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.
Period of a mass on a spring
Amplitude independence
Period of a simple pendulum
Damping
What makes an oscillation simple harmonic
Where speed is maximum
Mass-spring period
Velocity leads displacement by a quarter cycle
Why T is independent of amplitude
Period and frequency
Phase
Maximum speed in SHM
Short answer 1. Define or explain: Pendulum on another planet
3 ptsShort answer 2. Define or explain: Squaring a period to linearize it
3 ptsShort answer 3. Define or explain: Simple pendulum period
3 ptsShort answer 4. Define or explain: Slope of T² against m
3 ptsFree response
7 ptsA student is given a spring of unknown stiffness, a set of known masses, a stand and a stopwatch, and is asked to determine the spring constant k experimentally. (a) Describe a procedure the student could follow, stating the quantities measured and how measurement uncertainty would be reduced. (b) Explain how the data should be graphed so that a straight line is produced, and state what the slope represents. (c) The student's graph has a small positive vertical intercept rather than passing through the origin. Give one physical reason this could occur.
Describe a procedure the student could follow, stating the quantities measured and how measurement uncertainty would be reduced.
Explain how the data should be graphed so that a straight line is produced, and state what the slope represents.
The student's graph has a small positive vertical intercept rather than passing through the origin. Give one physical reason this could occur.