MCAT Physics Review

Grant Hart
grant_hart@byu.edu

Historical areas of emphasis -probably similar in the future

Mechanics

25%

Fluid Mechanics

20%

Waves, Optics, Sound

20%

Electricity & Magnetism

10%

Nuclear & Atomic Physics

15%

Tools

10%

Important Ideas about the

Chemical and Physical Foundations
part of the MCAT
The problems are not complicated. They
usually involve just one or two concepts,
but you may have to dig a little in the
reading material to find what you need.
You may also have to apply some common
sense to what you read.
The majority of what you read is probably not
going to be relevant to the questions.

Important Ideas about the MCAT

The problems are almost all conceptual
and can be answered with fairly basic
physics. The reading may involve more
complicated ideas, but the questions are
based evaluating based on simple
physics.

Important Ideas about the MCAT

Most of the time if you have to do more
than add or multiply a couple of numbers
together, you are probably on the wrong
track.

Suggestions for doing well

1. Read everything carefully.
2. There is a lot of unused information in
the reading. Dont worry if you dont use
it.
3. If you are weak in a topic, dont just pass
it over. There are several techniques to
improve your chances when you guess.

If you arent familiar with a topic:

1. Use your common sense.
2. Eliminate unreasonable answers.
3. Guess, but mark the problem number so
that you can come back to it if you have
time.

If you are familiar with the topic:

1. Simplify.
2. Round your numbers.
3. Calculate.
You cannot use a calculator, so any
calculations will necessarily be simple. You
can use scratch paper if you need to.

4. Check for reasonableness. This is often

a very good way to eliminate answers!

How to Prepare
Study the prime areas:
Mechanics/E&M,circuits/Fluids/Radioactivity/
Waves/Optics

Understand the concepts complicated

problems are not the MCAT way. The
context may be complicated, but the
problem itself is not.

How to Prepare
Know the important equations. They are
generally closely related to the basic
concepts.
Memorize the ones that are related to basic
concepts. Secondary equations wont help you!
Often they are used as ratio-type problems. For
example, some quantity is known to be inversely
proportional to the temperature, so when you
increase the temperature by a factor of 1.5, that
quantity decreases by a factor of 1.5.

How to Prepare
You should know (to 1 significant figure)
some important physical constants:

6.63 10
Js 7 10
Js
1.6 10
C 2 10
C
2.99 10 m/s 3 10 m/s
9.8 m/s2 10 m/s2

Know how to read graphs and tables.

There will be a number of them on the
exam!

From the MCAT instructions:

Neither the passage-based questions nor
the independent questions test your ability
to memorize scientific facts. Rather, both
types of questions assess knowledge of
basic physical and biological science
concepts and your facility at problem
solving at using these concepts.

Format of Physical Science Section

95 Minutes
59 questions. About 1/4 will be on physics
and 3/4 on chemistry, biochemistry and
biology. They may be mixed together in
the same reading.
10 readings of about 250 words each with
4-7 questions about each one. All will be in
the context of biology (defined loosely.)
15 questions unrelated to any reading.

Exam Preparation
The purpose of this class is not to teach you
physics you should know most of what you
need to know already.
The purpose of this class is to help you organize
that material in your mind so you can get more
points on the exam.
It is essential that you practice thinking physics,
that is the only way to recognize when the
principles come up in the reading.

How to approach a Physics

problem
1. Read

Passage
Problems
Answers are they reasonable?

2. Organize your thoughts

Visualize and sketch it.

Decide what physics principles are
important.
Note given any needed information.

How to approach a Physics

problem
3. Simplify the problem

Ignore extraneous information. The important

principles in step 2 will help recognize this.

4. Solve

Concepts are used to select the method.

Equations

Equations are only useful in two ways:

They organize the concepts a good summary. This often

shows up as ratio problems.
You need them when you need a numerical answer.

Be careful make sure your units are compatible and

watch the signs of things.
Be quick most of the time you can round to 1 figure and
do a quick calculation.

How to approach a Physics

problem
5. Think

Reasonable in magnitude?
Units match?

6. After about 1 minute

Eliminate the unlikely answers

Guess
Mark the problem if there is hope.

Sample MCAT physics problems

These sample questions are from an old-style MCAT,
but they illustrate many of the principles above.
sampleitems.pdf

Paradigms
A paradigm is a model or typical pattern
that can be followed, particularly to solve
problems.
I will talk about several paradigms that can
be used to solve various classes of
problems in physics.

Notes on the Web

A printout of these notes can be found at the
following url:
http://www.physics.byu.edu/faculty/hart/MCAT/

Paradigms we will use

Block on Inclined Plane
(Energy Conservation)
Porsche (Power)
Braking Car (Kinematics)
Lifting a box (Equilibrium)
Circuit (Resistance,
Current, Capacitance and
Voltage)
Charge in Capacitor
(Electric Forces)

Water Tank (Fluids)

Wave (Waves and
Sound)
Ball hitting wall (Optics
reflection)
Cart going into sand
(Optics refraction)
14C (Radioactivity and
Half-life)

Paradigms we will use

Block on Inclined Plane
(Energy Conservation)
Porsche (Power)
Braking Car (Kinematics)
Lifting a box (Equilibrium)
Circuit (Resistance,
Current and Voltage)
Charge in Capacitor
(Electric Forces)

Water Tank (Fluids)

Wave (Waves and
Sound)
Ball hitting wall (Optics
reflection)
Cart going into sand
(Optics refraction)
14C (Radioactivity and
Half-life)

Block on Inclined Plane Paradigm

This is a paradigm for conservation of energy.
This is the easiest way to work a problem if it
works.
Energy and work:

Einitial E final
E KE PE
PE mgh
1 2
KE mv
2

Block on Inclined Plane Paradigm

There is no friction.

Block on Inclined Plane Paradigm

Einitial 0 mgh

initial
final
h

E final

1 2
mv f 0
2

1 2
mv f mgh
2
v f 2 gh

Block on Inclined Plane Paradigm

As long as there is no friction, the path
between start and finish doesnt matter.
Free fall is the same as sliding down
something without friction in terms of what the
final velocity will be.

For springs the PE is

. You can use
this in place of, or in addition to the
gravitational PE.

Block on Inclined Plane Paradigm

Use this technique whenever possible.
Key things to look for:
Only conservative forces involved (usually
gravity, electric forces, and springs.)
Time is not involved in the problem, you have
just an initial state and a final state.
Usually just one object is moving.

Possible biologically related

systems
A spring-loaded lancet is used to pierce a
fingertip. How fast is it going when it hits
the end of the finger?
A person is injured by falling off of a wall.
How fast where they going when they hit?

Paradigms we will use

Block on Inclined Plane
(Energy Conservation)
Porsche (Power)
Braking Car (Kinematics)
Lifting a box (Equilibrium)
Circuit (Resistance,
Current, Capacitance and
Voltage)
Charge in Capacitor
(Electric Forces)

Water Tank (Fluids)

Wave (Waves and
Sound)
Ball hitting wall (Optics
reflection)
Cart going into sand
(Optics refraction)
14C (Radioactivity and
Half-life)

Porsche Paradigm
Power:

E W
P

t
t

(Porsche speeding up)

Porsche Paradigm
It can go from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds, what is the power?

E K f Ki

t
t

~ 1500 kg, ~ 25 m/s, so

~ 210 HP

2
mv
2
t

~150,000

Divide whatever change in energy you have by the time

interval. That is the power, the rate at which energy changes.
You dont use this for electrical power in circuits,
although it works at the microscopic level.

Work done
Important ideas:
Work-Kinetic Energy relation:

Definition of Work (units: Joules):

cos

If you have a conservative force, then

Power expended
Important ideas:
Power is the rate of doing work (units:
Joules/sec or Watts)
Since

, then the work done is

If an object is moving at speed , then the

power acting on it instantaneously is

Possible biologically related

systems
How many Calories do you burn climbing
to the top of a tall tower?
How many horsepower can a person exert
if they run up a short flight of stairs?
How deeply will a biopsy needle penetrate,
given the compression of the spring
shooting it?

Paradigms we will use

Block on Inclined Plane
(Energy Conservation)
Porsche (Power)
Braking Car (Kinematics)
Lifting a box (Equilibrium)
Circuit (Resistance,
Current, Capacitance and
Voltage)
Charge in Capacitor
(Electric Forces)

Water Tank (Fluids)

Wave (Waves and
Sound)
Ball hitting wall (Optics
reflection)
Cart going into sand
(Optics refraction)
14C (Radioactivity and
Half-life)

Braking Car Paradigm

This paradigm is for kinematics description of
motion.
This is used when the following quantities are
involved:
- Position
- Velocity
- Force

- Time
- Acceleration

Braking Car Paradigm

Basic Equations:

v v0 a t
1 2
x x0 v0t a t
2
2
2
v v0 2a x x0

F ma F ma
W mg
F f N

Braking Car Paradigm

Typical Problem:
v0

t=0
x

v=0
d

t = tf

Possible questions:
What is the acceleration?
v 2 v02 2a x x0
v02 2ad
v02
a
2d
What is the coefficient of friction?

F f ma

mg ma
ag

Possible questions:
How big is the frictional force?

v v0 v0
a

t0

tf

F ma

Given and d, what was v0?

mg ma g a

v 2ad
2
0

v0 2 g d

Braking Car Paradigm

Remember this is for anything speeding
up or slowing down, whether horizontally
or vertically.
Use whichever equations have the right
variables in them.
Make sure that conservation of energy is
not the easier way to do it.

Biologically related problems

How long does it take a nerve impulse to
travel the length of a neuron?
A person blacks out at an acceleration higher
than 7 g. How long would it take a car to go
from 0-60 mph with that acceleration? How
far would it travel?
(0.4 sec, 5 m)

A person lands after a fall high. Their legs

bend when they land. How much force do
their legs have to exert when they stop? Will
they break their legs?

Aside Newtons Laws

A number of conceptual questions address
Newtons Laws directly, not in the context of
kinematics.
In many ways Newtons first law is conceptually
the hardest.
When an object has no net force acting on it, then it
moves at a constant speed in a straight line.
It does not take a force to keep something moving!

An Example:
A skydiver jumps out of a plane. His
speed increases until he reaches terminal
velocity. How big is the force of air
resistance on him at first?
Greater than mg.
Equal to mg.
Less than mg.

Another Example:
A skydiver jumps out of a plane. His
speed increases until he reaches terminal
velocity. How big is the force of air
resistance on him after he reaches
terminal velocity?
Greater than mg.
Equal to mg.
Less than mg.

Still Another Example:

A monkey slides down a vine. At the time
he reaches velocity v, he starts to tighten
his grip on the vine. The frictional force
increases with time. At the time that the
force of friction equals his weight,
He moves with constant speed down the vine.
He stops.
He starts to move upward.