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Name _______________________
Student Number _______________________
Section _______________________
Instructor Name _______________________

PHYSICS 1B03

DAY CLASS
DURATION OF EXAMINATION: 2 Hours

THIS EXAMINATION PAPER INCLUDES 14 PAGES AND 30 QUESTIONS. PAGES 12

AND 13 ARE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK , PAGE 14 IS THE FORMULA SHEET.
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING THAT YOUR COPY OF THE PAPER IS
COMPLETE. BRING ANY DISCREPANCY TO THE ATTENTION OF YOUR
INVIGILATOR.

Special instructions:

• Write your name, student number and section at the top of this page. Be prepared
to present your McMaster Student ID card for verification.
• Circle only ONE answer for each question. Multiple answers will be marked as
wrong. Each question is worth one mark.
• Note that a formula sheet is provided at the end of the exam. It is up to the student
to know when the appropriate formula can be used.
• Use of Casio FX-991 series calculator only is allowed.
• Portable communications devices of all types (e.g. pagers, cellular phones,
communicating calculators) are prohibited in the examination room. All such
devices must be turned off prior to the start of the examination.
• Giving or receiving aid during an examination is a violation of university rules and
may result in a failing grade and/or expulsion from the university.

Do not write below this line.

TOTAL
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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1) A locomotive pulls a series of wagons. Which is the correct analysis of the situation?

a) The train moves forward because the locomotive pulls forward slightly harder on the
wagons than the wagons pull backward on the locomotive.
b) Because action always equals reaction, the locomotive cannot pull the wagons--the wagons
pull backward just as hard as the locomotive pulls forward, so there is no motion.
c) The locomotive gets the wagons to move by giving them a tug during which the force on the
wagons is momentarily greater than the force exerted by the wagons on the locomotive.
d) The locomotive can pull the wagons forward only if it weighs more than the wagons.
e) The locomotive's force on the wagons is as strong as the force of the wagons on the
locomotive, but the frictional force on the locomotive is forward and large while the
backward frictional force on the wagons is small.

2) A 3.0 kg wood crate sits in the back of a truck. The coefficients of friction between the crate
and the truck are µs = 0.9 and µk = 0.5. What is the maximum acceleration the truck can have
without the crate slipping out the back?

a) 4.9 m/s2
b) 8.8 m/s2
c) 15 m/s2
d) 27 m/s2
e) cannot be determined from the information given

3) A ball is thrown from the ground toward a cliff of height h with a speed of 30 m/s and an angle of
60o above horizontal. It lands on the cliff 4.0 s later at a distance of 5.0 m from the edge. How high
is the cliff?

a) 18 m
b) 25 m
c) 30 m
d) 34 m
e) 42 m
f) 80 m

4) The driver of a car slams on the brakes when he sees a tree blocking the road. The car slows
uniformly with an acceleration of -5.0 m/s2 for 4.0 s, making straight skid marks 50 m long ending
at the tree. With what speed does the car then strike the tree?

a) 33 m/s
b) 23 m/s
c) 13 m/s
d) 2.5 m/s
e) -7.5 m/s
f) the car does not strike the tree

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
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5) Which of the following five graphs represents the motion of an object whose speed is increasing?

6) You stands on a spring scale on the floor of an elevator. Of the following, the scale shows the
highest reading when the elevator:

a) Moves downward with increasing speed.

b) Moves downward with decreasing speed.
c) Remains stationary
d) Moves upward with decreasing speed.
e) Moves upward with constant speed.

7) Two sleds are hooked together in tandem. The front sled is twice as massive as the rear sled. The
r
sleds are pulled along a frictionless surface by a force F , applied to the more massive sled. The
r
tension in the rope between the sleds is T . Determine the ratio of the magnitudes of the two forces,
T/F.

a) 0.33
b) 0.50
c) 0.67
d) 1.5
e) 2.0
f) 3.0

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
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8) A spaceship moves horizontally at constant velocity. Suddenly the spaceship turns on one of its
sideways thrusters for a few seconds to change its motion. Which of the following illustrates the
trajectory most closely?

9) A useful kinematic equation is

vf2=vi2 + 2ad

You drop a ball (with zero initial velocity) from the top of a building. If you measure the
acceleration to be 9.8 ± 0.1 m/s2, and the height of the building to be 30±1 m, what is the final
velocity of the ball?

a) 24.2 ± 0.5 m/s

b) 24.25 ± 0.04 m/s
c) 24 ± 1 m/s
d) 24.25 ± 0.53 m/s
e) 24.2 ± 0.02 m/s

10) A block is pushed up a 20º ramp by a 15 N force which may be applied either horizontally (P1)
or parallel to the ramp (P2). How does the magnitude of the normal force N depend on the direction
of P?

P1

P2
20E

a) N will be smaller if P is horizontal than if it is parallel the ramp.

b) N will be larger if P is horizontal than if it is parallel to the ramp.
c) N will be the same in both cases.
d) The answer will depend on the coefficient of friction.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
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11) A 600 g cart/accelerometer system rolls along a track towards a bumper, as shown in the
diagram below.

A motion sensor at the opposite end of the track measures the velocity of the cart to be 0.65 m/s just
before it collides with the bumper. The accelerometer attached to the cart measures the acceleration
as a function of time as shown on the graph below.

What is the velocity of the cart after it leaves the bumper?

a) - 1.5 m/s
b) - 0.88 m/s
c) - 0.65 m/s
d) - 0.59 m/s
e) - 0.23 m/s

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
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12) A block on a frictionless table is attached to a wall with a spring as shown. The block is pulled a
distance d to the right of its equilibrium position and released from rest. It takes a time t to get back
to the equilibrium point.

If instead the mass is pulled a distance 2d to the right and then released from rest, how does the
time it takes to get back to the equilibrium point compare to the first time, t?

a) the time is twice as long.

b) the time is the square root of two times longer.
c) the time is the same.
d) the time is the square root of two times shorter.
e) the time is twice as short.

13) An object of mass M is attached to a spring with a spring constant k and is oscillating. If the
object were made to oscillate with a higher amplitude, which of the following statements is true?

a) The average kinetic energy of the object would increase.

b) The average potential energy of the object would increase.
c) The total mechanical energy of the object would increase.
d) All of the above.

14) Two blocks of mass m1 = M and m2 = 2M are both sliding towards you on a frictionless surface.
The linear momentum of block 1 is half the linear momentum of block 2. You apply the same
constant force to both objects in order to bring them to rest. What is the ratio of the two stopping
distances d2/d1?

a) 1/2
b) 1/ 2
c) 1
d) 2
e) 2
f) Cannot be determined without knowing the masses of the objects and their velocities.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
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15) The head of a hammer (m = 1.5 kg) moving at 4.5 m/s strikes a nail and bounces back with the
same speed after an elastic collision lasting 0.075 s. What is the magnitude of the average force the
hammer exerts on the nail?

a) 6.8 N
b) 13.5 N
c) 90 N
d) 180 N
e) 240 N

16) An object of mass 3m, initially at rest, explodes breaking into two fragments of mass m and 2m
respectively. Which one of the following statements concerning the fragments after the explosion is
true?

a) They fly off at right angles.

b) They fly off in the same direction.
c) The smaller fragment will have twice the speed of the larger fragment.
d) The larger fragment will have twice the speed of the smaller fragment.
e) The smaller fragment will have four times the speed of the larger fragment.

17) A bullet of mass m is fired at speed v 0 into a wooden block of mass M , which is initially at
rest. The bullet instantaneously comes to rest in the block. The block with the embedded bullet
slides along a horizontal surface with a coefficient of kinetic friction µ . Which of the following
expressions determines how far the block slides before it comes to rest?
m v02
a)
2µ M g
m ⎛ v 02 ⎞
b) ⎜ ⎟
2(m + M ) ⎜⎝ µ g ⎟⎠
2
⎛ m ⎞ ⎛ v02 ⎞
c) ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟
⎝m+M ⎠ ⎝ 2µ g ⎠
2
⎛ m ⎞ v0
2
d) ⎜ ⎟
⎝ M ⎠ 2µ g
v02
e)
µg

18) Mike is cutting the grass using a human-powered lawn mower. He pushes the mower with a
force of 50 N directed at an angle of 30o below the horizontal direction. Calculate the power that
Mike expends in pushing the mower 5 m across the yard in 10 s.

a) 22 W
b) 25 W
c) 43 W
d) 125 W
e) 220 W
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
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19) A man pulls a 100 N crate up a frictionless hill with a slope of 30o. The crate is raised by 5 m
as shown. Assuming the crate moves at constant speed, the work done by the man is:

a) -500 J
b) -250 J
c) 0J
d) 250 J
e) 500 J

20) An ideal spring is hung vertically from the ceiling. When a 2.0 kg mass hangs at rest from it,
the spring is extended 6.0 cm from its relaxed length. A downward external force is now applied to
the mass to extend the spring an additional 10 cm . While the spring is being extended by the force,
the work done by the spring is:

a) – 4.2 J
b) – 3.6 J
c) – 3.4 x 10-5 J
d) 3.6 J
e) 4.2 J

21) A transverse travelling wave is described by the function y ( x, t ) = 4 sin( 2 x − 3t ) . The

displacement as a function of position at t = 0 is shown below. In what direction is the
instantaneous velocity of the particle at the position A at t = 0?

a) The positive x-direction

b) The negative x-direction
c) The positive y-direction
d) The negative y-direction
e) The instantaneous velocity is zero.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
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22) Two strings, A and B are joined together. A traveling wave is created at the far end of A and
travels through the string combination to the far end of B. A snapshot of the wave is shown below.

What can you conclude from the diagram?

a) The frequency of the wave on B is greater than the frequency on A.
b) The linear mass density of B is greater than the linear mass density of A.
c) The velocity of the wave on B is greater than the velocity of the wave on A.
d) None of these statements would account for the observation.

23) What is the lowest frequency for a standing wave on a wire that is 10 m long, has a mass of 100
g and is stretched under a tension of 400 N?

a) 3.2 Hz
b) 6.3 Hz
c) 10 Hz
d) 20 Hz

24) A ‘stealth car’ is coated with a special plastic material (n = 1.7) designed to make it invisible to
radar. If the radar operates at a wavelength of 1.0 cm, and the index of refraction in the metal of the
car is n = 2.0. What is the minimum thickness of plastic required?

a) 1.5 mm
b) 2.5 mm
c) 2.9 mm
d) 5.0 mm

25) Two slits are illuminated with red light to produce an interference pattern on a distant screen. If
the red light (λ = 650 nm) is replaced with blue light (λ = 450 nm), how does the pattern change?

a) the bright spots move closer together

b) the bright spots move farther apart
c) the pattern does not change
d) the pattern has the same number of spots at the same positions but the width of each spot is
smaller
e) the pattern has the same number of spots at the same positions but the width of each spot is
larger

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
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26) Two radio speakers produce sound with a wavelength of 0.800 m. If the two speakers are
separated by 1.00 m as shown in the diagram, how close to speaker A can a person stand and not
hear the sound they produce?

a) d = 0.225 m
b) d = 1.05 m
c) d = 1.40 m
d) d = 1.80 m
a) d = 3.14 m
e) d = 4.14 m

27) The plug for the drain of a water tower is located 3.0 m below the surface. The plug is circular
and has a diameter of 5.0 cm. If the density of water is 1000 kg/m3, how much force is required to
remove the plug (you may ignore the weight of the plug itself)?

a) 58 N
b) 200 N
c) 260 N
d) 29,000 N
e) 35,000 N

28) A cherry displaces 20 g of liquid, when it floats in water. Assuming that the density of
chocolate syrup is twice that of water, how many grams of liquid would the same cherry displace if
it were floating in chocolate syrup?

a) 5g
b) 10 g
c) 20 g
d) 30 g
e) 40 g
f) 400 g

29) A stationary diver has tied himself to the bottom of a pond with a rope. If his body has a density
of 900 kg/m3, a mass of 100 kg, a volume of 0.111 m3, and the water has a density of 1000 kg/m3,
what is the tension in the rope?

a) 0N
b) 11 N
c) 110 N
d) 980 N
e) 1100 N
CONTINUED ON PAGE 11
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30) Blood flows through an artery which is partially blocked by deposits. If we treat the blood as an
ideal fluid, which of the following statements best describes the situation?

a) The flow rate of blood is greatest in Region B.

b) The blood pressure is least in region A.
c) The speed of the blood is greatest in region C.
d) The blood pressure is the same in regions A and C.
e) The speed of the blood is the same in region A, B and C.

END OF EXAM QUESTIONS

Blank pages for rough work and formula sheet follow

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
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