Name:

Department of Physics and Mathematics

Tennessee State University
Physics 2110, Spring 2014
Practice Exam 1; 100 Points Total
For your practice only; do not turn in.
Hints:
1. There are 8 multiple choice/short answer problems. You must complete all of these problems.
2. There are 2 long answer problems. You may choose to complete any 1 of these for full credit on the exam.
3. If you answer both long problems, I will count the score of the best. There will not be extra credit awarded for
the additional problem.
4. Be sure to complete all sub-parts of a given problem.
5. Draw a picture to clarify what is going on.
6. Show all work for partial credit.
7. Try the problems even if you are lostshow me what you do know.
8. There are 100 points, and the exam is 55 minutes long. You have about 1 minute per 2 points, plus 5 to check
your answers. Pace yourself to avoid spending more than 4 minutes on a 8 point question.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. (8 pts) Which of the following situations is impossible?
(a) An object has zero velocity but nonzero acceleration.
(b) An object has velocity directed east and acceleration directed west.
(c) An object has constant nonzero acceleration and changing velocity.
(d) An object has velocity directed east and acceleration directed east.
(e) An object has constant nonzero velocity and changing acceleration.
2. (8 pts) The United States National Debt is increasing at a rate of $1.39 1012 per year. What is this rate
in dollars per second?
(a) 44,000
(b) 13,900
(c) 25,400,000
(d) 1,060,000
(e) 2,640,000
(f) None of the above within 2% of the correct answer.
~ = 6.00i + 8.00j. What is the magnitude and angle (measured counterclockwise from the x-axis,
3. (8 pts) A
as usual) of this vector?
(a) |A| = 2.00, = 143
(b) |A| = 10.0, = 143
(c) |A| = 5.29, = 127
(d) |A| = 10.0, = 127
(e) |A| = 10.0, = 307
(f) |A| = 5.29, = 307
(g) None of the above within 2% of the correct answer.

~ = 4.00i + 5.00j and C

~ = 2.50i + 5.00j. What is B
~ C?
~
4. (8 pts) B

(a) 0i + 0j + 32.5k

(b) 10i + 25j + 0k

(c) 1.5i + 10j + 0k

(d) 15
(e) 0
5. (8 pts) A racecars position on an oval track is given by ~r(t) = (200 m) cos(2t/(20 sec))i+(100 m) sin(2t/(20 sec))j.
What is its acceleration vector, in m/s2 , at t = 17.5 s?
(a) 141i 70.7j
(b) 14.0i + 6.98j
(c) 44.4i + 22.2j
(d) 0.354i + 0.177j
(e) 0.707i 0.707j
(f) 200i + 100j
(g) None of the above are within 2% of the correct answer.
6. (8 pts) A rock is dropped from the roof of a building that is 23.0 m tall. How long does it take to reach the
ground, in seconds?
(a) 9.8
(b) 2.08
(c) 2.17
(d) 4.69
(e) 4.33
(f) None of the above are within 2% of the correct answer.

Short Answer Questions

1. (12 pts) A student times how long it takes a lead ball to roll down a ramp using a stopwatch. The student
isnt sure whether he remembered to reset the watch to zero before beginning. The student did forget to stop
the watch until several seconds after the ball reaches the end of the track. The finest scale on the stopwatch
is 0.1 seconds. The time to roll down the track is found to be 43.3 seconds.
(a) (4 pts) What were the mistakes made in the measurements, if any?

(b) (4 pts) What were the uncertainties of the measurements (also known as the experimental errors)?

2. (12 pts) A spelunker is surveying a cave. She follows a passage 170 m straight west, then 230 m in a direction
45 east of south, and then 280m at 30 east of north. After a fourth unmeasured displacement, she finds
herself back where she started. Find the magnitude and direction of the fourth displacement.

Long Answer Questions

Choose any 1 of the following 2 problems to complete.

1. (28 pts) Catching the Bus. A student is running at her top speed of 5.0 m/s to catch a bus, which is
stopped at the bus stop. When the student is still 40.0 m from the bus, it starts to pull away, moving with a
constant acceleration of 0.170 m/s2 .
(a) (7 pts) For how much time and what distance does the student have to run at 5.0 m/s before she
overtakes the bus?
(b) (7 pts) When she reaches the bus, how fast is the bus traveling?
(c) (7 pts) Sketch an x t graph for both the student and the bus. Take x = 0 at the initial position of the
student.
(d) (7 pts) The equations you used in part (a) to find the time have a second solution, correspoding to a
later time for which the student and bus are again at the same place if they continue their specified
motions. Explain the significance of this second solution. How fast is the bus traveling at this point.
For full credit, show all work, even if you remember the final values from your homework.

2. (28 pts) A worker drags a box along a frictionless horizontal floor by pulling on a rope attached to the box.
The position of the box is given by x(t) = (1.500 m) + (3.650 m/s)t (0.300 m/s2 )t2 + (0.089 m/s3 )t3 . The
box has a mass of 50.00 kg.
(a) (8 pts) What is the position of the box at t = 2.000 seconds?
(b) (10 pts) What is the velocity of the box at t = 2.500 seconds?
(c) (10 pts) What is the acceleration of the box at t = 3.000 seconds?