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Science Bowl Sample Questions : Physics

1. In beta minus emission, the number of nucleons in the atom:
   1. increases by one
   2. decreases by one
   3. increases by four
   4. remains the same

   Answer: D

2. Physicists most commonly call a mass moving in a straight line path as having:
   1. angular or rotational momentum
   2. straight momentum
   3. translational momentum
   4. second order momentum

   Answer: C

3. A figure skater who, while spinning in place, pulls her arms in to increase her rotational speed, is most closely exhibiting which of the following:
   1. conservation of angular momentum
   2. centrifugal force
   3. satellite motion
   4. centripetal acceleration

   Answer: A

4. The atom’s nucleus is held together by which of the following:
   1. strong interactions of the quark and gluon constituents of the atom’s nucleus
   2. strong interactions of the quark and lepton constituents of the atom’s nucleus
   3. weak interactions of the quark and lepton constituents of the atom’s nucleus
   4. strong interactions of the lepton and gluon constituents of the atom’s nucleus

   Answer: A

5. Which of the following is NOT true of Guglielmo Marconi’s experiments on wireless transmission:
   1. in 1901 he transmitted a signal from Newfoundland to England
   2. he defied current belief on line-of-sight transmission
   3. his work was a practical application of the work of James Clerk Maxwell
   4. his success was a vindication of his belief in the reflective properties of the ionosphere

   Answer: D

6. Which of the following is NOT an example of a transverse wave:
   1. ocean wave
   2. light wave
   3. microwave
   4. sound wave

   Answer: D

7. The Department of Energy’s B-Factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Lab is designed to collide electron and positron beams of unequal energies and produce millions of these particles, which are commonly called:
   1. B mesons
   2. B leptons
   3. B muons
   4. B neutrons

   Answer: A

8. For particles that have mass, such as electrons, quantum theory gives the relationship of wavelength to momentum by which of the following formulas, where c is the speed of light, v is the particle’s speed, h is Planck’s constant, m is the particle’s mass, and f is frequency:
   1. wavelength = mc²
   2. wavelength = c / ƒ
   3. wavelength = h /mv
   4. wavelength = hf

   Answer: C

9. Certain products have been designed so that people wearing headphones do not hear the objectionably loud sound from certain machinery with which they are working. These headphones most likely work based on which one of the following principles:
   1. doppler effect
   2. destructive interference
   3. constructive interference
   4. audiopolarization

   Answer: B

10. Which of the following is the most accurate reason why a light bulb dropped on a rug does not break, but when dropped on a tile floor it does break:
    1. the time it takes to stop moving is less for the tile
    2. the change in momentum is greater for the tile
    3. the light bulb weighs more when it hits the tile
    4. the change in momentum is greater for the rug

    Answer: A