UNIQUE SCIENCE ACADEMY

General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level

CANDIDATE
NAME

PHYSICS 5054/04
Paper 4 Alternative to Practical Julyl 2010
Class C2 1 hour
Candidates answer on the Question Paper.
No Additional Materials are required.

READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

Write your name on all the work you hand in.

Write in dark blue or black pen.
You may use a soft pencil for any diagrams, graphs or rough working.
Do not use staples, paper-clips, highlighters, glue or correction fluid.

Answer all questions.

At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together.
The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.

FOR EXAMINER’S USE

2
If you have been given a label, look at the
details. If any details are incorrect or 3
missing, please fill in your correct details
4
in the space given at the top of this page.
5
Stick your personal label here, if
provided. TOTAL

This document consists of 10 printed pages.

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1 Fig. 1.1 shows an experiment to measure the speed of sound in air.

students
teacher

Fig. 1.1

The teacher has a starting pistol that produces a loud bang and a puff of smoke when the trigger is
pulled. The students use stopwatches to time the interval between seeing the smoke and hearing
the bang.

The teacher stands 100 m away from the students and fires the starting pistol.

(a) Suggest a method of measuring the distance of 100 m from the teacher to the students.

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(b) Explain why it is important that the starting pistol produces a puff of smoke at the same time
as the bang.

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(c) The teacher chooses an open area, well away from any buildings. Explain why.

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(d) Only eight students manage to obtain a suitable reading for the time interval.

Suggest two reasons why the other students did not.

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2. ...............................................................................................................................................

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(e) A different group of students does the experiment on a windy day. The wind is blowing from
behind the teacher towards the students.

What will be the effect of the wind on their value for the speed of sound?

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2 A student takes three lenses from a drawer labelled ‘convex lenses: f = 15 cm’.
(a) Describe, with the aid of a labelled diagram, how the student quickly checks that the lenses
have the correct focal length.

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(b) The student places two of the lenses touching each other, as shown in Fig. 3.1, and then
measures the focal length of the two lenses together.

Fig. 2.1 Fig. 2.2

The focal length of two lenses together is found to be 7.5 cm.

The student repeats the experiment with three lenses together, as shown in Fig. 3.2, and the
focal length is now 5.0 cm.

State the relationship between the number of lenses and the focal length.

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3 Fig. 3.1 is a circuit containing a cell, a resistor, a switch and a 1.0 m length of thin nichrome wire.

nichrome wire

Fig. 3.1
Measuring the resistance of the nichrome wire allows the diameter of the wire to be determined.
(a) In the space below, re-draw Fig. 3.1, adding an ammeter and a voltmeter to enable the
resistance of the wire to be found.

[2]

(b) Suggest a reason for including the resistor in the circuit.

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(c) Fig. 3.2 shows the readings on the ammeter and on the voltmeter.

3 40 60
2 4

20 80
1 5

0 V 6 0 mA 100

Fig. 3.2

State the reading on

(i) the voltmeter, .............................................

(ii) the ammeter. ............................................. [2]

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(d) The diameter d, in millimetres, of the nichrome wire is given by the relationship

d2 = 6I
V
where I is the ammeter reading in amperes,
and V is the voltmeter reading in volts.

Calculate d, giving your answer to 2 significant figures.

d = ........................................... mm [2]

(e) Suggest a suitable measuring instrument to check your value for the diameter of the wire.

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4 Fig. 4.1 shows a converging lens arranged to produce, on a screen, a real and magnified
image of an object. The object is a circular hole in a card. This hole is covered with tissue
paper and is well lit by a lamp.

object lamp

lens
screen

Fig. 4.1
(a) Explain how a metre rule is used to determine the distance s between the object and
the screen. Your answer should
(i) state where the rule should be placed,
(ii) describe how you would avoid making a parallax error,
(iii) state the smallest divisions on the rule,
(iv) give the name of one piece of additional equipment you would like to have, and say
how you would use it, to help you make an accurate measurement of s.
You may draw diagrams if you wish.

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(b) When performing a lens experiment, the lamp, the object and the lens should be lined
up. Explain what is meant by ‘lined up’.

You may draw a diagram if you wish.

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5 When the steel string of a guitar is plucked, the string vibrates. The frequency of vibration
depends on the length of the string. The graph on Fig.5.1 shows how the frequency varies
with the length.
frequency/Hz

500

400

300

200

100

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
length/m

Fig.5.1

(a) Use information from the graph to complete the following table.

frequency/Hz length/m frequency x length / (m/s)

100 0.644 64.4

0.322

400

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(b) Describe how the frequency changes as the length is increased.

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(c) Listed below are some equations linking frequency and length. Tick the box next to the
correct equation for the guitar string.

frequency = a constant x length

frequency = a constant x (length)2

frequency x length = a constant

frequency x (length)2 = a constant

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