PhysicsBowl 2013
PhysicsBowl 2013
PhysicsBowl 2013
INSTRUCTIONS
Answer sheet: Write and bubble-in the following REQUIRED information on your answer sheet:
Your Name
Your School’s CEEB code (given to you by your teacher)
Your Teacher’s AAPT Teacher code (given to you by your teacher – only one code per school!)
Your Region (given to you by your teacher)
Your Division (01 for first-year physics students, 02 for students in a second physics course)
If this information is not properly bubbled, you will be disqualified as your official score will be a zero.
Your answer sheet will be machine graded. Be sure to use a #2 pencil, fill the bubbles completely, and make no
stray marks on the answer sheet.
Questions: The test is composed of 50 questions; however, students answer only 40 questions. Answers should
be marked on the answer sheet next to the number corresponding to the question number on the test.
Division 01 students will answer only questions 1 – 40. Numbers 41 – 50 on the answer sheet should remain
blank for all Division 01 students.
Division 02 students will answer only questions 11 – 50. Numbers 1 – 10 on the answer sheet should remain
blank for all Division 02 students.
Calculator: A hand-held calculator may be used. Any memory must be cleared of data and programs.
Calculators may not be shared.
Formulas and constants: Only the formulas and constants provided with the contest may be used.
Time limit: 45 minutes.
Score: Your score is equal to the number of correct answers (no deduction for incorrect answers). If there are tie
scores, the entries will be compared, from the end of the test forward, until the tie is resolved. Thus, the answers
to the last few questions may be important in determining the winner, and you should consider them carefully.
Good Luck!
1. Red light from a laser is noted to have a wavelength of 632.8 nanometers. Which one of the following
choices best represents the meaning of the prefix nano?
A small object is released from rest and reaches the ground in a time of . Neglect air resistance.
3. From what height above the ground was the object released?
4. A scientist calculated a quantity that was equal to one light-year. Which one of the following choices
represents the type of quantity that the scientist calculated?
(A) Time (B) Mass (C) Speed (D) Force (E) Distance
5. At an instant of time , a point object of mass moves with velocity ⃗ , has acceleration , and is at position
( ). In what direction must the linear momentum of the object be directed at this instant?
6. A -long string clamped at both ends is vibrating at its second harmonic. What is the wavelength
associated with the string for this scenario?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
8. Some standard household lights are being replaced with LEDs. LED is the acronym
for which one of the following choices?
10. An object is thrown straight upward. The object remains in free fall until it returns to its initial launch
point. Which one of the following graphs could represent the velocity of the object as a function of time
during its flight?
(D) (E)
11. There was great excitement in the physics community because of an announcement from the LHC during the
summer of 2012. Which one of the following choices best represents the reason for the excitement?
12. It takes the Earth one day to rotate about its axis. Which one of the following choices best represents the
time that it takes the Moon to make one rotation about its axis?
(A) One day (B) One week (C) One month (D) One year (E) It does not rotate at all
13. Which one of the following choices represents the measurement with the most number of significant digits?
14. A small ball is thrown at an angle of above the horizontal ground with a speed of . To what
maximum height above the launch point does the ball rise during its motion? Ignore air resistance.
15. In a circuit, the flow of electrons in a horizontal wire produces a constant current of for a time of
. Which one of the following choices best represents the number of electrons that pass through a
vertical cross-section of the wire during this time?
16. A block initially moving at ⁄ accelerates uniformly to rest on a horizontal surface. The block travels
a distance of during the slide. Which one of the following choices best represents the coefficient of
kinetic friction between the surface and the block?
18. Which one of the following choices correctly identifies all of the listed situations for which there is a
non-zero acceleration?
19. Which physicist won the Nobel Prize in physics partly for the explanation of the photoelectric effect?
(A) a neutron (B) a proton (C) a positron (D) an alpha particle (E) an electron
22. Four resistors, each of resistance , are connected to a battery in the following way: “Two resistors are
connected in series. This combination of two resistors is connected in parallel to a third resistor. This set of
three resistors is connected in series to a fourth resistor.” What is the equivalent resistance of this
arrangement of four resistors?
23. A small object of mass is at rest from a horizontal disk’s center. The disk starts to rotate
from rest about its center with a constant angular acceleration of . What is the magnitude of the
net force acting on the object after a time of if the object remains at rest with respect to the disk?
24. Which one of the following statements best describes Huygens’s Principle?
(A) An additional pressure is transmitted undiminished to all points in the fluid and to the walls of the
container.
(B) Each point on a wavefront acts as a source of secondary spherical wavelets (new waves).
(C) For every action force, there is an equal but opposite reaction force.
(D) It is impossible to have a process which has the sole result of transferring energy from a low
temperature reservoir to a high temperature reservoir.
(E) A time-changing magnetic field has an associated induced electric field.
25. An ideal fluid completely fills a small horizontal tube that has a narrowing cross-sectional area as seen in
the figure. Which one of the following choices best describes what has happened to the fluid’s speed and
its associated pressure in the narrower region as compared to the wider region?
(A) The fluid speed increased and the fluid pressure decreased.
(B) The fluid speed increased and the fluid pressure increased.
(C) The fluid speed increased and the fluid pressure remained the same.
(D) The fluid speed decreased and the fluid pressure increases.
(E) The fluid speed decreased and the fluid pressure decreases.
26. An object moving only to the right completes a second trip in two stages, I and II. The average speed of
the entire second trip is ⁄.
For stage I, the object moves with a constant velocity of ⁄ for seconds.
What constant acceleration must the object have during the seconds of stage II?
28. An object is in free fall close to the ground. A person intervenes and slows the object uniformly to rest.
Which one of the following statements must be true about the magnitude of the acceleration of the object as
it is being stopped by the person? The magnitude of the object’s acceleration is and the magnitude of
the acceleration from gravity is .
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E) None of the previous relations must be true.
29. Two electrons enter a region between charged capacitor plates with equal speed .
Electron A is directed horizontally to the left while electron B is directed at
below the horizontal. Each electron makes it to the left-hand plate. Which one
of the following choices best compares the speeds of the charges ( ) upon
arrival at the left plate? Consider only the electrons A and B’s interactions with
the constant electric field between the plates, ignoring any relativistic effects.
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D) The answer depends on the size of the plate separation, .
(E) The answer depends on the magnitude of the charge, , on each plate.
30. Electrons flow to the left in a wire as shown. For the proton moving toward the top of the page at the
instant shown, what is the direction of the magnetic force on the proton?
31. A monatomic ideal gas undergoes a reversible isothermal expansion in an enclosed container. Which one
of the following quantities associated with the gas has a value of zero?
(A) Heat (B) Entropy change (C) Work done (D) Internal energy change (E) Pressure change
33. At the top of a high cliff, a small rock is dropped from rest. A ball is launched straight downward with an
initial speed of at a time after the rock was dropped. When the ball has fallen further
than the initially dropped rock, what is the speed of the ball relative to the rock?
34. Which one of the following choices represents the base MKS units for sound intensity?
35. For the figure shown, the variable resistance of the inner circuit, , is increasing at a constant rate.
While this is occurring, in which direction is the magnetic field associated with the inner circuit at the
point P in the plane of the circuit and in which direction is the flow of electrons
through the resistor labeled ?
36. The principal quantum number of an electron is . How many possible values of the orbital magnetic
quantum number are there for this electron?
38. Five identical light bulbs are connected into a circuit as shown. All
wires are ideal with no resistance, and the ideal battery has emf .
When the switch S in the circuit is closed, aside from bulb #5, which
of the other bulbs brighten?
An ideal uniform solid disk and an ideal uniform ring each have mass and radius . Each object begins
purely rolling without slipping down a rough inclined plane. The coefficients of friction for the disk and
ring with the incline are .
39. As each object rolls down the incline, which statement is correct
about the force of friction from the incline on the objects?
(A) The ring experiences a greater force of friction than the disk.
(B) The disk experiences a greater force of friction than the ring.
(C) The force of friction is equal and non-zero for both objects.
(D) The force of friction is equal to zero for both objects.
(E) Nothing can be concluded about the force of friction without more information.
40. As the objects roll, what is the ratio of the ring’s angular acceleration to the disk’s angular acceleration
calculated about an axis perpendicular to the object’s face and through its center of mass?
IMPORTANT: All Division 01 students STOP HERE. Your last answer should be for #40.
Numbers 41-50 should remain blank for Division 01 students.
41. An engine operates between a low temperature of and a high temperature of . What is the
maximum theoretical efficiency of this engine?
√ √
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
√ √
43. A small mass is launched from the top of a cliff with speed at an angle of above the
horizontal. When the mass reaches the ground, its velocity is directed at below the horizontal. Which
one of the following choices is the magnitude of the total impulse that was imparted to the mass during its
flight? Ignore air resistance.
(√ ) (√ )
(A) (√ ) (B) √ (C) (√ ) (D) (√ ) (E) √
(√ )
44. Which one of the following terms/quantities is most closely associated with “the measure of the resistance
of an object to length change under lengthwise tension or compression.”?
(A) Bulk modulus (B) Plastic deformation (C) Shear modulus (D) Elastic limit (E) Young’s modulus
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
47. Which one of the following choices best represents the magnitude of the angular momentum of the Earth
(expressed in base MKS units) associated with its rotation about its axis?
48. Two identical samples of a monatomic ideal gas are to undergo reversible processes. Which one of the
following choices is a correct statement about the heat associated with the processes?
Process 1: An isochoric pressure doubling
Process 2: An isobaric volume doubling
49. Two electrons move with the magnitude of their linear momentum having a ratio of 2:1. If the slower
electron moves with a speed of , what is the speed of the faster moving electron?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
IMPORTANT: All Division 02 students STOP HERE. Your last answer should be for #50.