No physicist has ever “seen” an electron. Yet, all physicists believe in the existence of electrons. An intelligent but superstitious man advances this analogy to argue that ‘ghosts’ exist even though no one has ‘seen’ one. How will you refute his argument ?

State the number of significant figures in the following:

(a) 0.007 m²

(b) 2.64 x 10²⁴ kg

(c) 0.2370 g cm^-3

(d) 6.320 J

(e) 6.032 N m^-2

(f) 0.0006032 m²

Fill in the blanks by suitable conversion of units:

(a) 1 kg m²s^–2= ....g cm² s^–2

(b) 1 m =..... ly

(c) 3.0 m s^–2=.... km h^–2

(d) G = 6.67 × 10^–11 N m² (kg)^–2=.... (cm)3s^–2 g^–1.

A physical quantity P is related to four observables a, b, c and d as follows :

The percentage errors of measurement in a, b, c and d are 1%, 3%, 4% and 2%, respectively. What is the percentage error in the quantity P ? If the value of P calculated using the above relation turns out to be 3.763, to what value should you round off the result ?

Rain is falling vertically with a speed of 30 m s^–1. A woman rides a bicycle with a speed of 10 m s^–1 in the north to south direction. What is the direction in which she should hold her umbrella?

The mass of a box measured by a grocer's balance is 2.300 kg. Two gold pieces of masses 20.15 g and 20.17 g are added to the box. What is

(a) the total mass of the box,

(b) the difference in the masses of the pieces to correct significant figures?

On an open ground, a motorist follows a track that turns to his left by an angle of 60° after every 500 m. Starting from a given turn, specify the displacement of the motorist at the third, sixth and eighth turn. Compare the magnitude of the displacement with the total path length covered by the motorist in each case.

What amount of heat must be supplied to 2.0 x 10^-2 kg of nitrogen (at room temperature) to raise its temperature by 45 °C at constant pressure? (Molecular mass of N² = 28; R = 8.3 J mol^-1 K^-1.)

A transverse harmonic wave on a string is described by

y(x,t)  =  3.0 sin [36t + 0.018x + π /4]

Where x and y are in cm and t in s. The positive direction of x is from left to right.

(a) Is this a travelling wave or a stationary wave? If it is travelling, what are the speed and direction of its propagation?

(b) What are its amplitude and frequency?

(c) What is the initial phase at the origin?

(d) What is the least distance between two successive crests in the wave?

On an open ground, a motorist follows a track that turns to his left by an angle of 60° after every 500 m. Starting from a given turn, specify the displacement of the motorist at the third, sixth and eighth turn. Compare the magnitude of the displacement with the total path length covered by the motorist in each case.

The piston in the cylinder head of a locomotive has a stroke (twice the amplitude) of 1.0 m. If the piston moves with simple harmonic motion with an angular frequency of 200 rad/min, what is its maximum speed?

Estimate the total number of air molecules (inclusive of oxygen, nitrogen, water vapour and other constituents) in a room of capacity 25.0 m³ at a temperature of 27 °C and 1 atm pressure.

The Sun is a hot plasma (ionized matter) with its inner core at a temperature exceeding 10⁷ K, and its outer surface at a temperature of about 6000 K. At these high temperatures, no substance remains in a solid or liquid phase. In what range do you expect the mass density of the Sun to be, in the range of densities of solids and liquids or gases? Check if your guess is correct from the following data: mass of the Sun = 2.0 x 10³⁰ kg, radius of the Sun = 7.0 x 10⁸ m.

Read each statement below carefully and state, with reasons, if it is true or false:

(a) The net acceleration of a particle in circular motion is always along the radius of the circle towards the centre

(b) The velocity vector of a particle at a point is always along the tangent to the path of the particle at that point

(c) The acceleration vector of a particle in uniform circular motion averaged over one cycle is a null vector

A stone tied to the end of a string 80 cm long is whirled in a horizontal circle with a constant speed. If the stone makes 14 revolutions in 25 s, what is the magnitude and direction of acceleration of the stone?

An aircraft executes a horizontal loop of radius 1.00 km with a steady speed of 900 km/h. Compare its centripetal acceleration with the acceleration due to gravity.

The farthest objects in our Universe discovered by modern astronomers are so distant that light emitted by them takes billions of years to reach the Earth. These objects (known as quasars) have many puzzling features, which have not yet been satisfactorily explained. What is the distance in km of a quasar from which light takes 3.0 billion years to reach us?

A student measures the thickness of a human hair by looking at it through a microscope of magnification 100. He makes 20 observations and finds that the average width of the hair in the field of view of the microscope is 3.5 mm. What is the estimate on the thickness of hair?

Fill in the blanks by suitable conversion of units:

(a) 1 kg m²s^–2= ....g cm² s^–2

(b) 1 m =..... ly

(c) 3.0 m s^–2=.... km h^–2

(d) G = 6.67 × 10^–11 N m² (kg)^–2=.... (cm)3s^–2 g^–1.