Physics Final Review 2016

What does a transformer do?

What type of decoding of a credit card does the machine do when you swipe?

A home security system has a steel disk on the door next to a sensor coil on the door frame.  When the door is opened, what characteristic changes in the coil to set off alarm?


Label the poles of the two bar magnets.







What is the force between two 1.0 X 10-5 C charges separated by 2.0 m?

What happens to resistance as the wire carrying a current gets larger?
This means the resistance is ______________ proportional to the cross-sectional area.

Glass, Copper, Wood, and Rubber...  Which will distribute electric charge better?

What is the current in this circuit?
Is it the same everywhere in the circuit?







How can I lower the current in this circuit?






What is entropy?
How does phase change affect entropy?

What does the first law of thermodynamics state regarding the internal energy of a system?  (look in your notes for the formula or definition... either will give you the answer)

Why is the motor on a refrigerator required to do work?
(What is the refrigerator doing, pumping cold air in?

Only about 15% of the energy released in a combustion engine is converted to mechanical energy.  What happens to the rest?

Which direction are the oscillations of a transverse wave?   Perpendicular to wave direction
Which direction are the oscillations of a longitudinal wave? Parallel to wave direction
Which type of wave is a light wave?  transverse
Which type of wave is a sound wave? longitudinal
Which type of wave is an ocean wave?  transverse

What is the difference between a mechanical wave and an electromagnetic wave?
mechanical wave needs a medium, an electromagnetic wave moves energy not matter (so it can travel in a vacuum)  
Does the medium a wave is travelling through affect a wave?  yes it changes the speed
If so, how?  (Does it change the direction of the oscillation? Does it change the speed?  Does it change the wavelength?)

What is the wavelength of a wave that travels at a speed of 2.0 × 108 m/s and has a frequency of 3.5 × 1016 Hz?
What did we first use in the classroom to demonstrate a longitudinal wave?
 the spring where it is stretched and squished
Which type of electromagnetic wave travels the fastest?  (radio waves, X-rays, Gamma Rays, Visible light, infrared light, etc.)  They all travel the same speed in a vacuum

How fast does it travel?   the speed of light  C

Someone fires up their Harley Davidson Fatboy motorcycle in the Grand Canyon.  She hears the rumbling echo of those pipes three seconds later. If the speed of sound is 340 m/s, how far away was the canyon wall that produced the echo?

510 meters  (1.5 seconds to the wall, 1.5 seconds back..)




What is the purpose of the control rods in a Nuclear Reactor?
How do they do this?   to slow or limit the reaction by absorbing neutrons

What is it called when nuclei are split in a nuclear reaction?  Is this type of reaction used in nuclear energy production?   fission, yes
Does it release high, medium, or low amounts of energy compared to other types of energy producing reactions?  high energy

What property of light allow lenses in microscopes and telescopes to work?
refraction
If a Dr. Pepper bottle is held up in front of a flat mirror, how will the image appear?    (larger, smaller, the same?  inverted? closer or farther away?)
upright, same size, equal distance from mirror to bottle and mirror to image
Will the image in the mirror still make you thirsty for Dr. Pepper?  most definitely (this question is not on the test though)

Current is the flow of __________? electrons