Unit 7: Oscillations
Physics 1 · Unit 7 · Paper 1

Oscillations unit test

A test on this unit alone, marked as a percentage and a letter grade — for the test your class is actually sitting, rather than for May. Answer everything, then submit once: seeing the answer to question 3 before attempting question 4 makes the final percentage meaningless.

Paper 1Paper 2Paper 3
Each paper is built from this unit’s 39 terms and is the same for everyone, so a teacher can assign “Unit 7, Paper 1” and every student sits the identical test. Multiple choice is marked objectively; the written sections you mark yourself against the model answer and rubric.
Suggested time 36 min 33 points0/17 attempted
1

Small-angle approximation

2

Simple pendulum period

3

Limits of the pendulum formula

4

Period of a spring on a different planet

5

Damping

6

A spring keeps the same period on the Moon

7

Velocity leads displacement by a quarter cycle

8

Energy trades twice per cycle

9

Period of a simple pendulum

10

Where acceleration is maximum

11

Mass-spring period

12

Velocity and acceleration in SHM

Short answer 1. Define or explain: What is absent from the period formulas

3 pts

Short answer 2. Define or explain: Amplitude independence

3 pts

Short answer 3. Define or explain: Simple harmonic motion

3 pts

Short answer 4. Define or explain: Phase

3 pts

Free response

9 pts

Students investigate a vertical spring. They hang a known mass m from it, pull the mass down a small distance, release it, and time 20 complete oscillations with a stopwatch. They repeat for several masses and plot T² (vertical axis) against m (horizontal axis). The graph is a straight line through the origin with slope 0.80 s²/kg. (a) Starting from T = 2π√(m/k), show why a graph of T² versus m should be linear and state what the slope represents. (b) Calculate the spring constant k from the slope. (c) Explain why the students timed 20 oscillations instead of one, in terms of experimental uncertainty. (d) A student suggests the period would be shorter if the experiment were repeated on the Moon, where g is about one-sixth of its Earth value. Evaluate this suggestion and contrast it with a simple pendulum. (e) Predict what happens to the measured period if the students double the (still small) amplitude, and justify your answer.