Standard Answers Flashcards
Newtons Second Law.
Resultant force on an object is directly proportional to the rate of change of momentum and occurs in the same direction as the change in momentum.
Use Newtons Third law to explain the impulse received by A and B.
- Force exerted on A due to B is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.
- Time of contact is the same and Impulse is FT
- Hence the Impulses are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction
Define Impulse.
Force x time in which the force acts
Define linear momentum.
mass x velocity
Why is Linear momentum a vector?
- Velocity is a vector
- The product of a scalar and a vector is a vector.
State the principle of conservation of momentum.
Total momentum is conserved provided no external forces are applied
Which conditions must be upheld for Newtons 3rd Law?
- Forces must act on different objects
- Forces must be equal in magnitude, type and opposite in direction
Why does speed of an object undergoing circular motion remain constant even with a resultant force acting on it?
- Resultant force is at right angles to direction of motion.
- No work is done by the force.
- KE and speed therefore constant
What is a Geostationary Orbit?
- Always vertically above the same point on earth
- Located above the equator with the same time period as earth
- Velocity of satellite parallel to velocity of a point on the surface at all times.
Describe the pattern of uniform field lines.
The field lines are parallel and equally spaced.
What are the benefits of Geostationary orbits?
- Receiving dish on earth can be kept in the same position as satellite stays above the same point on earth.
- Allowing it to be used for radio communications, TV signals etc
What is SHM?
- Acceleration proportional to displacement from equilibrium.
- This acceleration is always directed towards the equilibrium position
Difference between frequency and angular frequency?
Frequency is the number of oscillations per unit time. Angular frequency is 2pi x frequency.
What is resonance?
- Occurs when the driving frequency matches the natural frequency
- The amplitude of vibrations is then maximum due to maximum energy transfer from driver to the system.
What are the effects of damping on resonance?
- Smaller amplitude of vibrations
- Also slightly reduces the frequency which corresponds to max amplitude
What is Thermal equilibrium?
There is no net heat flow between the objects in contact and they are at the same temperature
Define internal energy
The sum of the randomly distributed KE and PE of the atoms/molecules in the system
Difference between ideal gas and real gas?
- Internal energy is the the sum of the randomly distributed KE and PE of the atoms/molecules in the system
- In an ideal gas all the internal energy is kinetic as it is assumed there is no attraction between molecules
- In a real gas some of this energy is potential energy
State some of the conclusions of molecules from observing smoke particles under a microscope.
- Movement of smoke particles caused by the molecules of the gas moving randomly
- Gas molecules not visible so they are much smaller.
- Smoke is continuously moving meaning the molecules are continuously moving the
State the kinetic model assumptions.
- Collisions of molecules with walls are perfectly elastic.
- Force between molecules is negligible except during collisions
- Large number of particles moving rapidly and randomly
- Volume of molecules is negligible compared to the volume of the container.
- Time during a collision is negligible compared to time between collision.
How does a gas exert pressure on the container walls?
- There are many collisions with the molecules and the wall, causing a change in momentum.
To change momentum the wall must have provided a force as the rate of change of momentum is proportional to the force exerted. - by Newtons 3rd law, an equal force must have been applied in the opposite direction
- Pressure= Sum of all forces/area of wall
Why does force on wall increase with temperature?
- Speed of gas molecules increase
- More frequent collisions
- The change in momentum is also larger
- So total force exerted in the container increases.
Why must the volume of gas increase if the pressure is to remain constant as it is heated.
- As temperature increases, the speed of the molecules increases resulting in a greater rate of collisions and greater changes in momentum.
- For a constant pressure, fewer collision per unit time are needed.
- Can be achieved by increasing volume as the molecules will need to travel a greater distance between collisions
Describe how the scattering experiment provided evidence for the existence, charge and size of the nucleus.
- Most went straight through and some deviated through small angles, showing the atom is mostly empty space.
- A very small number scattered through large angles, showing the existence of a tiny positive nucleus.
- Size of nucleus is about 10^-14m
Why during closest approach does the gold nucleus have a velocity and the alpha particle does not?
- There is a repulsive electrical force between the gold nucleus and alpha particles.
- Linear momentum must be conserved as there are no external forces.
- Initial KE of alpha particle transformed into electric potential energy
Explain the Strong Nuclear Force.
- Acts between nucleons
- Repulsive at less than 0.5fm
- Attractive from 0.5fm to 3fm
- Very short range
Why is the probability of a proton and helium fusing less than two protons?
- Greater charge
- Greater electrostatic repulsive force
- Smaller change of fusion
Describe Carbon Dating.
- Living organisms take in carbon when they are alive, some of which is radioactive carbon 14.
- When they die they stop taking in carbon
- Ratio for dead carbon determined
- Ratio for todays ratio of carbon determined
Then use the formulae
Why is the activity of a radioactive material a major consideration when considering safety precautions?
- High activity means it will be highly ionising so precautions need to be taken.
- Small activities have long half life so need long term disposal.
Disadvantages of power from fission.
- Problems with reaction getting out of control
- Maintaining reaction so it runs continuously.
- Risks or radiation
- Long half life of waste products make disposal very difficult and dangerous
Why is the mass of the individual nucleons different to the mass of the nucleus?
- Mass of the nucleus is less than the total mass of the individual nucleons.
- The nucleus has binding energy, so energy must be supplied to free the nucleons from the nucleus
- This binding energy is equal to the mass difference
Describe the process of induced nuclear fission.
- Thermal neutron absorbed by a massive nucleus
- Massive nucleus splits into two daughter nuclei and one or more fast moving neutrons
What are fuel rods?
Contain the fissile material eg U235
What is the purpose of a moderator in the core of the nuclear reactor?
- Fission reactions produce fast moving neutrons
- Neutrons make collision with the moderator nuclei and transfer some of their kinetic energy, so that they slow down.
- Slow moving neutrons have a greater possibility of causing fission.