UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
PHYSICS 112 FINAL EXAMINATION
DATE: April 7, 2004 TIME: 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm

LAST NAME: _____________________________ INITIALS: _________________

(Please PRINT)

SIGNATURE: _____________________________I.D. NUMBER: ______________

INSTRUCTOR: Stefan Idziak

(Circle) Herbert Lee

Aids Permitted: Non-Programmable Calculator

Instructions: Attempt all eleven questions.

Write your answers with units (unless inappropriate) in the spaces

provided.

Point values for each question are indicated.

If you need more space, use the back of the previous page, BUT please
leave a note directing the marker to any such extra work.

To earn full marks, your solutions must show your reasoning. (except
question 1)
Correct answers without any appropriate reasoning, or with incorrect
or unreadable reasoning, will be given zero marks.

Assume all given numerical data are good to three significant figures, and
quote all of your numerical answers to three significant figures.

Use g = 9.80 m/s2; k = 9 x 109 N m2 C-2; ε0 = 8.84 × 10-12 F/m; Speed of

sound in air = 340 m/s; e = -1.6 x 10-19 C; me = 9.1 x 10-31 kg; c = 3 x 108
m/s; I0 = 10-12 w/m2; ρAluminum = 2.82 x 10-8 Ωm at 20 °C.

QUESTION MARK
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
TOTAL
PHYSICS 112 FINAL EXAMINATION PAGE 2 OF 13

1. Answer the following short questions with a yes or no answer. There is one mark for
each correct answer and minus one mark for each incorrect answer except the first
incorrect answer will not be subject to a penalty. DON’T GUESS. Furthermore, the
lowest possible grade that you could be assessed on this question will be zero.

i. Sound waves are longitudinal waves.

ii. Does the speed of a wave on a string depend on the amplitude of the wave?

iii. The potential energy of a pendulum bob swinging back and forth changes with time.

iv. A pendulum on Earth has a smaller period than the identical pendulum on the Moon.

v. Different capacitors attached in series have the same charge.

vi. The magnitude of the electric force between two protons separated by a distance “d” is
the same as that between 2 electrons separated by the same distance “d”.

vii. The unit for electromotive force is the Newton.

viii. A standing sound wave in a tube having one open end has a pressure node at the open
end.

ix. The image of a point at the focal point of a convex lens is located at infinity.

x. Does the total energy of a mass spring system oscillating in simple harmonic motion
change with position?
PHYSICS 112 FINAL EXAMINATION PAGE 3 OF 13

2. Three charges are located on the corners of a square of side 1.5 m as shown below.
Consider a point P located a distance 3m to the right of charge q3. Ignore the effects of
gravity. The charges have the following values: q1 = 5 μC, q2 = 7 μC, q3 = 11 μC. q2,
q3, and P are on the same line.

q
1

q q P
2 3

(a) Calculate the electric potential at point P, assuming the potential at infinity is 0.

Another charge, q4 = -10 μC, is located very far to the right of point P and is released
from rest.

(b) How fast is the charge moving when it reaches point P? The mass of this new charge is
150 grams.

(c) Calculate the total energy of the charge q4 when it reaches the point P.

2
PHYSICS 112 FINAL EXAMINATION PAGE 4 OF 13

3. An object of height 1 cm is placed 4 cm to the left of a spherical concave mirror of focal

length 5 cm.

(a) Using the techniques of ray tracing, draw three standard rays used to determine the
position of the resulting image.

(b) Calculate the distance between the image and the mirror.

(c) A light ray enters a 30° prism as shown below. Calculate the angle the light ray makes
with the prism normal as it exits the prism. The index of refraction of the glass in the
prism is 1.5 and the prism is in air.

30

15

5
PHYSICS 112 FINAL EXAMINATION PAGE 5 OF 13

4. Question 5 from winter 2005

a. An electron enters a uniform magnetic field with field Strength B=1T (pointing into the
page) with a velocity of V= 120 m/s (moving to the right) find the radius of the circular
orbit the electron will undergo.

b. You wait for the electron’s velocity to become horizontal such that the electron is
moving to the left and then you turn on an electric field, (the magnetic field is still on) to
keep the electron moving in a horizontal direction, find the strength and direction of the
electric field.

c. A vertical wire of radius r, had a current of 10 Amps flowing upwards through it, find
the strength of the magnetic field resulting from the current flow 70 cm away from the
axis of the wire.

d. Another, identical vertical wire with the same current of 10 Amps flowing downwards
through it is placed 1m to the left of the first wire, find the direction and magnitude of
the force from the first wire on the second.
PHYSICS 112 FINAL EXAMINATION PAGE 6 OF 13

5. Two parallel plates are placed to form a parallel plate capacitor. Each plate has an area of
20 cm2 and the plates are separated by a distance of 1 cm.

(a) Calculate the capacitance.

(b) A 10 V battery is connected across the capacitor. Calculate the resulting charge on the
capacitor.

(c) Calculate the energy stored in the capacitor while the battery remains connected.

(d) A dielectric slab is inserted fully between the plates with the battery still connected. If
the dielectric constant is 1.62, calculate the new charge on the capacitor.

(e) Calculate the new energy stored in the capacitor after the dielectric was inserted.

2
PHYSICS 112 FINAL EXAMINATION PAGE 7 OF 13

6. Resistors are connected as follows. Each resistor has resistance 10 ohms.

A B

(a) Calculate the equivalent resistance between A and B.

(b) A 10 V battery is then connected across the resistors (between A and B). Calculate the
total power dissipated in all the resistors.

(c) Calculate the equivalent capacitance for the following arrangement of capacitors. Each
capacitor has capacitance 10 μf.

B
A

4
PHYSICS 112 FINAL EXAMINATION PAGE 8 OF 13

7. Consider the circuit shown below, where R1 = 5 Ω, R2 = 8 Ω, R3 = 6 Ω, V1 = 10 V,

V2 = 9 V, and V3 = 12 V.

I1 I2 I
3
R R R
1 2 3

+ + +
V1 V2 V3

(a) Calculate the current I1.

(b) Calculate the current I2.

(c) Calculate the voltage drop across resistor R2.

(d) Calculate the power dissipated in resistor R3.

(e) Calculate the power produced by the battery V1.

1
PHYSICS 112 FINAL EXAMINATION PAGE 9 OF 13

8. Two very large flat, parallel plates are located 2 cm from each other. One plate is
positively charged while the other is negatively charged. The potential difference
between the two plates is 10 V.

(a) Calculate the magnitude of the electric field at a point halfway between the two plates.

(b) Calculate the electric potential halfway between the two plates. Assume the potential of
the positive plate is 0.

(c) An electron is placed halfway between the two plates and released from rest. How fast is
the electron moving 10-13 seconds later.

4
PHYSICS 112 FINAL EXAMINATION PAGE 10 OF 13

9. A guitar string of length 80 cm is fixed at both ends. The string has a uniform volume
density of 9000 kg/m3 and has a diameter of 0.75 mm. The string is under a tension of 40 N.

(a) Determine the wavelength of the fundamental harmonic on the guitar string.

(b) A listener hears a sound level of 50 dB a distance 50cm away from the guitar string.
Calculate the power of the sound emitted.

(c) Another guitar player plays a different string (different frequency) which is also 50 cm
away from the listener. If the power emitted by the second guitar string is the same as the
first, calculate the sound level as measured by the listener.

(d) Calculate the wavelength of the sound wave travelling through air emitted by the first
guitar string if the string is oscillating in the fundamental harmonic.

3
PHYSICS 112 FINAL EXAMINATION PAGE 11 OF 13

10. A simple pendulum consists of a small ball of mass 3 kg suspended on a massless string
of length 2 m.

(a) Calculate the period of the pendulum.

(b) If the amplitude of the motion is 5 degrees, calculate the total energy of the pendulum.

(c) Calculate the speed of the pendulum when the mass is at its lowest position.

(d) If the pendulum was started by pulling the mass to the right and releasing it from rest,
determine the equation of motion of the pendulum.

3
PHYSICS 112 FINAL EXAMINATION PAGE 12 OF 13

11. An aluminum wire has length 6 m and diameter 0.5 mm.

(a) Calculate the resistance of the wire at 20 °C.

(b) Both ends of the wire are then connected to a 120 volt battery. Calculate the power
dissipated in the wire.

(c) A second aluminum wire with twice the length and half the diameter is then also
connected to the battery as shown. Calculate the power released by the battery.

4
PHYSICS 112 FINAL EXAMINATION PAGE 13 OF 13

112 FORMULA SHEET

Simple Harmonic motion
x = A cos(ωt + φ )
k
ω= mass and spring
m
Simple pendulum
g
ω=
l
ω = 2πf
Physical pendulum
mgh
ω= general formula
I
I=Icm+mh2 parallel axis theorem

Moments of inertia about centre of mass

mR 2 2 mR 2
uniform disc; solid sphere;
2 5
mL2
uniform rod; mR 2 bicycle wheel;
12
Waves on a string
Y = A sin ( kX − ω t + φ )
2π Γ
k= ω = 2π f V=λf V=
λ μ
Sound waves
B
v=
ρ
Δp = Δp max sin(kx − ωt )
S = S max cos(kx − ωt )
Δp max = vρωS max

Electricity
r qq
F = ke 1 2 2 Coulomb’s Law
r
1
ke =
4π ∈0
k q
V = e Potential of a point charge
r
Capacitors
Q
C=
V
C eq = C1 + C 2 parallel
1 1 1
= + series
C eq C1 C 2
1
E= CV 2
2
Resistors
ρ = ρ 0 [1 + α (T − T0 )]
Geometrical Optics
n1 sin(θ 1 ) = n 2 sin(θ 2 )
1 1 1
= +
f p q
q
m=−
p