ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

Midterm Exam Physics I

Name: _____________________________________________________
No.:_______________________

Permit

Date:____________________________
A. Write the answer on a separate sheet of yellow paper. Do not cheat and be silent
all the time. Good luck!!!
I.

Conceptual questions. 5 points each.

a. When travelling a highway in the mountains, you may see elevation signs that read
914 m (3000 ft). Critics of the metric system claim that such numbers show the
metric system is more complicated. How would you alter such signs to be more
consistent with a switch to the metric system?
b. Can the velocity of an object be negative when its acceleration is positive? What about
vice versa?
c. A child wishes to determine the speed a slingshot imparts to a rock. How can this be
done using only a meter stick, a rock, and the slingshot?
d. When a golf is dropped to the pavement, it bounces back up. (a) is a force needed to
make it bounce back up? (b) if so, what exerts the force?

II.

Problem Solving.
a. The Sun on average, is 93 million miles from Earth. How many meters is this? Express
(a) using powers of ten, and (b) using a metric prefix.
b. One hectare is defined as 104 m2. One acre is 4x104 ft2. How many acres are in one
hectare?
c. You are driving home from school steadily at 95 km/h for 130 km. It then begins to rain
and you slow to 65 km/h. You arrive home after driving 3 hours and 20 minutes. (a)
How far is your hometown from school? (b) What was your average speed?
d. In coming to a stop, a car leaves skid marks 92m long on the highway. Assuming a
deceleration of 7.00 m/s2, estimate the speed of the car just before braking.
e. A projectile is shot from the edge of a cliff 125 m above ground level with an initial
speed of 65,0 m/s at an angle of37.0 with the horizontal, as shown in the Figure. (a)
Determine the time taken by the projectile to hit point P at ground level. (b) Determine
the range X of the projectile as measured from the base of the cliff. At the instant just
before the projectile hits point P, find (c) the horizontal and the vertical components of
its velocity, (d) the magnitude of the velocity, and (e) the angle made by the velocity
vector with the horizontal. (f) Find the maximum height above the cliff top reached by
the projectile.

f.

A rescue plane wants to drop supplies to isolated mountain climbers on a rocky ridge
235 m below. If the plane is travelling horizontally with a speed of 250 km/h (69.4 m/s),
(a) how far in advance of the recipients (horizontal distance) must the goods be
dropped? (b) Suppose, instead, that the plane releases the supplies a horizontal
distance of 425 m in advance of the mountain climbers. What vertical velocity (up and
down) should the supplies be given so that they arrive precisely at the climbers
position? (c) With what speed do the supplies land in the latter case?

g. How much tension must a rope withstand if it used to accelerate a 1200-kg vertically
upward at 0.80 m/s2?
h. A small block of mass m is given initial speed v 0 up a ramp inclined at angle to the
horizontal. It travels a distance d up the ramp and comes to rest. Determine a formula
for the coefficient of kinetic friction between block and ramp.