A10288W1

FIRST PUBLIC EXAMINATION

Trinity Term

Preliminary Examination in Physics

Paper CP2: PHYSICS 2

Tuesday 11 June 2019, 2.30 pm – 5.00 pm

Time allowed: 2 21 hours

Answer all of Section A and three questions from Section B.

Start the answer to each question on a new page.

The use of approved calculators is permitted.

A list of physical constants, mathematical formulae

and conversion factors accompanies this paper.

The numbers in the margin indicate the weight that the Moderators expect to
assign to each part of the question.

Do NOT turn over until told that you may do so.

1
 Section A

1. A long solenoid of length L and radius R is uniformly wound with N1 closely

spaced turns. It is tightly surrounded about the middle by a short coil closely wound
with N2 closely spaced turns on the same axis. What is the mutual inductance of the
coils? [4]

2. Describe how the method of images can be used to evaluate the field configuration
of a set of charges associated with conducting planes. Illustrate this by finding an
expression for the force between the charge and the plane for a charge q a distance d
above an infinite conducting plane. [5]

3. A hollow conducting sphere of radius R has an initial charge Q. By consideration

of Gauss’ law, find an expression for the electric field strength and for the potential
inside and outside the sphere as a function of r, the distance from the centre of the
sphere.
A second hollow conducting sphere of radius 2R and with no initial charge is
brought into contact with the first sphere. Find expressions for the final charge on each
sphere in this arrangement. [7]

4. A plane circular coil of radius r with N turns rotates at an angular velocity ω

about an axis along a diameter and perpendicular to a uniform magnetic flux density
B along the x-axis as shown in the figure.

Find an expression for the induced e.m.f. in the coil as a function of time t. What
is the orientation of the coil with respect to the x-axis when the magnitude of the e.m.f.
is a minimum? [6]

5. A transverse electromagnetic wave propagating in free space can be expressed as:

E(x, t) = E0 cos(kx−ωt) ŷ. Explain all of the terms in this expression. Using the appro-
priate Maxwell’s equation in differential form, find an expression for the B component
and its direction of oscillation and hence find the speed of propagation of the wave. [5]

6. The most common forms of resistors used in electronic circuits are made out
of carbon composite material. An alternative resistor composition uses resistive wire
tightly wound around a small insulating substrate. Discuss the potential advantages
and disadvantages of wire wound resistors compared to carbon composite devices. [3]

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 7. A thin equiconvex lens (a lens where the two convex surfaces have the same radius
of curvature) is made of glass with refractive index n. Its spherical surfaces have radius
of curvature R. Show that its focal length f is given by
R
f= .
2(n − 1)
[5]
An imaging system suffers from chromatic aberration so that an image in blue
light is formed at a position 10 mm beyond an image in red light. A student wishes
to correct for the aberration and form a corrected image on a screen 1 m from the red
light image using a thin equiconvex lens placed between the aberrated images and the
screen. Find expressions for the required focal lengths of the lens fb and fr at blue and
red wavelengths. The lens has refractive indices nb = 1.44 and nr = 1.40 at blue and
red wavelengths respectively. Calculate the radius of curvature of the lens surfaces and
the focal lengths at blue and red wavelengths. [5]

Section B

8. A current I flows through a plane wire coil of radius a with N turns. Find an
expression for the magnetic flux density at a distance x along the principal axis of the
coil from the centre. [5]
A second identical coil is placed parallel to and coaxial with the first, and separated
by a distance a. Identical currents I flow through the coils in the same direction. What
is the magnetic flux density B on the axis midway between the pair of coils and at the
centre of each coil? Sketch the total magnetic flux density and the contribution from
each coil as a function of position on the axis between the coils. Describe briefly the
properties of this coil arrangement. [9]
A stream of electrons is accelerated by a potential V and introduced into the
region between the coils, perpendicular to the principal axis of the coils and close to
the mid-point. An experimenter wants to deflect the electron stream so that it emerges
from the region between the coils travelling parallel to but in the opposite direction to
the input stream and separated by 2 cm. What is the value of the magnetic flux density
between the coils required to achieve this, when the accelerating potential V = 10 kV? [6]
[You may neglect the effects of any B field external to the space between the two coils,
and assume that the radius of the coils is  2 cm.]

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 9. A charge +q is located at the origin. What is the work required to bring (i) a
charge +q and (ii) a charge −q from an initial position (x, y) = (0, −2d) to a position
(0, +d) from the origin? [3]
A dipole consists of a positive charge +q at position (x, y) = (0, +a/2) and a
negative charge −q at position (x, y) = (0, −a/2). Find expressions for the potential
and electric field of the dipole at a distance r from the origin (where r  a). Sketch the
dipole field lines. What are the radial and tangential components of the force acting on
a point charge +Q at a distance r from the origin? [9]
The dipole is fixed in space at the origin. Find the force acting on a point charge
+Q at positions (x, y) = (−d, 0), (0, −d) and (d, 0), where d  a. Describe the force
that acts on a free charge initially located at (x, y) = (−d, 0) and the resulting motion
of the charge. [8]

10. A circuit consists of a resistor R and a capacitor C together with an input voltage
Vi and is illustrated in the figure below. The input voltage Vi is a sinusoidal function
of time. Find an expression for the magnitude and phase of the output voltage Vo .
The resistor has a resistance of 5 kΩ and the capacitor has a capacitance of 3.2 nF .
Determine the behaviour of the circuit as a function of frequency and find the output
voltage at 100 Hz, 104 Hz and 5 × 104 Hz. Sketch a plot of the amplitude of Vo as a
function of frequency. Give an application for such a circuit. [10]

Vi C Vo

An alternative design employs an operational amplifier and is illustrated below.

The signal is transmitted to the inverting input of the op-amp through resistor R1 ,
while a capacitor C in parallel with a resistor R2 connects the input and output of the
op-amp. Again the input voltage Vi is a sinusoidal function of time. Find an expression
for the output voltage Vo .
The resistor R1 has a resistance of 1 kΩ, the resistor R2 has a resistance of 5 kΩ,
and the capacitor C has a capacitance of 3.2 nF. How does the output from this circuit
compare with that from the circuit above? [7]
R2

C
R1 −

Vi +
Vo

Comment on the advantages and disadvantages of the two circuits. [3]

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 11. A student plans an experiment to demonstrate double slit interference using a
mercury discharge lamp as a light source. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of
using the classical double slit or a Lloyds Mirror arrangement. [4]
The student sets up a classical double slit experiment to measure fringes produced
by a mercury discharge lamp using the green line at wavelength λ = 546 nm. Sketch
and describe a practical arrangement for the experimental layout. Find an expression
that relates the separation of the fringes measured on a screen to the slit separation, d
and wavelength of the light, λ. [8]
When measuring the fringes, the student realises that the blue mercury line at
wavelength λ = 437 nm is also transmitted through the slits. The slit separation used
is d = 100 µm and the distance from the slits to the screen, D = 0.5 m. Calculate the
fringe separations for each of the two wavelengths transmitted, and describe the fringe
pattern and the overall appearance resulting from the two wavelengths of light. Sketch
the central 30mm of the fringe pattern. [8]

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