Sample test questions

These sample questions serve a two-fold purpose: to demonstrate the format of the Midterm test, and to enlist possible areas from which the questions will come, for your final check. They pretty much summarize everything that can show up in the exam. Please note that the questions here have not been put through such a thorough consideration as the actual exam questions, so some of them may turn out to be a bit more difficult, or not as clearly and articulately formulated. But they do come close to how the test is going to look (except, maybe, for multiple answers required in a few of these questions: on the exam you will be asked to select exactly one, best, answer from the offered choices). There is a link to a page with answers at the bottom of the list.

1. There is a certain short period in history, nowadays taken to be the birth of 'modern science.' (Incidentally, it is most often related to the name of Galileo.) What were the new qualities in the practice of doing science that previously (for millenia!) had not been there ?
   A) A sense of wonder.
   B) An attempt to understand the world around us rather than just make observations.
   C) The idea of doing experiments, collecting data, attempting to create theories that match observations: systematic and critical approach.
   D) The idea that we need to catalog (record) our observations.

2. The laws of motion (Newton's laws) are properly formulated using "vectors."
   What is a vector?
   A) A physical quantity that has both a magnitude ('size') and a direction.
   B) Any physical quantity that can be described by a magnitude only.
   C) A physical quantity that only has a direction component.
   D) The direction that any physical quantity has.

3. Mass (of an object) is
   A) A measure of the force of gravity on an object.
   B) Dependent on location of the object.
   C) Measured with a spring scale.
   D) A type of force.
   E) A fundamental property of matter; a measure of inertia.
   F) None of the above.

4. Which of the following statements is not one of (Newton's) laws of motion?
   A) The rate of change of momentum of an object is equal to the net force applied to the object.
   B) For any force, there always is an equal and opposite reaction force.
   C) What goes up must come down.
   D) In the absence of net force acting upon it, an object moves with constant velocity.

5. Why is a car that is traveling at a constant speed around a corner still accelerating?
   A) It's not. Accelerating means to speed up and such a car isn't speeding up.
   B) Because its direction of motion is changing.
   C) Because you must slow a bit to turn a corner and then speed up afterwards.
   D) Because the force of gravity must be changing as the car turns.

6. A rocket during take-off burns fuel and forces the exhaust out the back.
   What is the reaction force?
   A) The exhaust pushing on the air behind the rocket.
   B) The rocket pushing on the air in front of the rocket.
   C) The air behind the rocket pushing on the rocket.
   D) The exhaust pushing forward on the rocket.

7. A baseball batted into the air has which of the following forces acting on it as it flies through the air?
   A) the force of the hit, the force of gravity, and air resistance
   B) the force of gravity and air resistance
   C) the force of the hit and air resistance
   D) the force of gravity and the force of the hit

8. According to the classical theory of gravitation, in the absence of air resistance, all falling things, no matter what their weight or mass, fall with the same :
   A) speed       B) time       C) acceleration       D) velocity       E) force       F) There's more to it

9. In one of the labs, you swung a light wooden ball pendulum next to a heavy metal ball pendulum. For the first couple of swings, how did the two behave?
   A) The metal ball swung faster since it's heavier.
   B) The wooden ball swung faster since it has less inertia.
   C) The metal ball pendulum had the shorter period.
   D) Both balls swung with the same speeds and periods.

10. Newton's theory of the force of gravity includes
    A) that it depends on the masses of the objects.
    B) that it weakens as the distance between the objects increases.
    C) that it is responsible for pulling the moon into orbit around the earth.
    D) that it depends on a universal gravitational constant.
    E) all of the above.

11. Which of the following is/are not true?
    A) Energy is conserved, quite generally.
    B) Energy can be transformed and transferred but cannot be created or destroyed.
    C) Energy is conserved when there are no thermal losses.
    D) Heat supplied to a system goes to work and internal energy.
    E) There are many forms of energy, and conservation laws apply to all of them; when there is no transfer of energy from one form to another, we can indeed state that the "energy is conserved."

12. The typical machines we make, for example automobiles, use energy with the efficiency of:
    A) around 90% (top technology only)
    B) usually 50–70%
    C) no more than 15-20%
    D) it depends; it varies a lot
    E) (what is this efficiency ?)

13. Generally, in order to have a machine do something useful we have to supply energy, which then gets converted into a form which we seek; the fact that we still haven't managed to make a machine that is 100% efficient in this conversion is due to:
    A) Friction
    B) Our technology is still not sophisticated enough
    C) A sort of politics; our efforts are not concentrated. We could do it!
    D) The law of physics: one just cannot make a heat-engine that would operate with 100% efficiency; our machines fall under this.

14. Temperature ... ?
    A) The amount of "heat" contained in an object.
    B) The difference between the heat of an object and its surroundings.
    C) A measure of (average) kinetic energy of the atoms and molecules that make up an object.
    D) The pressure exerted by the atoms and molecules that make up an object.

15. Which of the following is/are not true :
    A) Energy is transferred from hot to cold
    B) One cannot, in principle, make a so-called heat-engine that will transform energy with 100% efficiency
    C) Microscopic disorder, randomness, cannot descrease spontaneously
    D) Having in mind spontaneous evolution of physical systems, the maximum organization possible is achieved at (absolute) zero temperature

16. Which of the following is/are true
    A) If we supply heat to a system, it will in general go into work and "internal energy."
    B) Heat is an accidental loss of energy in processes, due to friction.
    C) Heat is most often due to friction; this is what sets the limit on the so-called "conservation of energy:" strictly it is only valid when there is no friction.

17. Name at least two "alternative" sources of energy. Along with this name two which are widely used and cannot be considered alternative.

18. Which of the following is not consistent with the major hallmarks of science?
    A) Science progresses through the creation and testing of models that explain observation as simply as possible.
    B) Science consists of proven theories that are understood to be true explanations of reality.
    C) Scientific explanations should be based solely on natural causes.
    D) A scientific model must make testable predictions.
    E) It takes one, scientifically well designed and performed, experiment to force a revision, or even a dismissal, of a theory
    
    

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