1990 HKCEE Physics

1. Figure 1 shows a trolley of length 0.25 m resting on a horizontal runway. An elastic string of
unstretched length 0.15 m is tied to the trolley. The trolley is pulled along the runway by stretching
the elastic string. By keeping the length of the stretched string equal to the length of the trolley, a
constant force f1 N is applied to pull the trolley.

Figure 1

(a) The force-extension characteristic of the elastic string is shown in Figure 2. What is the value
of f1 ? (1 mark)

(b) Describe a method to determine the acceleration of the trolley along the runway. (4 marks)

(c) The same experiment is repeated in turn with two, three and four identical strings in parallel.
The following results are obtained :

Number of elastic strings 1 2 3 4

Force on trolley F/N f1 f2 f3 f4

Acceleration a / ms-2 0.15 0.75 1.35 1.95

(i) Find the values of f2 ,f3 and f4.

(ii) Using a scale that 4 cm represents 0.5 N and 4 cm represents 0.5 m s -2, plot a graph of
F against a.

(iii) Find the equation relating F and a from the graph in (ii).

(iv) Comment on the physical meaning of f0, the intercept on the F axis, when a equals
zero.