It is claimed that two cesium clocks, if allowed to run for 100 years, free from any disturbance, may differ by only about 0.02 s. What does this imply for the accuracy of the standard cesium clock in measuring a time-interval of 1 s?

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?

Does it matter if one uses gauge instead of absolute pressures in applying Bernoulli's equation? Explain.

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].

On a long horizontally moving belt (Fig. 3.26), a child runs to and fro with a speed 9 km h^-1 (with respect to the belt) between his father and mother located 50 m apart on the moving belt. The belt moves with a speed of 4 km h^-1. For an observer on a stationary platform outside, what is the

(a) speed of the child running in the direction of motion of the belt ?.

(b) speed of the child running opposite to the direction of motion of the belt ?

(c) time taken by the child in (a) and (b) ? Which of the answers alter if motion is viewed by one of the parents?

           (Figure 3.26)

A train runs along an unbanked circular track of radius 30 m at a speed of 54 km/h. The mass of the train is 10⁶ kg. What provides the centripetal force required for this purpose - The engine or the rails? What is the angle of banking required to prevent wearing out of the rail?

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?

The transverse displacement of a wire (clamped at both its ends) is described as :

y (x, t) = 0.06 sin(2π/3x) cos(120πt)

The mass of the wire is 6 x 10^-2 kg and its length is 3m. Provide answers to the following questions:

( I ) Is the function describing a stationary wave or a travelling wave?

( ii ) Interpret the wave as a superposition of two waves travelling in opposite directions. Find the speed, wavelength and frequency of each wave.

( iii ) Calculate the wire’s tension. [X and y are in meters and t in secs]

A steam engine delivers 5.4 x 10⁸ J of work per minute and services 3.6 x 10⁹ J of heat per minute from its boiler. What is the efficiency of the engine? How much heat is wasted per minute?

Answer the following:

(a) You are given a thread and a metre scale. How will you estimate the diameter of the thread?

(b) A screw gauge has a pitch of 1.0 mm and 200 divisions on the circular scale. Do you think it is possible to increase the accuracy of the screw gauge arbitrarily by increasing the number of divisions on the circular scale?

(c) The mean diameter of a thin brass rod is to be measured by vernier callipers. Why is a set of 100 measurements of the diameter expected to yield a more reliable estimate than a set of 5 measurements only?

Figure 3.21 shows the x-t plot of one-dimensional motion of a particle. Is it correct to say from the graph that the particle moves in a straight line for t < 0 and on a parabolic path for t > 0? If not, suggest a suitable physical context for this graph.

A 50 kg girl wearing high heel shoes balances on a single heel. The heel is circular with a diameter 1.0 cm. What is the pressure exerted by the heel on the horizontal floor?