Physics Foundations
Which famous scientist demonstrated that objects of different masses fall at the same rate when air resistance is ignored?
Galileo Galilei
Which of these is a scalar quantity: acceleration, area, displacement, force, or velocity?
Area
Which is a vector quantity: speed or velocity?
Velocity
A car goes from rest to 5 m/s in 4 seconds. What is its average acceleration?
1.25 m/s²
If distance increases as the square of time, what type of relationship does the distance-time graph have?
Quadratic
Which scientist discovered that white light is made up of the colors of the rainbow?
Isaac Newton
Convert 178 cm into meters.
1.78 m
A car travels at 30 m/s for 60 seconds. How far does it travel?
1,800 m
A bus has an initial velocity of 16.5 m/s and accelerates at 2.75 m/s² for 9 seconds. What is its final velocity?
41.3 m/s
A quantity decreases as another quantity increases. What type of graphical relationship can represent this?
Inverse relationship
Physics is directly involved in studying which of these: mixing metals, cell metabolism, spacecraft motion, ozone depletion, or cancer treatment?
The motion of a spacecraft under gravitational influence
A rectangle measures 6.01 m × 12 m. What is its area, using the correct number of significant figures?
72 m²
What is the key difference between distance and displacement?
Distance is the total path traveled; displacement is the change in position with direction.
A ball is thrown upward at 20 m/s and reaches 0 m/s after 3.5 seconds. What is its average acceleration?
−5.7 m/s²
A pendulum's length is directly proportional to the square of its period. What type of graph represents this relationship?
Linear with a positive slope
What property causes an object to resist a change in its state of motion?
Inertia
Calculate 508.9538 − 15.54 using the rules for significant figures.
493.41
A truck travels 60 km east, then turns around and stops 15 km west of its starting point. What are its total distance and displacement?
What does a negative acceleration of approximately −9.8 m/s² represent for an object moving near Earth's surface?
Acceleration due to gravity downward
If a distance-time relationship is quadratic and starts at zero, which data pattern could represent it: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 or 2, 4, 6, 8, 10?
1, 4, 9, 16, 25
A spacecraft moving through space under the influence of a planet's gravity is an example of physics being used to study what?
Motion under gravitational influence
Why can't a measurement such as 72.12 m² necessarily be reported with four significant figures when one of the measurements used to calculate it has fewer significant figures?
The result is limited by the measurement with the fewest significant figures.
Mary walks 80 m south, 125 m west, and then 45 m north in 10 minutes. What is her average speed in m/s
0.42 m/s
Andy's car starts from rest and accelerates at 8.00 m/s² for 30.0 s. What displacement does the car undergo?
3,600 m
A graph of atmospheric density versus altitude shows density decreasing as altitude increases. What type of relationship does the test identify for this situation?
Inverse relationship