Formula sheets, the key method steps for every topic and 20 practice problems, with full solutions at the back.
A driver moving at 60 km/h sees an obstacle. Her reaction time is 0.6 s, after which the car brakes with a constant deceleration of 8 m/s². Find the total stopping distance d from the moment she sees the obstacle.
A ball is thrown straight up at 9 m/s from the edge of a roof 40 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.
An 11 kg block slides down a slope at 45° to the horizontal. The coefficient of kinetic friction is 0.3. Use g = 9.81 m/s². Find the acceleration a of the block along the slope.
A 10 kg block on a horizontal table is connected by a light string over a frictionless pulley to a hanging 6 kg mass. The coefficient of kinetic friction between block and table is 0.25. 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 horizontal distance x travelled before the ball hits the ground.
A ball is launched at 23 m/s and 50° above the horizontal from the top of a 20 m cliff. Ignore air resistance and use g = 9.81 m/s². Find the greatest height H above the ground at the foot of the cliff.
A car travelling at 40 km/h on a level road brakes hard and skids to a stop with its wheels locked. The coefficient of kinetic friction between the tyres and the road is 0.7. Find the stopping distance d.
A spring of stiffness 3000 N/m at the bottom of a 35° slope is compressed by 20 cm against a 0.5 kg block and released. The coefficient of kinetic friction between block and slope is 0.3. How far d up the slope does the block travel from the release point before it stops? (Ignore the short distance over which the spring pushes, i.e. take friction and gravity over the whole distance d.)
A 500 kg car moving at 22 m/s runs into a stationary 1700 kg car and the two lock together. How much kinetic energy ΔK is lost in the collision?
A 0.2 kg ball hits a wall at 21 m/s and bounces straight back at 9 m/s. The contact lasts 40 ms. Find the average force Favg of the wall on the ball.
A vertical rectangular gate 3 m wide sits in the wall of a tank of water, with its top edge 1.5 m below the surface. Find the resultant hydrostatic force F on the gate.
A vertical rectangular gate 1 m wide sits in the wall of a tank of oil, with its top edge 4 m below the surface. Find the depth ycp of the centre of pressure below the surface.
Water flows through a horizontal venturi meter with an inlet diameter of 250 mm and a throat diameter of 125 mm. The pressure at the inlet is 46 kPa higher than at the throat. Ignoring losses, find the flow rate Q.
Water flows up through a pipe that narrows from 100 mm to 50 mm while rising 10 m. At section 1 the pressure is 360 kPa and the velocity is 1.75 m/s. Ignoring losses, find the pressure p2 at section 2.
What volume V does 470 g of Ar occupy at 500 kPa and 100 °C? Treat it as an ideal gas.
A fixed amount of N₂ goes from 250 kPa, 10 L, 20 °C to 350 kPa and 250 °C. Find the new volume V2.
A reversible (Carnot) heat engine takes in 1800 kJ of heat from a reservoir at 725 °C and rejects 565 kJ per cycle. Find the temperature TL of the cold reservoir in °C.
A heat pump keeps a house at 20 °C while it is 2 °C outside, delivering 5 kW of heat to the house. Find the minimum power input Ẇmin.
An object stands 6 cm in front of a thin converging lens with a focal length of 8 cm. Find the magnification m (negative for an inverted image).
A sensor at rest sends ultrasound of 20 kHz towards a car that approaches at 30 m/s and mixes the echo with the emitted signal. Find the beat frequency fb (speed of sound 343 m/s).
Answer: d = 27.36 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 = 3.917 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 = 4.856 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 = 2.146 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: x = 19.99 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.
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: H = 35.82 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.
Answer: d = 8.989 m
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).
Doubling the speed makes the stopping distance four times longer.
Answer: d = 14.93 m
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: ΔK = 93500 J
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.
The lost energy goes into deformation, heat and sound.
Answer: Favg = 150 N
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 = 147.2 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 = 4.789 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: Q = 121.6 L/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 pipe is horizontal, so only pressure and velocity change.
Answer: p2 = 238.9 kPa
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.
Work in Pa, then divide by 1000 to get kPa.
Answer: V = 73 L
Ideal gas law: PV = nRT, with n = m/M.
Answer: V2 = 12.75 L
Combined gas law: for a fixed amount of ideal gas, P1V1/T1 = P2V2/T2.
Answer: TL = 40.16 °C
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: Ẇmin = 0.307 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.
The least work is needed by a reversible machine, which has the highest COP.
Answer: m = 4
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: fb = 3834 Hz
Standing waves and the Doppler effect: a string fixed at both ends, or a pipe open at both ends, fits whole half-wavelengths: L = nλ/2, fn = n·v/(2L), n = 1, 2, 3, … A pipe closed at one end has a node at the closed end and an antinode at the open end: L = nλ/4 with odd n only, fn = n·v/(4L). When source or observer move along the line between them, f′ = f·(v ± vo)/(v ∓ vs): use the upper signs for motion towards each other. Two waves of nearly equal frequency beat at |f₁ − f₂|.
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