1. No specific comment available.

2. No specific comment available.

3. A large majority of the candidates opted for A, indicating perhaps that they misunderstood the
question as asking for the change in the magnitude of momentums. It is worth noting that such
an interpretation has no physical significance, whereas the question being asked relates to the
force of the ball on the wall.

4. No Report available for this question.

5. This question refers to the total energy of the system. Many candidates answered as though it
were referring only to the kinetic energy of the system.

6. No specific comment available.

7. No specific comment available.

8. Many teachers argued that, as the direction of F was not specified, both A and D could be
construed as correct. However the statistics indicated that the candidates correctly identified the
forces as operating in different directions.

9. No specific comment available.

IB Questionbank Physics 1
10. Most students understood that the gradient of the graph referred to a force, yet they failed to go
one step further and identify the direction of the force. The gradient is negative, which means
that it is in the opposite direction to the momentum of the ball. It can, therefore, only refer to the
force by the wall on the ball.

11. No specific comment available.

12. Mechanics and thermal physics

(a) Most answered this part correctly.
(b) In part (i) answers suffered from the same problem as that in A5 (HL), namely very
sloppy force diagrams. Surprisingly, in part (ii) many candidates could not obtain the
answer to this question by finding the slope of the graph. Instead, many found the average
acceleration in the first 2 s, 14 / 2 = 7 ≈ 4 m s–2! In parts (iii) and (iv) there were many
correct answers.
(c) This part was well answered, including the last part on the assumptions made in the
estimate of the temperature increase.

13. A significant number of candidates knew what Newton meant by action and reaction. However,
there were few good discussions on the conservation of momentum as applied to the Earth-book
system. Few candidates appreciated that the net force on the system is always zero and as such,
the total momentum of the system is always zero.
In finding the energy dissipated as a result of the collision many candidates did not calculate the
speed of the ball and spike after collision and so only gained partial credit.
Calculations of the frictional force and the time for the machine to raise the ball to a height of
1.6 m were often correct. Nonetheless, weaker candidates often did not know how to start and
left the answer spaces blank.

IB Questionbank Physics 2
14. (a) Although many had the correct (and simple) approach to calculating the weight of the
ball, there were far too many significant figure errors here.
(b) (i) Better candidates realized that this part of the question needs to be addressed via an
energy conservation approach. Others used an inappropriate equation of motion;
the acceleration is not constant in this case.
(ii) About half of the candidature realized that there was a need to calculate the
centripetal force in this case. But only about half of these recognized the
importance of adding this value to the known weight to calculate the total tension.
(c) (i) Too many quote the quantity for the area under the force-time graph as
‘momentum’ rather than ‘change in momentum’.
(ii) The determination of the maximum force of the ball on the wall was poor. There
were many failures to include the factor of 2 to allow for the area of the triangle.
Many attempted to use an F = ma approach without success.

15. Power and efficiency

(a) (i) Diagrams were poorly presented and ill-thought. 4 marks were assigned to this and
candidates should have given much more care to it. Marks were given for
appropriate descriptions, directions and lengths of the vectors. In particular,
candidates should recognize that the term “acceleration” will not do for a driving
force, and that “normal” simply implies “at 90°”. The essential point about the
upwards force from the surface is that it is a reaction force.
(ii) About half the candidates realized that the momentum change was zero as the
velocity was constant.
(b) The efficiency calculation was well done by many.
(c) This question produced a mixed response varying from excellent fully-explained
solutions to incoherent attempts with an incompetent inclusion of components or attempts
that focussed on the change in the kinetic energy.
(d) Many recognized that the way to estimate the forces was to access the net rate of change
of energy and divide this by the speed, but there were two hurdles here: a determination
of the correct net power and the correct speed. Very many failed at one or both of these
and thus failed to provide a correct answer.

IB Questionbank Physics 3