P510/1

PHYSICS
Paper 1
2015
2 hours 30 Minutes

UACE MOCK EXAMINATIONS 2015

PHYSICS
PAPER 1
2 HOURS 30 MIN.

Instructions:
Attempt five questions including at least ONE but not more than two from each of the
sections A,B and C.
Non programmable silent calculators may be used.

Assume where necessary

Acceleration due to gravity (g) = 9.81 ms– 2
Electronic charge e = 1.6 x 10 –19 C
Electron mass = 9.11 x 10 – 31 kg
Mass of earth = 5.97 x 1024 kg
Planck’s constant h = 6.6 x 10 – 34 Js
Radius of the earth = 6.4 x 106 m
Density of water = 1000 kgm – 3
Speed of light in vaccum C = 3.0 x 108 ms – 1
Universal gravitational constant G = 6.67 x 10 –14 Nm2 Kg – 2
Specific heat capacity of copper = 400 Jkg – 1 K – 1
Avogadro’s number NA = 6.02 x 1023 mol– 1
Unified mass unit (1u) = 1.66 x 10 –27

SECTION A:

1. (a) (i) State Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. (3marks)

(b) State Newton’s laws of universal gravitation and derive Kepler’s third law of its
basis. (5marks)

(b) A statellite is to be put into orbit 500km above the earth’s surface. If its vertical
velocity after launching is 2.0 x 103 ms – 1 at this height, calculate the magnitude and
direction of the impulse required to put the satellite directly into orbit, if its mass is
50kg. (4marks)
(c) (i) Derive an expression for the acceleration of a body moving a long a horizontal
circular path of radius, r, with uniform speed v. (4 marks)

(ii) A car moves in a semi circular path of radius 5m at about with a constant speed of
39.6 kmh – 1
Calculate the average acceleration of the car (4 marks)

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 2 (a) (i) State Archimedes’ law of floatation ( 1mark)
(ii) Describe an experiment to verify Archimedes law of floatation (3marks)

(b) The diagram shows a hot air balloon tethered to the ground. It is ready for release
and the tension in the rope connecting it to the ground is 400N. The total weight of the
balloon (including hot air) is 16500N

balloon

string

(i) Draw a free-body force diagram of the balloon and hence calculate the
upthrust force on the balloon (5marks)
(ii) Explain how the upthrust force arises. What factors affect its magnitude
during the flight of the hot air balloon? (3marks)

(d) A clean glass capillary tube of internal diameter 0.04cm is held vertically with
its lower and below the surface of clean water in a beaker and with 10cm of the
tube above the surface.
(i) to what height will the water rise in the tube? (3marks)
(ii)What will happen if the tube is now depressed until only 5cm of its length is
above the surface? (surface tension of water = 7.2 x 10 – 2 Nm – 1) (4marks)

3 (a) Define simple harmonic motion (2marks)

(b) Sketch the following graphs for a body performing simple harmonic motion
(i) velocity (V) against displacement (y) (2 marks)
(ii) acceleration (a) against displacement (2 marks)
(iii) displacement (y) against time (t) (2 marks)
(c) Describe a simple experiment to measure the coefficient dynamic friction between
two surfaces. (4 marks)
(d) A u-tube is filled with oil to a height of 20cm in each limb. The oil is set to oscillate
between the two limbs by depressing one side by blowing gently
(i) Show that the oil oscillates with simple harmonic motion (3 marks)
(ii) Calculate the period of the oscillation. Assume the tube has uniform area A m2
and that the density of the liquid is  kgm – 3 (3marks)
(iii) Draw a graph showing how kinetic energy, potential energy and total energy
vary with time (2marks)

4(a) State Bernoulli’s principle (2marks)

(b) An open water tank has a small hole of cross-sectional area 0.5mm2 in its wall of
at a depth of 0.60m below the open water surface in the tank. Calculate volume of
water per second leaving the tank. Assume Viscous effects are negligible (4marks)
(c) Explain the following terms: coefficient of viscosity, viscous drag, terminal
velocity (3mark)
(d) (i) Draw and label the set up of apparatus used to determine the coefficient of
viscosity of a liquid that flows steadily (3marks)
(ii) State the measurements taken (2marks)

(e) A spherical oil drop of density 900kgm–3 and radius 2.5 x 10– 6m has a charge of

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 1.6 x 10 – 19 C. The drop falls under gravity between two metal plates.
(i) calculate the terminal velocity attained by the drop (3mark)
(ii) what electric field intensity must be applied between the plates in order to
keep it stationary (3marks)

SECTION B:

5(a) (i) State the desirable properties a material must have to be used as a thermometric
substance. (2marks)
(ii) Explain why scales of temperature based on different thermometric properties
may not agree (1mark)

(b) (i) Draw a labelled diagram to show the structure of a simple constant volume gas
thermometer. (3marks)
(ii) Describe how a simple constant volume gas thermometer can be used to
establish a Celsius scale of temperature. (5marks)

(iii) State the advantages and disadvantages of a thermocouple thermometer and a

constant volume gas thermometer (3marks)

(c) In a constant volume gas thermometer, the following observations were recorded on a
day when the barometric reading was 760mmHg

Reading in closed Reading in limb

limb (mm) (mm)
Bulb in melting ice 120 106
Bulb in steam 120 384
Bulb at unknown temperature 120 151

(i) What is the thermometric property of the thermometer? (2 marks)

(ii) Calculate the unknown temperature ` (4 marks)

6(a) (i) Explain why the molar heat capacity of an ideal gas at constant pressure Cp differs
from the molar heat capacity . Cr (2 marks)
(ii) Derive the relation C; - Cr = R , where R is the universal gas constant (4marks )

(b) A vessel containing 1.5 x 10 – 3 m3 of an ideal gas at a pressure of 8.7 x 10 – 2 N/m2

and a temperature of 25oC is compressed isothermally to half its volume and then
allowed to expand adiabatically to its original volume.
(i) Calculate the final pressure and temperature of the gas. Cp = 1.41
Cv (7 marks)

(ii) Sketch the p – v graph of the whole process (1 mark)

(iii) Calculate the work done during the isothermal process (3 marks)

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 (c) Use the kinetic theory to account for the increase in pressure of a gas when its
temperature is increased at constant volume (3 marks)

7 (a) (i(a) Define thermal conductivity of metal

(b) (i) Explain using Kinetic theory of matter the mechanism of heat
conduction in insulators (2 marks)
(ii) Briefly account for the fact that metals are better conductors of heat
than insulators. (2 marks)

(c) Copper, brass and steel are three metal rods welded together so as to form a Y shaped
figure. Given that the cross-sectional area of each rod is 2 x 10– 4 m2. The end of the
copper rod is maintained at 100oC and then the ends of brass and steel rods at 0oC. If
the rods are perfectly lagged and the lengths of the rods are 0.46 m, 0.13m and 0.12m
respectively;
(i) calculate the temperature at the junction (4 marks)
(ii) find the heat current in the copper rod (2 marks)
(Thermal conductivities of copper, brass and steel are respectively 385,109
and 50.2 Wm – 1 k – 1 )
. (d) Define the following terms: heat capacity and latent heat (2marks)
(e) (i) Describe an experiment to determine the specific heat capacity of a liquid by the
continuous flow method (5marks)
(ii) What are the advantages and disadvantages of the continuous flow method over
the method of mixture for determining the specific heat capacity? (2marks)

SECTION C:

8 (a) With the aid of a labeled diagram and relevant equation, describe Millikan’s
experiment for determining the charge on an electron. (6 marks)

(b) An oil drop carried a charge 24e and is between two plates 4mm apart. The drop falls
under gravity with a velocity of 6.0 x 10 – 4 ms – 1 and a p.d of 1600V applied between
the plates makes the drop to rise with a steady velocity V. If the viscosity of air is 1.8
x 10 – 5 Nsm – 2 and the density of oil is 900 kgm – 3.

Calculate
(i) the radius of the drop (3 marks)
(ii) the value of V (3 marks)

(c) (i) State Bragg’s law (1mk)

(ii) A second order diffraction image is obtained by reflection of rays at atomic planes
of a crystal for a glancing angle 11.4o. If the atomic spacing of the planes is 2.0 x 10 –
10
m, calculate the wavelength. (2 marks)

(d) (i) Differenciate between cathode rays and positive rays (3 marks)
(ii) State any four properties of cathode rays (2 marks)

9(a) (i) Draw a labelled diagram of an x-ray tube and include the electrical circuit (5marks)
(ii) Explain how x-rays are produced (3marks)
(i) Distinguish between continuous and discrete x-ray spectra (3marks)

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(b) An x-ray tube has an electron beam of 10mA and the accelerating voltage is 50Kv.
Find
(i) the number of electrons striking the target per second (2marks)
(ii) the speed of electrons when they hit the target (3marks)
(iii) the minimum wavelength of x –rays produced (4marks)

10 (a) (i) Distinguish between thermionic and photo electric effects (2marks)
(ii) Write down Einstein’s equation for the Kinetic energy of electrons due to photo
electric emission. (1 mark)

(b) Explain what is meant by the following terms as applied to a photo emissive surface:
(i) work function (1 mark)
(ii) stopping potential and (1 mark)
(iii) threshold frequency (1 mark)

(c) Cesium has a work function of 1.9ev. Find the stopping p.d when the metal is
illuminated by light of wave length 4.5 x 10 – 7m (4 marks)

(d) (i) Draw a labeled diagram to show the essential parts of a cathode ray oscilloscope
(4marks).
(ii) What is a time base in an oscilloscope? Sketch a graph showing the variation of
time-base voltage with time. (3 marks)

(e) A cathode ray oscilloscope has its Y-sensitivity set to 10Vcm – 1. A sinusoidal input
is suitably applied to give a steady trace with the time base set so that the electron
beam takes 0.0ls to traverse the screen. If the tract seen has a total peak to peak
height of 8cm and contains 3 complete cycles, what is the r.m.s voltage and
frequency of the input signal?
(3 marks)

END.