Year 10 Exam Revision – Physics

1. Linda walks north from her home for 850 m before remembering she needed to stop at the post
box which was 400 m from her starting point on the same road. She walks back the 450 m to
post a letter.
a. What distance did she travel?
b. What was her displacement for this part of her walk?
c. If the whole trip took 15 minutes, what was her average speed?
d. What was her average velocity?

2. Bert rides his bike west for 2 km and then makes a left turn and continues for 5 km. What is his
final displacement?

3. Five students are playing tug-of-war. Natalie, Tina and Chantel are pulling with forces of 300 N,
250 N and 150 N respectively whereas Amanda and Joseph are pulling in the opposite
direction with forces of 430 N and 210 N respectively.
a. Draw a free body diagram to show the forces acting on the centre of the rope and
determine who wins
b. If the combined masses of each team is 150 kg and 110 kg respectively, what was the
acceleration of the rope?

4. A plane is flying at 1000 km/hr due south. A crosswind of 45 km/hr is blowing from the east.
a. If the plane doesn’t compensate for the wind, what is its actual velocity?
b. If the plane needed to maintain a due south direction, what would its velocity need to be
to compensate for the wind?

5. Lisa is driving at a constant speed of 30 km/hr for an hour and 20 minutes. How far has she
travelled in that time?

6. How long would it take Seema to run 3400 m if she can maintain an average speed of 3 m/s?

7. Alison can sprint the 200 m in 24 seconds. What is her average speed?

8. A train starts from rest and accelerates to a velocity of 30 m/s in 40 seconds.

a. What is the train’s acceleration?
b. After travelling at a constant speed of 30 m/s for 4 minutes, the train takes 65 seconds
to decelerate to a stop at a train station. What is the train’s deceleration?
9. Rachael is waiting for a wave on her surfboard. She begins paddling towards the shore at 2
m/s when she catches the wave, accelerating for 2 seconds at 2.5 m/s2. What is her final
velocity?

10. How long does it take Meredith to run at a final velocity of 4 m/s from rest if she can achieve a
maximum acceleration of 6 m/s2?

11. Ellen rows to a maximum velocity of 6 m/s in 0.75 s after being given an initial push from shore.
If her acceleration is 7 m/s2, what was her initial velocity?

12. Use Newton’s Law to explain why the following observations are made:
a. A soccer ball slows down after being kicked along the grass.
b. When a 5 kg medicine ball is thrown straight at a wall, it bounces back slower than a
500 g basketball thrown with the same force.
c. When a bullet is fired from a gun, the gun recoils (moves backward).
d. When a horse pulls a cart, the cart moves.

13. You are holding up a teacup. Use each of Newton’s 3 laws to explain the motion of the cup.

14. What force is required to accelerate a 2 tonne car at 10 m/s2?

15. What acceleration is produced when Natasha pushes a 10 kg trolley with her friend Rahim
(who has a mass of 70 kg) in it with a force of 300 N? If the trolley is accelerated from rest, how
long does it take to accelerate to a velocity of 5 m/s?

16. What is the weight of a 130 kg bookshelf?

17. What is the mass of car that weighs 10 000 N?

18. Curiosity is a rover on Mars which exerts a force of 3344 N on the surface. If the rover has a
mass of 899 kg, what is the gravity on Mars?

19. What is the mass of a calculator that exerts a force of 0.637 N on the table it is on? What force
is the table exerting on the calculator?

20. A 50 g tennis ball is released from a height of 1.6 m. At what velocity does it hit the ground?
21. A 500 g basketball is thrown with an initial velocity of 5 m/s and it hits the ground 1 m away.
With what velocity does it hit the ground?

22. An apple falls from a tree and hits the ground after 0.65 seconds. At what velocity did it hit the
ground if the apple has a mass of 127 g? What height did it fall from?

23. A 2 kg watermelon is thrown onto the ground 0.75 m away, hitting it at a velocity of 6 m/s. What
was the watermelon’s initial velocity?

24. The diagram below shows a 2000 kg cart on a roller coaster:

15
m 12
m 10
m

a. At which labelled point would the potential energy of the cart be greatest?
b. At which points would the kinetic energy of the cart be greatest?
c. If the kinetic energy of the cart is zero at point A, calculate the kinetic energy at point B?
d. Calculate the kinetic energy of the cart at point C
e. Calculate the velocity of the cart at point C
f. What work is done on the cart between points C and D

25. The diagram below shows a 75 g pendulum and the positions it swings through after being
released from point A:
0.3 m

a. At which point(s) is the potential energy of the pendulum greatest?

b. At which point(s) is the kinetic energy of the pendulum greatest?
c. Calculate the potential energy at point A
d. Calculate the kinetic energy at point B
e. Calculate the velocity of the pendulum at point B
f. If the kinetic energy at point C is 0.15 J, what is the potential energy at C?
 g. At what height above B is point C?

26. A pendulum is pulled back to a height of 25 cm (above its rest position) and then given an
initial push at the start of its swing. If it reaches a maximum height of 35 cm before it swings
back, what was its initial velocity?

27. A piano is being hoisted into an apartment through the window. It has a mass of 380 kg and
must be lifted to a height of 11.4 m.
a. How much work must be done to achieve this?
b. Once inside, the piano is moved at 0.25 m/s2 over 5.6 m. What force is required to
achieve this?