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Name _________________________________
Student Number _________________________________

PHYSICS 1A03 Version 2 Dr. Kari Dalnoki-Veress,

Dr. Waldemar Okon,
Dr. Christine Wilson
DAY CLASS & NIGHT CLASS
DURATION OF MID-TERM EXAMINATION: 2 Hours
MCMASTER UNIVERSITY, October 5, 2016

THIS EXAMINATION PAPER INCLUDES 25 MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS AND 12 PAGES. YOU
ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING THAT YOUR COPY OF THE PAPER IS COMPLETE. BRING
ANY DISCREPANCY TO THE ATTENTION OF YOUR INVIGILATOR.

No books, notes, or other aids are permitted.

• Mark the version number of this exam on the scantron sheet (1 or 2, see above) 

• If you do not have a 9 digit student number, please put zero's in front of your number i.e. 00xxxxxxx
• You must be prepared to show your student card to the exam invigilators
• Circle the correct answer on this exam paper AND on the computer-readable scan sheet.
• There is only one correct answer for each question, no penalty for guessing a wrong answer.
• Return this paper with your answer sheet.
• A formula sheet is included with this exam paper (Last Page) as well as extra pages for scrap. These
may be removed but must be handed in with your exam.
• By writing this examination you agree to be bound by the Senate policy of Academic Dishonesty
• All portable communication devices must be off during tests
• Only the McMaster standard calculator is allowed.
___________________________________________________________________
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RESULT DEPENDS UPON PROPER ATTENTION TO THESE INSTRUCTIONS.

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4. Pay particular attention to the Marking Directions on the form.

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 page 2 of 12
Make absolutely sure to fill out the bubble in the version column appropriate for your version of the mid-
term exam.

Q1. The speed of waves in shallow water depends only on the acceleration due to gravity (g) and the water
depth (h). Which of the following formulas describes the speed of the wave?

A. g2 / h
B. (1/2) g h2
C. g /h
D. hg
E. (g h)1/2

Q2. Using scientific notation and the correct number of significant figures, what is the result of calculation

A. 4.363 x 10-2
B. 4.36 x 10-2
C. 4.3 x 10-2
D. 4.4 x 10-2
E. 4 x 10-2

Q3. For the following, 4113.2065-5113.2060+1000.0-2.00, how many significant figures are there in the
answer?

A. 4
B. 3
C. 2
D. 1
E. none of the above

Q4. We can think of DNA as a helical molecule that looks like a spiral shaped ladder. Each rung of the
ladder represents one base pair. The total length of DNA in the human genome is about 1 m, and each base
pair is about 0.34 nm from the next. Let’s imagine that we can think of walking up this ladder and that each
step takes 1 second, approximately how long would it take to climb the DNA ladder? (nm is a nanometer
and nano is the prefix that means 10-9)

A. 3 x 104 years
B. 6000 years
C. 100 years
D. 3 years
E. 0.01 years

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Q5. A car travels 80% of the distance of a journey at an average speed of 90.0 km/h and the rest of the
journey at an average speed of 60.0 km/h. The average speed of the car for the whole trip (journey) is:

A. 84.9 km/h
B. 81.8 km/h
C. 75.0 km/h
D. 70.4 km/h
E. 65.9 km/h

Q6. Physics Girl is in a car travelling at 80.0 km/h. She accelerates her car and after 0.500 km reaches a
speed of 125 km/h. Assuming constant acceleration, what was her acceleration?

A. 2.78 x 104 m/s2

B. 4.81 x 102 m/s2
C. 9.23 m/s2
D. 7.12 x 10-1 m/s2
E. 2.56 x 10-3 m/s2

Q7. An adult woman may weigh 65 kg and stand 170 cm tall. If a newborn baby girl weighs 4.0 kg and is
isometric (same shape) with the adult woman, how many times more heat does the woman lose compared to
the baby?

A. 2.5
B. 2.8
C. 4.1
D. 6.4
E. 8.0

Q8. Hotdogs are fired from three different machines with the same initial speeds, but at three different initial
angles, as shown. qA is 45°, qB is less than 45° and qC is greater than 45°. Which hotdog spends more time
in the air? [Neglect air resistance]
v
v
v

θA qB θC

A B C

A. Hotdog C spends more time in the air

B. Hotdog B spends more time in the air
C. Hotdog A spends more time in the air
D. All three spend the same amount of time in the air
E. More information needed

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Q9. Physics Girl and Einswine are running a race. Einswine is a little slow at 2.0 m/s while Physics Girl is
running at 10 m/s. Both are running at their top speed and Einswine is 200 m ahead of Physics Girl. How
long does it take her to catch Einswine?

A. 16.7 s
B. 25 s
C. 2400 s
D. 1600 s
E. She will never catch up

Q10. Kanye West takes the Kanye running test. Kanye begins from rest and runs South for 10 s with constant
acceleration of 15 m/s2 until he reaches his max velocity (his ‘Kanye best’). What is Kanye’s max velocity?

A. 12.2 m/s West

B. 150 m/s North
C. 150 m/s South
D. 750 m/s North
E. 750 m/s South

Q11. Three tomatoes are released from a window, one after another. The Red Tomato is simply dropped with
no initial velocity. The Green Tomato is thrown straight downwards, and the Yellow Tomato is thrown
straight upwards with the same initial speed as the Green Tomato. All three eventually hit the ground. How
do their speeds just before they hit the ground compare, if air resistance is ignored?

A. Red is slowest, and Yellow and Green are the same.

B. Green is fastest, Yellow is slowest, and Red is in between.
C. Yellow is fastest, and Red and Green are the same.
D. Green is fastest, and Yellow and Red are the same.
E. All three speeds are the same.

Q12. The distance between hairs is about 0.5 mm. Roughly how many hairs are there on a healthy head of
hair?

A. 1010
B. 108
C. 107
D. 105
E. 103

Q13. Suppose an object has a volume that changes with time according to the formula:
V = π R2 h1/3 c t,
where π ≈ 3.14159, R is a radius, h is a height, c is a constant and t is time. What are the dimensions of the
constant c?

A. [L2/3 T-1]
B. [T L-1]
C. [L T-1]
D. [L1/3 T-1]
E. [T L-2/3]

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Q14. Physics Girl throws Einswine with a vertical component of the velocity such that he lands down a hole
3.00 seconds later. If she tossed him with a velocity of 10.0 m/s in the upwards direction, how far is the
bottom of the hole from where she released him?

A. 85.2 m
B. 74.1 m
C. 15.3 m
D. 14.1 m
E. B or C depending on which root on the quadratic equation.

Q15. Drake and Max are playing catch while standing on a hill. Drake sees his Dad walking towards the hill
and tosses the baseball to him with a horizontal velocity of 20.0 m/s. The horizontal distance from Drake to
his Dad is 40.0 m. From what height was the baseball thrown?

A. 39.2 m
B. 19.6 m
C. 24.0 m
D. 9.8 m
E. need more information

Q16. A giant Rubik’s cube has side length of 2.3 m. What is the surface area of the Rubik’s cube in square
feet? (1 ft is 12 inches, 1 inch is 2.54 cm)

A. 1.1 x 104
B. 3.4 x 102
C. 1.0 x 102
D. 4.7 x 101
E. 3.2 x 101

Q17. Right now all three sections of PHYS 1A are writing their midterm. In order to prove a point that writing
one midterm is better for the environment than two, you calculate the total area of paper that is used for one
midterm. What number do you come up with?

A. 1000000 m2
B. 10000 m2
C. 100 m2
D. 1 m2
E. 0.1 m2

Q18. A jogger runs around a circular track that has a radius of 250 m. She runs two and a half laps. What is
her displacement from her starting point?

A. 3925 m
B. 1570 m
C. 1250 m
D. 500 m
E. 0m

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Q19. The following plot shows position versus time for two paths A and B. For the two paths which of the
following statements best describes the motion?

A. A and B have the same average velocity and B has the highest instantaneous velocity.
B. A and B have the same average velocity and B has a higher speed.
C. A and B have the same average velocity and B has a greater displacement
D. B has the highest instantaneous velocity and B also has the lowest instantaneous velocity.
E. A has the lowest instantaneous velocity and A also has the highest average velocity.

Q20. Kari, Christine and Waldemar have a running race. They all begin from the starting line at time zero.
Based on the velocity-time graph provided, who is in the lead after 7 s?

A. Kari
B. Christine
C. Waldemar
D. Kari and Christine tie
E. Impossible to tell without more information

Q21. In the following plot of velocity as a function of time, at which point is the: i) acceleration highest, ii)
acceleration lowest, iii) displacement highest, iv) distance highest?

A. i) 0 s, ii) 2 s, iii) 4 s, iv) 1 s

B. i) 4 s, ii) 3 s, iii) 2 s, iv) 4 s
C. i) 0 s and 4 s, ii) 3 s, iii) 1 s, iv) 2 s
D. i) 1 s, ii) 3 s, iii) 2 s, iv) 4 s
E. i) 0 s and 4 s, ii) 2 s, iii) 2 s, iv) 4 s

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Q22. For the following expression, which plot would yield a straight line? (assume that the other variable is
held constant)
p M
Q P =p
P
A. Q vs P1/4
B. M4 vs P
C. Q2 vs P
D. Q vs P
E. M vs P

Q23. Einswine and Physics Girl are studying physics again and decide to take a parachute jump to personally
experience freefall. They are strapped together and jump out of a plane that has a horizontal cruising
velocity of 200 km/h. While they are in free fall, they fall a distance of 610 m before their parachute opens.
How long are the pair in freefall?

A. 7.89 s
B. 11.2 s
C. 31.8 s
D. 62.2 s
E. 124 s

Q24. A baseball is thrown at 40 m/s. Jose Bautista hits it back in the opposite direction at a speed of 65 m/s.
The ball is in contact with the bat for 1.2 ms. What distance does the ball travel while it is in contact with
the bat? (ms is a millisecond and milli is the prefix that means 10-3)

A. 0.16 m
B. 0.12 m
C. 0.063 m
D. 0.015 m
E. 0.0024 m

Q25. A car is moving north at 100 km/h. An hour later it is moving east at 100 km/h. Its average acceleration
during this hour is:

A. Zero.
B. A vector pointing east.
C. A vector pointing northeast.
D. A vector pointing southwest.
E. A vector pointing southeast.

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 Formula Sheet for Physics 1A03

Constants Momentum
𝜌"#$ = 1.29kg/m3 𝑝 = 𝑚𝑣
Patm = 1.013 x 105Pa 𝐽 = 𝐹"ma Δ𝑡 = △ 𝑝
g = 9.81m/s2 ∑𝑝# = ∑𝑝O

Area and Volume Waves, sound, light

𝐴 = 𝜋𝑟 ) , 𝐴 = 4𝜋𝑅) , 𝐴 = 2𝜋𝑅) 𝑦 𝑥, 𝑡 = 𝐴 cos 𝑘𝑥 ± 𝜔𝑡
4 𝑦 𝑥, 𝑡 = 𝐴 sin 𝑘𝑥 ± 𝜔𝑡
𝑉 = 𝜋𝑅0 , 𝑉 = 𝜋𝑅) ℎ
3 𝜔 = 2𝜋𝑓 = 2𝜋/𝑇 𝑇=1 𝑓
Other
𝑘 = 2𝜋/𝜆 𝑐 = 𝑓𝜆 = 𝜔/𝑘 𝑐 = 𝑇 𝜇
−𝑏 ± 𝑏 ) − 4𝑎𝑐 ∆𝐸 1 ) )
𝑥= 𝑃= = 𝜇𝜔 𝐴 𝑐
2𝑎 ∆𝑡 2
𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒
sin 𝜃 =
ℎ𝑦𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑠𝑒 2𝐿 𝑛𝑐
𝜆h = , 𝑓h = , 𝑛 = 1,2,3,∙∙∙
𝑛 2𝐿
𝑎𝑑𝑗𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡
cos 𝜃 =
ℎ𝑦𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑠𝑒 4𝐿 𝑛𝑐
𝜆h = , 𝑓h = , 𝑛 = 1,3,5,∙∙∙
𝑛 4𝐿
𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒
tan 𝜃 =
𝑎𝑑𝑗𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑓xa"y = 𝑓) − 𝑓Q

sin) 𝜃 + cos ) 𝜃 = 1 𝑐h = 𝑐/𝑛 𝜆h = 𝜆/𝑛 𝑛) sin 𝜃y = 𝑛Q sin 𝜃#

Kinematics 𝑚𝜆h
𝑣O = 𝑣# + 𝑎𝑡
Q
Δ𝑥 = 𝑣# 𝑡 + 𝑎𝑡 ) 2𝑑 = 1
) 𝑚 + 𝜆h
𝑣O) − 𝑣#) = 2𝑎Δx 2
𝑚𝜆
(𝑣# + 𝑣O ) 𝑟) − 𝑟Q = 𝑑 sin 𝜃 = 1
Δ𝑥 = 𝑡 𝑚 + 𝜆
2 2
Forces “low to high, phase shift of π”
𝐹 = 𝑚𝑎 𝐹W = −𝑘𝑥
fs ≤ 𝜇W 𝑁 fk = 𝜇[ 𝑁 Fluids
𝐹^ = 𝑚𝑔 = 𝜌𝑉𝑔 𝐹xzge = 𝜌b#{ 𝑉𝑔
Work and Energy 𝑃 = 𝐹/𝐴 ∆𝑃 = 𝑃 − 𝑃| = 𝜌𝑔ℎ
Q 𝑃"xW = 𝑃^"z^a + 𝑃"y}
𝐾 = 𝑚𝑣 ) 𝑈^ = 𝑚𝑔𝑦
)
Q
𝑊 = Δ𝐾 𝑈ab = 𝑘𝑥 )
)
𝑊 = 𝐹 ∙ Δ𝑟 = 𝐹Δ𝑟 cos 𝜃 = 𝐹d Δ𝑥 + 𝐹e Δ𝑦
𝑊fghW = −Δ𝑈
E = K + 𝑈^ + 𝑈W
Δ𝐸 = 𝐸O − 𝐸# = 𝑊hghjfghW + W
Δ𝐸
𝑃= =𝐹∙𝑣
Δ𝑡

Last page -- formula sheet