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.
Mass of the Sun, M = 2.0 × 1030 kg
Radius of the Sun, R = 7.0 × 108 m
Volume of the Sun, V = 4/3 πR3
= 4/3 x 22/7 x (7.0x108)3
= 88/21 x 343 x 1024
= 1437.3 x 1024 m3
Density of the Sun = mass / Volume = 2.0x1030 / 1437.3 x 1024
= 1.4 x 103 kg/m5
The density of the Sun is in the density range of solids and liquids. This high density is attributed to the intense gravitational attraction of the inner layers on the outer layer of the Sun.
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 ?
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?
When the planet Jupiter is at a distance of 824.7 million kilometers from the Earth, its angular diameter is measured to be 35.72" of arc. Calculate the diameter of Jupiter.
The photograph of a house occupies an area of 1.75 cm2 on a 35 mm slide. The slide is projected on to a screen, and the area of the house on the screen is 1.55 m2. What is the linear magnification of the projector-screen arrangement?
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.
Fill in the blanks
(a) The volume of a cube of side 1 cm is equal to.....m3
(b) The surface area of a solid cylinder of radius 2.0 cm and height 10.0 cm is equal to ... (mm)2
(c) A vehicle moving with a speed of 18 km h–1covers....m in 1 s
(d) The relative density of lead is 11.3. Its density is ....g cm–3 or . ...kg m–3.
Explain this common observation clearly : If you look out of the window of a fast moving train, the nearby trees, houses etc. seem to move rapidly in a direction opposite to the train's motion, but the distant objects (hill tops, the Moon, the stars etc.) seem to be stationary. (In fact, since you are aware that you are moving, these distant objects seem to move with you).
Some of the most profound statements on the nature of science have come from Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientists of all time. What do you think did Einstein mean when he said : “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible”?
The sign of work done by a force on a body is important to understand. State carefully if the following quantities are positive or negative:
(a) work done by a man in lifting a bucket out of a well by means of a rope tied to the bucket.
(b) work done by gravitational force in the above case,
(c) work done by friction on a body sliding down an inclined plane,
(d) work done by an applied force on a body moving on a rough horizontal plane with uniform velocity,
(e) work done by the resistive force of air on a vibrating pendulum in bringing it to rest.
A geyser heats water flowing at the rate of 3.0 litres per minute from 27 °C to 77 °C. If the geyser operates on a gas burner, what is the rate of consumption of the fuel if its heat of combustion is 4.0 x 104 J/g?
Estimate the fraction of molecular volume to the actual volume occupied by oxygen gas at STP. Take the diameter of an oxygen molecule to be 3Å.
A pebble of mass 0.05 kg is thrown vertically upwards. Give the direction and magnitude of the net force on the pebble,
(a) during its upward motion,
(b) during its downward motion,
(c) at the highest point where it is momentarily at rest.
Do your answers change if the pebble was thrown at an angle of 45° with the horizontal direction? Ignore air resistance.
A SONAR system fixed in a submarine operates at a frequency 40.0 kHz. An enemy submarine moves towards the SONAR with a speed of 360 km h-1. What is the frequency of sound reflected by the submarine? Take the speed of sound in water to be 1450 m s-1.
A man can swim with a speed of 4.0 km/h in still water. How long does he take to cross a river 1.0 km wide if the river flows steadily at 3.0 km/h and he makes his strokes normal to the river current? How far down the river does he go when he reaches the other bank?
You have learnt that a travelling wave in one dimension is represented by a function y = f (x, t) where x and t must appear in the combination x - v t or x + v t, i.e. y = f (x ± v t). Is the converse true? Examine if the following functions for y can possibly represent a travelling wave:
(a) ( x - v t )2
(b) log [ x + vt / x0]
(c) 1 / (x + vt)
Which of the following examples represent (nearly) simple harmonic motion and which represent periodic but not simple harmonic motion?
(a) the rotation of earth about its axis.
(b) motion of an oscillating mercury column in a U-tube.
(c) motion of a ball bearing inside a smooth curved bowl, when released from a point slightly above the lower most point.
(d) general vibrations of a polyatomic molecule about its equilibrium position.
Two sitar strings A and B playing the note 'Ga' are slightly out of tune and produce beats of frequency 6 Hz. The tension in the string A is slightly reduced and the beat frequency is found to reduce to 3 Hz. If the original frequency of A is 324 Hz, what is the frequency of B?
A player throws a ball upwards with an initial speed of 29.4 m s–1. What is the direction of acceleration during the upward motion of the ball? What are the velocity and acceleration of the ball at the highest point of its motion?
Choose the x = 0 m and t = 0 s to be the location and time of the ball at its highest point, vertically downward direction to be the positive direction of x-axis, and give the signs of position, velocity and acceleration of the ball during its upward, and downward motion. To what height does the ball rise and after how long does the ball return to the player’s hands? (Take g = 9.8 m s–2 and neglect air resistance).
A spring balance has a scale that reads from 0 to 50 kg. The length of the scale is 20 cm. A body suspended from this balance, when displaced and released, oscillates with a period of 0.6 s. What is the weight of the body?
Toricelli's barometer used mercury. Pascal duplicated it using French wine of density 984 kg m-3. Determine the height of the wine column for normal atmospheric pressure.