

The diagram shows an ice cube floating in water. [Figure showing an ice cube floating in water] Both the ice cube and the water are at 0°C. Whic...

Two bulbs X and Y containing air at different pressures are connected by a tube P which contains two mercury threads. [Figure showing two bulbs X ...

What is the unit of the Young modulus?

A rubber cord hangs from a rigid support. A weight attached to its lower end is gradually increased from zero, and then gradually reduced to zero. ...

The diagram shows a large crane on a construction site lifting a cube-shaped load. [Figure showing a crane lifting a load via a cable] A model is...

The order of magnitude of the frequency of the shortest wavelength of visible light waves can be expressed as 10ˣ Hz. What is the value of x?

The diagram shows two waves X and Y. [Figure showing two displacement-time graphs for Wave X and Wave Y] Wave X has amplitude 8 cm and frequency ...

What is correct for all transverse waves?

A transmitter of electromagnetic waves is placed 45 cm from a reflective surface. [Figure showing a transmitter and a reflective surface 45 cm apa...

A teacher sets up the apparatus shown to demonstrate a two-slit interference pattern on the screen. [Figure showing a double-slit experiment setup...

Two conducting layers of a liquid crystal display of a calculator are 8 µm apart. A 1.5V cell is connected across the conducting layers when the ca...

A positively-charged particle is projected into a uniform electric field. Which diagram represents the path of the particle in the electric field?

A power cable has length 2000m. The cable is made of twelve parallel strands of copper wire, each with diameter 0.51 mm. What is the resistance of...

A low-voltage supply with an e.m.f. of 20 V and an internal resistance of 1.5 Ω is used to supply power to a heater of resistance 6.5 Ω in a fish t...

A filament lamp has a resistance of 180 Ω when the current in it is 500 mA. What is the power transformed in the lamp?

Two wires P and Q made of the same material are connected to the same electrical supply. P has twice the length of Q and one-third of the diameter ...

A 12V battery is in series with an ammeter, a 2Ω fixed resistor and a 0-10Ω variable resistor. High-resistance voltmeters P and Q are connected acr...

Five resistors are connected as shown. [Figure showing a resistor network with 20Ω, 8.0Ω, 6.0Ω, 8.0Ω, 7.0Ω resistors between points P and Q] What...

In the circuit below, the reading Vₜ on the voltmeter changes from high to low as the temperature of the thermistor changes. The reading Vₗ on the ...

What is the approximate mass of an alpha particle?

An actinium nucleus has a nucleon number of 227 and a proton number of 89. It decays to form a radium nucleus, emitting a beta particle and an alph...

The maximum theoretical power P of a wind turbine is given by the equation P = kpAvⁿ where ρ is the density of air, A is the area swept by the turb...

What is the unit of resistance when expressed in SI base units?

A quantity y is to be determined from the equation shown. y = px/q² The percentage uncertainties in p, x and q are shown. [Table 4.1] What is the...

A thermometer can be read to an accuracy of ±0.5°C. This thermometer is used to measure a temperature rise from 40°C to 100 °C. What is the percent...

Two train carriages each of mass 5000 kg roll toward one another on a level track. One is travelling at 2.00 m s⁻¹ and the other at 1.00 m s⁻¹, as ...

A resultant force causes a body to accelerate. What is equal to the resultant force?

A ship of mass 8.4 × 10⁷ kg is approaching a harbour with speed 16.4 m s⁻¹. By using reverse thrust it can maintain a constant total stopping force...

A tractor of mass 1000 kg is connected by a tow-bar to a trailer of mass 1000 kg. The total resistance to motion has a constant value of 4000 N. On...

The graph shows the variation with time of the speed of a raindrop falling vertically through air. [Figure 11.1] Which statement is correct?

A tiny oil droplet with mass 6.9 × 10⁻¹³ kg is at rest in an electric field of electric field strength 2.1 × 10⁷ N C⁻¹, as shown. [Figure 12.1] The...

The diagram shows four forces applied to a circular object. [Figure 13.1] Which of the following describes the resultant force and resultant torque...

A mass at point X inside a uniform gravitational field experiences a gravitational force of 0.200 N. It has 1.00 J of gravitational potential energ...

A small mass is placed at point P on the inside surface of a smooth hemisphere. It is then released from rest. When it reaches the lowest point T, ...

If the Universe was such that the speed of the molecules in a substance increased with temperature but at any particular temperature the speed of a...

Liquid Q has twice the density of liquid R. At depth x in liquid R, the pressure due to the liquid is 4 kPa. At what depth in liquid Q is the press...

A sample of metal is subjected to a force which increases to a maximum value and then decreases back to zero. A force-extension graph for the sampl...

The graph shows the length of a spring as it is stretched by an increasing load. [Figure 20.1] What is the spring constant?

What, to two significant figures, are the period, the frequency and the amplitude of the wave represented by the graph? [Figure 22.1]

A sound wave consists of a series of moving pressure variations from the normal, constant air pressure. The graph shows these pressure variations f...

The diagram shows a vertical cross-section through a water wave moving from left to right. [Figure 24.1] At which point is the water moving upwards...

The principle of superposition states that a certain quantity is added when two or more waves meet at a point. What is this quantity?

Light passes through a diffraction grating ruled at 1000 lines per cm and the same wavelength of light also passes through two narrow slits 0.5 mm ...