Physics Final (reading quizzes)
Consider the following types of processes: (1) adiabatic (2) isobaric (3) isothermal (4) isochoric Which of these processes occurs during a Carnot cycle?
1 and 3 only
Which of the following situations is considered to be an irreversible process?
1. A raw egg is thrown from a second story window to the ground below. 2. A pizza is put into the 425 °F oven and baked for 15 minutes. 3. Joe damages his car by striking a traffic light. 4. A tornado levels an entire neighborhood.
Which one of the following situations is possible at a given time t?
1. An object has an instantaneous velocity of 0 m/s and an acceleration of 0 m/s2 2. An object has an instantaneous velocity of 0 m/s and an acceleration with a magnitude greater than 0 m/s2 3. An object has an instantaneous velocity with a magnitude greater than 0 m/s and an acceleration of 0 m/s2.
The magnitude of the gravitational potential energy is related to the distance from an object of mass M. Which of the following choices gives the correct relationship between the distance r and the gravitational potential energy?
1/r
Vector a has components ax = 15.0 and ay = 9.0. What is the approximate magnitude of vector a?
17.5
Which one of the following temperatures is approximately equal to "room temperature?"
295 K
In the equations of kinematics for constant acceleration given in the text, there are five different quantities involved. (Count the displacement x - x0 as one quantity.) What is the minimum number of these quantities that you must know in order to determine all the rest by using the equations?
3
Angles are often measured in radians. How many degrees are there in one radian?
57.3°
In which one of the following situations does the car have an acceleration that is directed due north?
A car is traveling southward as its speed decreases from 24 m/s to 18 m/s.
In which one of the following cases is the pressure exerted on the ground by the man the largest?
A man stands with the toes of one foot on the ground.
A wheel is rolling without slipping along a straight, level road. Which one of the following statements concerning the linear speed of the center of the wheel is true?
A point on the rim has a tangential speed that is equal to the linear speed of the center of the wheel.
Which one of the following statements concerning simple harmonic motion is false?
A restoring force acts on an object in simple harmonic motion that is directed in the same direction as the object's displacement.
Which one of the following statements correctly describes the term state property?
A state property is a property that does not depend on the history of the system.
Under what circumstances will an object that is solid throughout float on water?
A totally solid object can float on water if its density is less than the density of water.
Which one of the following statements concerning traveling sound waves in air is false?
A typical speed of sound in air is 680 m/s.
Which one of the following statements concerning waves is false?
A wave carries particles of its medium from one place to another.
Which one of the following statements describes the Principle of Equivalence?
Acceleration and gravitation are equivalent.
Which one of the following is a basic assumption of statistical mechanics?
All microstates are equally probable.
Which one of the following statements concerning Newton's first law of motion is false?
All objects in motion have forces acting on them.
Which one of the following statements concerning Kepler's Law of Orbits is true?
All planets move in elliptical orbits, with the Sun at one focus.
Two points are located on a rigid wheel that is rotating with a decreasing angular velocity about a fixed axis. Point A is located on the rim of the wheel and point B is halfway between the rim and the axis. Which one of the following statements is true concerning this situation?
Both points have the same instantaneous angular velocity.
Cars A and B are moving away from each other as car A moves due north at 25 m/s with respect to the ground and car B moves due south at 15 m/s with respect to the ground. What is the velocity of each car according to the driver of the other car?
Car A is moving due north at 40 m/s; and car B is moving due south at 40 m/s.
The work done by a force that varies in magnitude can be obtained from which of the following choices?
Either: 1. by integrating F dx or 2. by finding the area under a force versus displacement graph
Which one of the following statements concerning emissivity is false?
Emissivity depends on the surface area of the object.
Which one of the following statements correctly expresses the principle of energy conservation?
Energy is neither created nor destroyed, but its total amount remains constant.
According to the text, how does entropy differ from energy?
Entropy does not obey a conservation law.
Which one of the following statements best describes fluids?
Fluids are gases or liquids.
Which one of the following statements concerning heat engines is false?
Heat engines generally operate near one hundred percent efficiency.
What happens when a spinning ice skater draws in her outstretched arms?
Her moment of inertia decreases causing her to speed up.
During a maneuver in space, a spacecraft separates into two pieces, each of mass m. Before the separation, the spacecraft was moving with a speed v. If one of the pieces is at rest after the separation, which one of the following statements concerning this maneuver is true?
If one piece is at rest, the other is moving with a speed 2v.
A simple pendulum consists of a ball of mass m suspended from the ceiling using a string of length L. The ball is displaced from its equilibrium position by a small angle θ and released. Which one of the following statements concerning this situation is correct?
If the length of the pendulum were increased, the angular frequency of the pendulum would decrease.
What is unique about the Kelvin temperature scale?
It is based on the fact that there is a lower limit to temperature called absolute zero.
Which one of the following statements most accurately describes the center of gravity of an object?
It is the point from which the torque produced by the weight of the object can be calculated.
A container is filled with a large number of gas molecules at a constant temperature. The distribution (or range) of the speeds of those molecules was determined by which one of the following scientists?
Maxwell
Which one of the following statements is true concerning momentum?
Momentum is measured in kg×m/s.
An inertial reference frame is one in which
Newton's laws of motion are valid.
Which one of the following statements concerning Newtonian mechanics is false?
Newtonian mechanics applies to all objects, regardless of their speed or acceleration.
The units of torque are which of the following?
N·m
Which one of the following statements concerning the mole is false?
One mole of a substance has the same mass as one mole of any other substance.
Complete the following sentence: The operation of a hydraulic jack is an application of
Pascal's principle.
Which one of the following statements provides the best definition of rotational inertia?
Rotational inertia is the resistance of an object to a change in its angular velocity.
An object that obeys Hooke's law is displaced a distance x from equilibrium. Which one of the following statements correctly describes the resulting acceleration of the object?
The acceleration increases as x increases in magnitude and decreases as x decreases in magnitude.
A football is kicked at an angle of 25° with respect to the horizontal. Which one of the following statements best describes the acceleration of the football during this event if air resistance is neglected?
The acceleration is 9.8 m/s2 at all times.
According to the Principle of Superposition, how are two waves combined to produce a resultant wave?
The amplitudes of the two waves are added algebraically.
In which of the following situations does the magnitude of the vector product of two vectors have the largest value?
The angle between the two vectors is ninety degrees.
In which of the following situations does the scalar product of two vectors have the largest value?
The angle between the two vectors is zero degrees.
A child standing on the edge of a freely spinning merry-go-round moves quickly to the center. Which one of the following statements is necessarily true concerning this event and why?
The angular speed of the system increases because the moment of inertia of the system has decreased.
Consider an astronaut aboard the International Space Station in orbit around the Earth. Which one of the following statements concerning the gravitational force on the astronaut is true?
The astronaut experiences a gravitational force that is less than at the surface of the Earth, but it is greater than zero newtons.
A truck drives due south for 1.8 km in 2.0 minutes. Then, the truck turns and drives due west for 1.8 km in 2.0 minutes. Which one of the following statements is correct?
The average speed for the two segments is the same. The average velocity for the two segments is not the same.
A block is sliding down a ramp at a constant velocity. Which one of the following statements is true?
The block is in equilibrium, but it is not in static equilibrium.
An air bubble is stuck to the bottom of a glass of water. When the glass is shaken slightly and the bubble becomes free and starts to ascend in the water, what happens to its size?
The bubble gets bigger as it rises. ±
A satellite orbits the Earth in uniform circular motion. What is the direction of the centripetal acceleration of the satellite?
The centripetal acceleration vector points radially inward toward the Earth.
The centripetal force is best explained by which of the following statements?
The centripetal force is the net force acting on an orbiting object that maintains it in uniform circular motion.
Which one of the following statements concerning transverse waves is true?
The direction of the disturbance is perpendicular to the direction of travel.
In which of the following circumstances does the force do positive work on the object?
The direction of the force is in the same direction as the object's displacement.
Which one of the following statements concerning real engines is true?
The efficiency of a real engine is always less than or equal to that of a Carnot engine.
What, if anything, occurs within a closed system with regard to its entropy, according to the second law of thermodynamics?
The entropy of the closed system can either remain constant or increase.
Two objects with masses m and M are separated by a distance d. If the distance between the objects is increased to 4d, how does the gravitational force between them change?
The force will be one-sixteenth as great.
Hypothetically speaking, if an object were located at the center of the Earth, the gravitational force on that object due to the surrounding Earth, assuming matter is uniformly distributed, would have which of the following values?
The force would be zero newtons.
A solid cylinder is freely rolling down an inclined plane. What is the direction of the friction force acting on the cylinder and at what point does the friction force act?
The friction force acts at the point of contact between the cylinder and the plane and is directed up the plane.
Astronomers can determine the velocity of a galaxy relative to the Earth by observing the light waves emitted by certain elements. If the light frequency from hydrogen atoms is shifted toward a lower frequency as compared to the light emitted from hydrogen atoms on Earth, which one of the following statements correctly describes the velocity of the galaxy?
The galaxy is moving away from the Earth.
A flat disk, a solid sphere, and a hollow sphere each have the same mass m and radius r. The three objects are arranged so that an axis of rotation passes through the center of each object. The rotation axis is perpendicular to the plane of the flat disk. Which of the three objects has the largest rotational inertia?
The hollow sphere has the largest rotational inertia.
Which one of the following statements concerning kinetic energy is true?
The kinetic energy of an object always has a positive value.
Two objects are involved in an elastic collision. Which one of the following statements concerning this situation is false?
The kinetic energy of each object is the same before and after the collision.
An arrow is launched straight up from the surface of the Earth. Which one of the following statements describes the energy transformation of the arrow as it rises? Neglect air resistance.
The kinetic energy of the arrow decreases as the potential energy increases.
A vector is represented by an arrow. What is the significance of the length of the arrow?
The length of the arrow is proportional to the magnitude of the vector.
Which one of the following statements concerning unit vectors is true?
The magnitude of a unit vector is always equal to 1.
Which one of the following statements concerning the displacement of an object is false?
The magnitude of an object's displacement is always equal to the distance it traveled from its initial position to its final position.
Which one of the following statements best explains why the weight of an object of mass m is different on Mars than it is on the Earth?
The mass and radius of Mars are both less than those of Earth.
A block is hung vertically at the end of a spring. When the block is displaced and released, it moves in simple harmonic motion. Which one of the following statements is true concerning the block?
The maximum acceleration of the block occurs when its velocity is zero.
A block is hung vertically at the end of a spring. When the block is displaced and released, it moves up and down in "simple harmonic motion." Which one of the following statements is true concerning the block?
The maximum acceleration of the block occurs when its velocity is zero.
Which of the following statements provides the best definition for the term mean free path?
The mean free path is the average distance between collisions.
Which one of the following statements concerning the mechanical energy of a harmonic oscillator at a particular point in its motion is true?
The mechanical energy does not vary during the motion.
Which one of the following statements concerning a collection of gas molecules at a certain temperature is true?
The molecules have a range of kinetic energies.
Which one of the following statements concerning the momentum of a system when the net force acting on the system is equal to zero newtons is true?
The momentum of the system has a constant value.
Which one of the following statements concerning the principle of conservation of energy is false?
The net work done on an object must be zero joules since energy is neither created nor destroyed in the process
A brick is resting on the surface of a flat board. As one end of the board is slowly raised, what changes, if any, are there in the normal force and in frictional forces exerted on the stationary brick?
The normal force decreases as the frictional force increases.
A brick is resting on the surface of a flat board. As one end of the board is slowly raised, what change, if any, is there in the normal force exerted on the brick?
The normal force decreases.
Suppose you are sitting next to a fireplace in which there is a fire burning. One end of a metal poker has been left in the fire. Which one of the following statements concerning this situation is true?
The other end of the poker is warmed through conduction.
An airplane is flying horizontally at a constant velocity when a package is dropped from its cargo bay. Assuming no air resistance, which one of the following statements is correct?
The package follows a curved path, but it is always vertically below the airplane.
An object is in simple harmonic motion. The rate at which the object oscillates may be described using the period T, the frequency f, and the angular frequency ω. If the angular frequency decreases, what is the effect on the period and the frequency?
The period would increase, but the frequency would decrease.
Two cannons are mounted on a high cliff. Cannon A fires balls with twice the initial velocity of cannon B. Both cannons are aimed horizontally and fired. How does the horizontal range of cannon A compare to that of cannon B?
The range of cannon ball B is about 0.5 times that of cannon ball A.
Which one of the following statements is true concerning the ratio of the molar heat capacities CP/CV for an ideal gas?
The ratio is always greater than 1.
Which one of the following statements concerning the rotational inertia is false?
The rotational inertia depends on the angular acceleration of the object as it rotates.
Two solid spheres have the same mass (not radius), but one is made from lead and the other from pine wood. How do the rotational inertias of the two spheres compare?
The rotational inertia of the wood sphere is greater than that of the one made of lead.
You are waiting at a red traffic light listening to your favorite radio station with the windows down. The driver in a car passing you at a constant speed (in the left turn lane) happens to be listening to the same radio station. What do you notice as the car approaches and passes you?
The sound from the passing car seems to be at a higher frequency when approaching and at a lower frequency when moving away compared to the sound from your radio.
The rate of heat flow through the wall of a house does not depend on which one of the following quantities?
The specific heat capacity of the wall.
A piano is tuned by tightening or loosing the piano wires. When the wires are tightened, how is speed of the waves on the wire affected, if at all?
The speed is increased.
Which one of the following statements concerning the speed of sound in a medium is true?
The speed of sound is greater for materials that have smaller densities than it is for materials that have larger densities, all other properties being equal.
Starting from rest, a particle confined to move along a straight line is accelerated at a rate of 2 m/s2. Which one of the following statements accurately describes the motion of this particle?
The speed of the particle increases by 2 m/s during each second.
Which one of the following statements represents the Law of Periods?
The square of the period of any planet is proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit.
Which one of the following statements concerning the static and kinetic frictional forces is correct?
The static frictional force acts on an object when it is stationary and the kinetic frictional force acts on it when it is sliding.
A collision between two objects is inelastic. Which one of the following statements concerning this situation is true?
The total kinetic energy of the objects after the collision is less than it was before the collision.
A block is attached to the end of a spring. The block is then displaced from its equilibrium position and released. Subsequently, the block moves back and forth on a frictionless surface without any losses due to friction. Which one of the following statements concerning the total mechanical energy of the block-spring system in this situation is true?
The total mechanical energy is constant as the block moves back and forth.
An object is rolling, so its motion involves both rotation and translation. Which one of the following statements must be true concerning this situation?
The total mechanical energy is equal to the sum of the translational and rotational kinetic energies and the gravitational potential energy of the object
Which one of the following choices is not a reason why the acceleration due to gravity g isn't the same everywhere on the surface of the Earth?
The value of g depends on where the moon is in its orbit.
During a certain process, the linear momentum of a system is conserved. Which one of the following statements concerning this system is correct?
The vector sum of the average external forces acting on the system is equal to zero newtons.
For an object in uniform circular motion, which of the following statements is false?
The velocity of the object is constant.
What occurs when a wave traveling along a taut string reaches a fixed end where it has been tied to a wall?
The wave reflects back with the same amplitude, but with opposite sign.
What will occur in the superposition of two identical sine waves if they are shifted by (5/2)λ relative to one another?
The waves will interfere with each other destructively.
A baseball is hit upward and travels along a parabolic arc before it strikes the ground. Which one of the following statements is necessarily true?
The x-component of the velocity of the ball is the same throughout the ball's flight.
A water skier is pulled by a boat traveling with a constant velocity. Which one of the following statements is false concerning this situation?
There is a net horizontal force on the skier in the direction the boat's velocity.
Which of the following statements concerning the multiplication of a vector by a scalar is true?
When a vector is multiplied by a scalar, the result is a vector that is parallel to the original vector.
Which one of the following statements concerning an ideal fluid is false?
When an ideal fluid flows, the flow is non-laminar.
Which one of the following statements best describes a refrigeration process?
Work is done on a system that extracts heat from a cold reservoir and rejects it into a hot reservoir.
Which one of the following statements is the correct description of the term work as described in the text?
Work is energy transferred to or from an object by means of a force acting on the object.
In general, the term stress refers to
a force per unit area.
Displacement is
a vector indicating the distance and direction from one point to another.
Vectors a and b have different magnitudes and directions. Which of the following vector operations does not result in a vector?
a · b
Which one of the following quantities can be determined from the slope of a velocity versus time graph for an object in motion?
acceleration
The vector sum of all the torques acting on a particle is equal to the time rate of change of which of the following quantities?
angular momentum
The Principle of Linear Superposition may
be applied to all types waves.
The total energy of a system can only change
by transferring amounts of energy to or from the system.
Which one of the following factors is directly responsible for the pressure exerted by a confined gas?
collisions of gas molecules with the sides of the containing vessel
Complete the following statement: The net work done by a conservative force acting on an object
depends only on the starting and ending points.
The net force that results when two or more forces act on an object is
determined using vector addition of the individual forces acting on the object.
Bernoulli's principle is a statement of
energy conservation in dynamic fluids.
Complete the following statement: In a constant volume process, the work done is
equal to zero joules.
Which law, principle, or equation specifies that the mass flow rate of a fluid at two positions along a tube must be constant?
equation of continuity
Under what condition(s) will an object be in equilibrium?
if it is either at rest or moving with constant velocity
Which one of the following quantities is equal to the change in momentum of an object during a collision?
impulse
Which one of the following quantities is the change in an object's velocity divided by the elapsed time, as the elapsed time becomes very small?
instantaneous acceleration
A child throws a ball vertically upward at the school playground. Which one of the following quantities is (are) equal to zero at the highest point of the ball's trajectory? Assume that at the time of release t = 0, the ball is at y = 0 m.
instantaneous velocity
Which of the following parameters, if any, is not a scalar quantity?
instantaneous velocity
The intensity of sound that is emitted isotropically
is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source.
The weight of an object
is the gravitational force of the earth on the object.
Which one of the following choices is not a unit of power?
kg × m2/s
Which one of the following choices represents the SI units for angular momentum?
kg·m2/s
A sound wave is an example of what type of wave?
longitudinal wave
Which of the following devices is used to measure gauge pressure?
manometer
Which one of the following factors is important in determining the speed of waves on a string?
mass per unit length
A simple pendulum consists of a ball of mass m suspended from the ceiling using a string of length L. The ball is displaced from its equilibrium position by an angle θ and released. What is the magnitude of the restoring force that moves the ball toward its equilibrium position and produces simple harmonic motion?
mg (sin θ)
Which one of the following phrases correctly describes an adiabatic process?
no transfer of energy as heat
A hoop rolls without slipping on a horizontal surface, and it moves due east at a constant linear speed. What is the direction of its angular momentum vector?
north
The wheels of a bicycle roll without slipping on a horizontal road. The bicycle is moving due east at a constant velocity. What is the direction of the angular velocity vector of a wheel?
north
What is the distance between two successive antinodes of a standing wave?
one-half wavelength
The internal energy of an ideal monatomic gas is
proportional to the Kelvin temperature of the gas.
At time t1 = 0 s, the position vector of a sailboat is r1. Later, at time t2, the sailboat has a position vector r2. Which of the following expressions correctly indicates the displacement of the sailboat during the time interval, t2 - t1?
r2-r1
Two pucks on an air hockey table collide elastically. Complete the following statement: when such a collision occurs in two dimensions, the before and after velocities are best determined by
remembering that momentum is a vector quantity that is conserved in each direction.
Complete the following statement: The difference between strain and stress is that
strain measures the amount of deformation and stress is related to force applied to an area of the object.
A steel ball is tied to the end of a string and swung in a vertical circle at constant speed. Complete the following statement: The direction of the instantaneous velocity of the ball is always
tangent to the circle.
Complete the following statement: The direction of the instantaneous velocity of a particle is
tangent to the path of the particle.
The amount of work that can be done when heat transfers between two objects depends on the amount of heat and which of the following properties?
temperatures of the objects
When an object is placed in a fluid, a buoyant force is exerted on it that is directed upward with a magnitude
that is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.
What is the meaning of the word "normal" in the term "normal force"?
that it is directed perpendicular to a surface
A circular hole is drilled through a penny. Complete the following statement: When the penny is heated,
the area of the hole increases by the same amount as a similar area of the metal does.
The pressure at a point in a fluid in static equilibrium depends on which of the following?
the depth of the given point
Complete the following sentence: In harmonic motion, resonance occurs when
the driving frequency is the same as the natural frequency of the system.
the point within an object that moves as if all of the object's mass were located there.
the external forces acting on particles of the system sum to zero.
The terminal velocity is not dependent on which one of the following properties?
the falling time
The term heat most accurately describes
the flow of energy due to a temperature difference.
Ryan walked to a cliff and dropped a stone. Neglecting any effects due to the air as it falls vertically, which one of the following is the reaction force to the Earth's gravity on the stone?
the gravitational force of the stone on the Earth
Which one of the following forces holds a car on a frictionless banked curve?
the horizontal component of the normal force
In projectile motion,
the horizontal motion and the vertical motion are independent of each other.
The power due to a force depends on which of the following parameters?
the magnitude of the force and the velocity of the object
A cell phone is sitting on a table. Which one of the following is the reaction force to the cell phone's weight on the table?
the normal force of the table on the cell phone
The center of mass is
the point within an object that moves as if all of the object's mass were located there.
If an object is moving in uniform circular motion, its period is given by which one of the following quantities?
the time interval for the object to make one revolution
As an object rotates, its angular speed increases with time. Complete the following statement: The total acceleration of a point on the object is given by
the vector sum of the radial acceleration component and the tangential acceleration component.
A force that acts on an object is said to be conservative if
the work it does on the object is independent of the path of the motion.
The total mechanical energy of a system remains unchanged if
there are no external forces acting on the system.
The entrance door to a store is pivoted about the hinges on the left side of the door. When you begin to push on the right side of the door to enter the store, what is the direction of the torque on the door?
upward
The difference between speed and velocity is
velocity has a direction, but speed does not.
Vector A is directed due north. Vector B is directed due east. Determine the direction of the vector product, A×B
vertically downward
An isochoric process occurs when which of the following parameters is constant during the process?
volume
What is the term used to describe the surfaces over which the oscillations due to a sound wave have the same value?
wave fronts
Under which one of the following conditions does the motion of a simple pendulum approximate simple harmonic motion?
when the pendulum swings through a small angle
When applying the first law of thermodynamics to a system, when is heat a positive quantity?
when the system absorbs heat
Under what conditions can you hear beats of sound waves?
when two waves of slightly different frequency combine
The sound intensity level is reported in decibels. If the sound intensity is at the threshold for hearing, what is the sound intensity level in decibels?
zero dB