Formula sheets, the key method steps for every topic and 20 practice problems, with full solutions at the back.
A car speeding at a constant 15 m/s passes a police car standing still. At that moment the police car starts and accelerates uniformly at 5.5 m/s². How far from its starting point does the police car catch up? Find d.
A stone is dropped from rest into a well. The splash is heard 2.6 s after the stone is released. The speed of sound is 343 m/s; ignore air resistance and use g = 9.81 m/s². Find the depth d of the well.
A 16 kg block slides down a slope at 40° 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 6 kg block on a horizontal table is connected by a light string over a frictionless pulley to a hanging 4.5 kg mass. The coefficient of kinetic friction between block and table is 0.2. Use g = 9.81 m/s². Find the acceleration a of the system.
A ball is kicked from level ground at 24 m/s and 35° above the horizontal towards a wall 39 m away. Ignore air resistance and use g = 9.81 m/s². At what height y does the ball pass the wall?
A ball is launched at 35° above horizontal from the top of a 50 m cliff. Ignore air resistance. Find the time of flight t until the ball hits the ground.
A 0.2 kg ball hangs on a light string of length 2 m. It is pulled aside until the string makes 70° with the vertical and released from rest. Find the tension T in the string when the ball passes the lowest point.
A 20 kg block starts from rest at the bottom of a 15° slope and is pulled up the slope by a constant force of 160 N parallel to the slope. The coefficient of kinetic friction is 0.25. Find the speed v of the block after it has moved 7 m up the slope.
A 3 kg glider moving at 5 m/s makes a perfectly elastic head-on collision with a 4.5 kg glider at rest on a frictionless track. Find the velocity v′2 of the second glider after the collision.
A 0.4 kg ball hits a wall at 24 m/s and bounces straight back at 13 m/s. The contact lasts 10 ms. Find the magnitude of the impulse J the wall gives the ball.
A vertical rectangular gate 3 m wide sits in the wall of a tank of water, with its top edge 2.5 m below the surface. Find the resultant hydrostatic force F on the gate.
A vertical rectangular gate 2 m wide sits in the wall of a tank of oil, with its top edge 0.5 m below the surface. Find the depth ycp of the centre of pressure below the surface.
A pitot-static tube in a wind tunnel reads a difference of 300 Pa between the stagnation pressure and the static pressure. The air density is 1.2 kg/m³. Find the air speed v.
A fountain nozzle points straight up. Just below the nozzle the supply pipe has a diameter of 75 mm and a gauge pressure of 150 kPa. The nozzle exit diameter is 30 mm, and the height difference across the nozzle is negligible. Ignoring losses and air resistance, find the height H the jet rises above the nozzle. Use g = 9.81 m/s².
What volume V does 170 g of He occupy at 150 kPa and 0 °C? Treat it as an ideal gas.
Find the density ρ of CO₂ at 800 kPa and 190 °C, treating it as an ideal gas.
A reversible refrigerator keeps a cold room at -18 °C by removing 7.5 kW of heat, and rejects heat to the surroundings at 20 °C. Find the rate Q̇H at which it rejects heat.
A heat pump keeps a house at 21 °C while it is 0 °C outside, delivering 12 kW of heat to the house. Find the highest possible coefficient of performance COPmax.
One machine gives a sound level of 80 dB at a certain point. Find the level β at that point when 3 identical machines run at the same time (incoherent sources).
Two thin lenses share an axis, 20 cm apart: lens 1 with f₁ = 8 cm and lens 2 with f₂ = 8 cm. An object stands 18 cm in front of lens 1. Find the position di2 of the final image measured from lens 2 (positive beyond lens 2, real-is-positive convention).
Answer: d = 81.82 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.
At that moment the police car moves at 2v = 30 m/s.
Answer: d = 30.9 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.
Only the positive root is physical.
Answer: a = 4.803 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 = 3.083 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: y = 8.005 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.
The ball is already on its way down at the wall.
Answer: t = 3.9 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.
Solve y(t) = h + vy·t − ½gt² = 0 for the positive root.
Answer: T = 4.544 N
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). On a circular path the net force towards the centre must equal mv²/r.
Check: T = mg(3 − 2cos θ) = 4.544 N.
Answer: v = 6.579 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).
Answer: v′2 = 4 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.
Solving momentum and energy conservation together gives these two results.
Answer: J = 14.8 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: F = 206 kN
Hydrostatic force on a plane surface: F = ρ·g·yc·A. It acts at the centre of pressure, ycp = yc + Ic/(ycA), which always lies below the centroid.
Answer: ycp = 1.083 m
Hydrostatic force on a plane surface: F = ρ·g·yc·A. It acts at the centre of pressure, ycp = yc + Ic/(ycA), which always lies below the centroid.
Pressure grows with depth, so the resultant acts below the centroid.
Answer: v = 22.36 m/s
Continuity and Bernoulli: for an incompressible fluid the flow rate is the same at every section, Q = A₁v₁ = A₂v₂. Along a streamline without losses, p + ½ρv² + ρgz is constant, so where the fluid is faster or higher its pressure is lower.
The flow comes to rest at the tip, so its kinetic energy shows up as extra pressure.
Answer: H = 15.69 m
Continuity and Bernoulli: for an incompressible fluid the flow rate is the same at every section, Q = A₁v₁ = A₂v₂. Along a streamline without losses, p + ½ρv² + ρgz is constant, so where the fluid is faster or higher its pressure is lower.
Bernoulli along the jet: at the top the velocity is zero and the pressure is atmospheric again.
Answer: V = 643 L
Ideal gas law: PV = nRT, with n = m/M.
Answer: ρ = 9.143 kg/m³
Ideal gas density: ρ = PM/(RT).
Answer: Q̇H = 8.617 kW
Second-law limits: no cycle working between reservoirs at absolute temperatures TH and TL can beat the reversible (Carnot) cycle: ηmax = 1 − TL/TH, COPR,max = TL/(TH − TL) and COPHP,max = TH/(TH − TL). Energy is always conserved: QH = W + QL.
Power input: Ẇ = 1.117 kW.
Answer: COPmax = 14.01
Second-law limits: no cycle working between reservoirs at absolute temperatures TH and TL can beat the reversible (Carnot) cycle: ηmax = 1 − TL/TH, COPR,max = TL/(TH − TL) and COPHP,max = TH/(TH − TL). Energy is always conserved: QH = W + QL.
Answer: β = 84.77 dB
Waves: a periodic wave moves one wavelength in one period, so v = fλ with T = 1/f. On a stretched string v = √(T/μ), with T the tension and μ = m/L the mass per metre. Sound in air travels at about 343 m/s at 20 °C, light in vacuum at c = 3.00 × 10⁸ m/s. Loudness is measured on a logarithmic scale: β = 10·log₁₀(I/I₀) dB with I₀ = 10⁻¹² W/m², so 10 times the intensity adds 10 dB. A point source spreads its power P over a sphere: I = P/(4πr²).
Answer: di2 = −18.67 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.
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