Formula sheets, the key method steps for every topic and 16 practice problems, with full solutions at the back.
A car driving at 36 km/h brakes with a constant deceleration of 7.5 m/s² until it stops. Find the braking distance s.
A ball is thrown straight up at 18 m/s from the edge of a roof 20 m above the ground. Ignore air resistance and use g = 9.81 m/s². How long after the throw does it hit the ground? Find t.
A 16 kg block slides down a slope at 45° to the horizontal. The coefficient of kinetic friction is 0.2. Use g = 9.81 m/s². Find the acceleration a of the block along the slope.
A 5 kg block on a ramp at 30° is connected by a light string over a frictionless pulley at the top of the ramp to a hanging 7 kg mass. The hanging mass moves down. The coefficient of kinetic friction between block and ramp is 0.15. Use g = 9.81 m/s². Find the acceleration a of the system.
A ball is launched at 25° above horizontal from level ground. Ignore air resistance. Find the time of flight t until the ball hits the ground.
A ball is thrown from ground level at 34 m/s and 55° above the horizontal. It lands on the flat roof of a building 16 m high, on its way down. Ignore air resistance and use g = 9.81 m/s². Find the horizontal distance x from the launch point to where it lands.
A car takes a flat curve of radius 20 m. The coefficient of static friction between tyres and road is 0.6. Use g = 9.81 m/s². Find the highest speed vmax at which the car can take the curve without skidding.
A 1.8 kg ball on a light string 1.2 m long is swung in a vertical circle. At the lowest point its speed is 8 m/s. Ignore air resistance and use g = 9.81 m/s². Find the tension Ttop in the string at the highest point.
A block slides from rest down a slope at 35° to the horizontal. The coefficient of kinetic friction is 0.15. Find its speed v after it has slid 11 m along the slope.
A 5 kg block is released from rest at height 3.5 m on a smooth ramp. At the bottom it crosses a rough horizontal strip 4.5 m long (μ = 0.2) and then runs onto a spring (k = 2500 N/m) on a smooth surface. Find the maximum compression x of the spring.
A 20 g bullet is fired horizontally into a 1.5 kg wooden block hanging on light strings, and stays inside it. The block swings up until it is 6 cm higher than at the start. Use g = 9.81 m/s². Find the speed v of the bullet before impact.
A 0.15 kg ball hits a wall at 9 m/s and bounces straight back at 11 m/s. The contact lasts 20 ms. Find the magnitude of the impulse J the wall gives the ball.
A 0.4 kg mass on a spring with k = 400 N/m is pulled 10 cm in the positive direction and released from rest at t = 0. Find its displacement x from equilibrium at t = 0.95 s (with sign).
A mass on a spring with k = 480 N/m oscillates on a frictionless surface with an amplitude of 18 cm. Find its kinetic energy K when it is 8 cm from equilibrium.
An object stands 8 cm in front of a thin diverging lens with a focal length of 12 cm. Find the image distance di. Use the sign convention 1/f = 1/do + 1/di (f < 0 for a diverging lens, di < 0 for a virtual image).
Two slits 0.15 mm apart are lit with monochromatic light. On a screen 2 m away, bright fringe number 5 lies 42.2 mm from the central fringe. Find the wavelength λ.
Answer: s = 6.667 m
Motion with constant acceleration: v = v₀ + a·t, s = v₀·t + ½·a·t² and v² = v₀² + 2·a·s. Pick the equation that contains the three things you know and the one you want, and keep the signs consistent with one positive direction.
Answer: t = 4.563 s
Motion with constant acceleration: v = v₀ + a·t, s = v₀·t + ½·a·t² and v² = v₀² + 2·a·s. Pick the equation that contains the three things you know and the one you want, and keep the signs consistent with one positive direction.
Up is positive and the ground is h₀ below the starting point.
Only the positive root is physical.
Answer: a = 5.549 m/s²
Newton’s second law: the net force on a body equals its mass times its acceleration, ΣF = m·a. Draw a free-body diagram, choose a positive direction along the motion, and add every force in that direction: applied forces, friction μ·N against the motion, and the components of gravity.
Down the slope is positive.
Answer: a = 3.148 m/s²
Newton’s second law: the net force on a body equals its mass times its acceleration, ΣF = m·a. Draw a free-body diagram, choose a positive direction along the motion, and add every force in that direction: applied forces, friction μ·N against the motion, and the components of gravity.
Answer: t = 3.102 s
Projectile motion: with no air resistance, x = vxt and y = h + vyt − ½gt². The two directions are independent except that they share the same time.
Horizontal velocity stays constant; vertical motion has a constant acceleration g = 9.81 m/s² downward.
Starting and landing at the same height: t = 2vy/g.
Answer: x = 98.08 m
Projectile motion: with no air resistance, x = vxt and y = h + vyt − ½gt². The two directions are independent except that they share the same time.
Larger root: the ball is descending.
Answer: vmax = 10.85 m/s
Uniform circular motion: an object moving at speed v on a circle of radius r accelerates towards the centre with a = v²/r, so it needs a net inward force F = m·v²/r. That force is supplied by something real: friction, tension, gravity or a normal force.
Answer: Ttop = 7.71 N
Uniform circular motion: an object moving at speed v on a circle of radius r accelerates towards the centre with a = v²/r, so it needs a net inward force F = m·v²/r. That force is supplied by something real: friction, tension, gravity or a normal force.
Kinetic energy is traded for potential energy over a height 2r.
Tension and gravity both point down, towards the centre.
Answer: v = 9.863 m/s
Work–energy principle: the change in kinetic energy equals the work done by all forces. Writing gravity and springs as potential energy (mgh and ½kx²) turns this into a balance: initial energy = final energy + energy lost to friction (μN·d).
The block drops a height d·sin θ while friction removes μmg·cos θ·d. The mass cancels.
Answer: x = 31.94 cm
Work–energy principle: the change in kinetic energy equals the work done by all forces. Writing gravity and springs as potential energy (mgh and ½kx²) turns this into a balance: initial energy = final energy + energy lost to friction (μN·d).
The ramp is smooth, so only the strip removes energy.
Answer: v = 82.46 m/s
Conservation of momentum: when no external force acts during a collision, the total momentum Σm·v before equals the total after. Velocities have a direction, so pick a positive direction and give velocities the other way a minus sign. In an elastic collision kinetic energy is conserved too; in a perfectly inelastic one the bodies stick together.
Answer: J = 3 N·s
Conservation of momentum: when no external force acts during a collision, the total momentum Σm·v before equals the total after. Velocities have a direction, so pick a positive direction and give velocities the other way a minus sign. In an elastic collision kinetic energy is conserved too; in a perfectly inelastic one the bodies stick together.
Answer: x = 1.952 cm
Simple harmonic motion: a mass m on a spring of stiffness k oscillates with angular frequency ω = √(k/m) and period T = 2π/ω = 2π·√(m/k). A simple pendulum of length L has T = 2π·√(L/g). With amplitude A, the largest speed is A·ω, the largest acceleration A·ω² and the energy ½·k·A².
Answer: K = 6.24 J
Simple harmonic motion: a mass m on a spring of stiffness k oscillates with angular frequency ω = √(k/m) and period T = 2π/ω = 2π·√(m/k). A simple pendulum of length L has T = 2π·√(L/g). With amplitude A, the largest speed is A·ω, the largest acceleration A·ω² and the energy ½·k·A².
Answer: di = −4.8 cm
Geometric optics: at a boundary, n₁·sin θ₁ = n₂·sin θ₂ (Snell's law), with angles measured from the normal and n = c/v. Going into a slower medium the ray bends towards the normal. From a denser medium (n₁ > n₂) beyond the critical angle θc = arcsin(n₂/n₁) all light is reflected: total internal reflection. Thin lenses and spherical mirrors obey 1/f = 1/do + 1/di with the magnification m = −di/do. Sign convention: f > 0 for a converging lens and a concave mirror (f = R/2), f < 0 for a diverging lens and a convex mirror; di > 0 for a real image, di < 0 for a virtual one, and m < 0 for an inverted image.
Answer: λ = 633 nm
Interference and diffraction: light from two slits a distance d apart reaches a point on the screen with a path difference d·sin θ. Bright fringes appear where d·sin θ = mλ (m = 0, ±1, ±2, …). For a screen at distance L ≫ d, the m-th bright fringe is at y = mλL/d and the fringe spacing is Δy = λL/d. A grating with N lines per millimetre has d = 1/N and sharp maxima at d·sin θ = mλ; since sin θ ≤ 1, the highest order is the largest whole number m ≤ d/λ. A single slit of width a has dark fringes at a·sin θ = mλ, m = ±1, ±2, …
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