Most Common Past Paper Questions Flashcards
What is Moment of Inertia (Rotational Motion)
A measure of an object’s resistance to angular acceleration about a given axis.
What is The Principle of Conservation of Angular Momentum (Rotational Motion)
The total angular momentum before an interaction is equal to the total angular momentum after the interaction, provided there are no external torques acting on the objects.
What happens to an object moving in a circular path? (Rotational Motion)
It has a changing velocity and is therefore accelerating
- because velocity is vector quantity and direction of travel is constantly changing.
Centripetal Force example in a vehicle (Rotational Motion)
- When a vehicle is turning a corner at speed, you may slide along the chair
- Because friction between you and seat is insufficient to provide central force
- Instead of being thrown outwards, you are in reality continuing in straight line while car moves inwards.
Centripetal force in a conical pendulum (Rotational Motion)
- There must be a centripetal force responsible for maintaining path
- Force comes from horizontal component of the tension in string.
What is torque? (Rotational Motion)
A force which produces rotation about an axis.
What is the principle of conservation of linear acceleration? (Rotational Motion)
The total momentum before an interaction is equal to the total momentum after the interaction, provided there are no external forces acting on the objects.
What is meant by gravitational field strength? (Astrophysics)
The gravitational force per unit mass
What is meant by Gravitational potential of a point in Space? (Astrophysics)
The work done in moving unit mass from infinity to that point.
What is escape velocity? (Astrophysics)
The minimum velocity required by a mass, m, to just escape from a planet’s gravitational field and reach infinity with zero velocity and zero kinetic energy.
What is the Equivalence Principle? (Astrophysics)
Gravity pulling in one direction is equivalent to acceleration in the other.
What is a black hole? (Astrophysics)
A region in space where the pull of gravity is so great that nothing, not even light, can escape its pull.
What is an Inertial frame of reference? (Astrophysics)
A frame of reference in which an observer is not accelerating with respect to another.
That is, an observer will move at a constant speed with respect to another.
What is a Non-Inertial frame of reference? (Astrophysics)
A frame of reference in which an observer is accelerating with respect to another.
That is, an observer will not move at a constant speed with respect to another.
What does the bottom cone on a world line diagram represent (Astrophysics)
Observable past events
