The shells of crabs found around a particular coastal location in Japan seem mostly to resemble the legendary face of a Samurai. Given below are two explanations of this observed fact. Which of these strikes you as a scientific explanation ?

(a) A tragic sea accident several centuries ago drowned a young Samurai. As a tribute to his bravery, nature through its inscrutable ways immortalised his face by imprinting it on the crab shells in that area.

(b) After the sea tragedy, fishermen in that area, in a gesture of honour to their dead hero, let free any crab shell caught by them which accidentally had a shape resembling the face of a Samurai. Consequently, the particular shape of the crab shell survived longer and therefore in course of time the shape was genetically propagated. This is an example of evolution by artificial selection.

[Note : This interesting illustration taken from Carl Sagan’s ‘The Cosmos’ highlights the fact that often strange and inexplicable facts which on the first sight appear ‘supernatural’ actually turn out to have simple scientific explanations. Try to think out other examples of this kind].

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?

Estimate the average thermal energy of a helium atom at

(i) room temperature (27 °C),

(ii) the temperature on the surface of the Sun (6000 K),

(iii) the temperature of 10 million Kelvin (the typical core temperature in the case of a star).

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

A scalar quantity is one that

(a) is conserved in a process

(b) can never take negative values

(c) must be dimensionless

(d) does not vary from one point to another in space

(e) has the same value for observers with different orientations of axes

A stone dropped from the top of a tower of height 300 m high splashes into the water of a pond near the base of the tower. When is the splash heard at the top given that the speed of sound in air is 340 m s^-1? (g= 9.8 m s^-2)

A travelling harmonic wave on a string is described by

y(x,t) = 7.5sin [0.0050x + 12t + π/4]

(a) What are the displacement and velocity of oscillation of a point at x = 1 cm, and t = 1 s? Is this velocity equal to the velocity of wave propagation?

(b) Locate the points of the string which have the same transverse displacements and velocity as the x = 1 cm point at t = 2 s, 5 s and 11 s.

Two billiard balls each of mass 0.05 kg moving in opposite directions with speed 6 ms^-1collide and rebound with the same speed. What is the impulse imparted to each ball due to the other?

Given below are some functions of x and t to represent the displacement (transverse or longitudinal) of an elastic wave. State which of these represent (i) a traveling wave, (ii) a stationary wave or (iii) none at all:

(a) y = 2 cos (3x) sin (10t)

(b) y  =  2 underroot(x -vt)

(c) y = 3 sin (5x - 0.5t) + 4 cos (5x - 0.5t)

(d) y = cos x sin t + cos 2x sin 2t

Suggest a suitable physical situation for each of the following graphs (Fig 3.22):

(a)

(Figure 3.22)

It is a well known fact that during a total solar eclipse the disk of the moon almost completely covers the disk of the Sun. From this fact and from the information you can gather from examples 2.3 and 2.4, determine the approximate diameter of the moon.

The position of a particle is given by

Where t is in seconds and the coefficients have the proper units for r to be in meters.

(a) Find the v and a of the particle?

(b) What is the magnitude and direction of velocity of the particle at t = 2.0 s?