Free practice paper · 2027 format
60 questions in the format of the University of Szeged's entrance examination: 20 Biology and 20 Chemistry with five options, 20 General and Medical English with four, and the 20 Physics questions you would sit instead of Chemistry if you choose it. Szeged's own sample tests come without answers; here every question has its answer and a full explanation. Written by IvyTest; it is not an official Szeged paper.
Before you start
| Section | Questions | Time | Marks (Entrance Examination) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entrance Examination | 60 | 60 min | +1 correct, 0 wrong, 0 blank |
Give yourself 60 minutes for Biology, Chemistry (or Physics) and English, with a periodic table and a calculator, and answer in order: the real test shows one question at a time and you cannot go back, so this page only takes your answers in order too. Every right answer scores 1 and nothing is deducted, so never leave a question unanswered.
Section 1 of 2
60 questions · 60 minutes
Which of the following is not a polysaccharide?
Answer: E
Sucrose is a disaccharide: one glucose and one fructose joined by a glycosidic bond. Chitin is the least familiar name on the list, but it is a polysaccharide too, a long chain of N-acetylglucosamine units that forms the exoskeleton of insects and the cell wall of fungi. Glycogen, cellulose and starch are all long chains of glucose.
The α-helix and the β-pleated sheet of a protein are stabilised mainly by
Answer: B
The α-helix and β-pleated sheet are secondary structure, held by regular hydrogen bonds between the carbonyl oxygen of one peptide group and the N–H of another along the backbone, whatever the side chains are. Disulfide bridges, ionic bonds and hydrophobic interactions are formed by side chains and stabilise the tertiary (and quaternary) structure, while peptide bonds make up the primary structure, the sequence itself.
The mitotic spindle and the core of eukaryotic cilia and flagella are built from
Answer: C
Microtubules, hollow tubes of tubulin, form the spindle that moves chromosomes in cell division and the 9 + 2 arrangement inside cilia and flagella. Actin filaments are also part of the cytoskeleton, but they make the contractile ring that divides the cytoplasm and the core of microvilli, not the spindle or the cilium. Collagen is an extracellular protein, not part of the cytoskeleton.
Which of the following is an example of secondary active transport?
Answer: D
In secondary active transport a carrier uses the downhill movement of one ion, here Na⁺, to drive another substance uphill, so glucose can be concentrated inside the intestinal cell without the carrier itself splitting ATP. The Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase is the tempting choice because it is active, but it hydrolyses ATP directly, which makes it primary active transport; it is the pump that builds the Na⁺ gradient the glucose carrier then uses. The other three are passive.
For each acetyl-CoA that enters the citric acid cycle, one turn of the cycle directly produces
Answer: A
One turn releases the two carbons of the acetyl group as 2 CO₂ and stores the energy in 3 NADH, 1 FADH₂ and one GTP (ATP in some tissues) made by substrate-level phosphorylation. One CO₂ and one NADH is what the link reaction gives when pyruvate is converted to acetyl-CoA, before the cycle begins; 2 pyruvate, 2 NADH and 2 ATP is the yield of glycolysis. The large ATP figures come only later, from oxidative phosphorylation.
A DNA template strand reads 5′-GACTTC-3′. What is the sequence of the mRNA transcribed from it, written 5′ → 3′?
Answer: C
The mRNA is complementary and antiparallel to the template: reading the template 3′ → 5′ (C, T, T, C, A, G) and pairing each base gives G, A, A, G, U, C, so the mRNA is 5′-GAAGUC-3′. 5′-CUGAAG-3′ pairs the bases correctly but keeps the template's direction, so its labelled ends are the wrong way round. 5′-GAAGTC-3′ has the right order but contains thymine, which RNA does not.
During DNA replication, the hydrogen bonds between the two parental strands are broken by
Answer: B
Helicase moves along the DNA at the replication fork and separates the two strands by breaking the hydrogen bonds between paired bases. Topoisomerase is the tempting choice because it also works ahead of the fork, but it relieves the twisting tension by cutting and rejoining the backbone, not by separating base pairs. Primase lays down RNA primers, DNA polymerase builds the new strands and ligase seals the gaps between fragments.
Which event takes place both in mitosis and in meiosis II, but not in meiosis I?
Answer: A
In anaphase of mitosis and anaphase II of meiosis the centromeres divide and sister chromatids are pulled apart; in meiosis I they stay joined while whole homologous chromosomes separate. Halving the chromosome number is tempting because meiosis as a whole does it, but that happens in meiosis I, and it never happens in mitosis. Pairing and crossing over are events of prophase I only.
Transduction is the transfer of bacterial DNA from one bacterium to another
Answer: D
In transduction a bacteriophage packages a piece of its host's DNA by mistake and injects it into the next bacterium it infects. Transfer through a pilus between two cells in contact is conjugation, and uptake of naked DNA released into the surroundings is transformation, the other two ways bacteria exchange genes. Binary fission passes DNA only from a parent cell to its own daughters.
After long-chain fatty acids and monoglycerides are absorbed into intestinal epithelial cells, they are reassembled into triglycerides and leave the cells mainly
Answer: E
Inside the epithelial cell triglycerides are packed with cholesterol and protein into chylomicrons, which are too large to enter blood capillaries and pass into the lacteal, reaching the blood later through the thoracic duct. Micelles are the tempting choice, but they exist only in the gut lumen, where bile salts carry the digested fat to the cell surface; the bile salts themselves are not absorbed with the fat at that point. Most other absorbed nutrients do travel in the hepatic portal vein, which is why that route is a trap.
Which change would reduce the rate at which oxygen diffuses from the alveoli into the pulmonary capillary blood?
Answer: C
The rate of diffusion rises with surface area and with the partial pressure difference, and falls as the distance to cross increases, so a thicker barrier (as in pulmonary fibrosis) slows oxygen uptake. Less oxygen in the blood arriving at the lungs can sound harmful, but it widens the gradient between alveolar air and blood, so oxygen diffuses in faster. A rise in alveolar oxygen, more perfused alveoli and faster ventilation all increase the rate too.
The thick ascending limb of the loop of Henle
Answer: A
The thick ascending limb actively transports Na⁺ and Cl⁻ into the medulla while letting no water follow, which makes the medulla salty and leaves the filtrate dilute. Free permeability to water is a property of the descending limb, where water leaves and the filtrate becomes more concentrated, so the two limbs are easily swapped. Glucose and amino acids are reabsorbed in the proximal tubule, ADH acts mainly on the collecting duct, and filtration happens in the glomerulus.
During isovolumetric contraction of the ventricles
Answer: B
As the ventricles start to contract, their pressure rises above atrial pressure and the atrioventricular valves shut, but it is still below the pressure in the aorta and pulmonary trunk, so the semilunar valves stay shut too; with no exit, the volume of blood cannot change. Open atrioventricular valves with closed semilunar valves describe ventricular filling, in diastole. Ejection begins only when ventricular pressure exceeds arterial pressure and opens the semilunar valves.
Muscles become stiff a few hours after death (rigor mortis) because
Answer: D
A myosin head is released from actin only when a new ATP molecule binds to it; after death ATP runs out, so the cross-bridges stay locked and the muscle is rigid. Pumping Ca²⁺ back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum, and tropomyosin covering the binding sites, are what make a living muscle relax, and both need ATP or produce relaxation rather than stiffness. Filaments never shorten during contraction; they slide past each other.
Glucagon raises the blood glucose concentration mainly by
Answer: A
Glucagon, from the α cells of the pancreatic islets, acts on the liver, where it speeds the breakdown of glycogen and the synthesis of new glucose from amino acids and other precursors; the liver then releases that glucose into the blood. Muscle does store glycogen, but it lacks glucagon receptors and the enzyme glucose-6-phosphatase, so it uses its glycogen itself and cannot release free glucose into the blood. Losing glucose in the urine would lower, not raise, blood glucose.
The primary visual cortex is located in the
Answer: E
Impulses from the retina travel along the optic nerves and tracts, through the thalamus, to the primary visual cortex at the back of the brain, in the occipital lobe. The temporal lobe is the tempting choice because it also processes a sense, but it holds the primary auditory cortex. The parietal lobe receives touch and body sensation, the frontal lobe controls voluntary movement, and the cerebellum coordinates movement.
High-frequency (high-pitched) sounds stimulate the hair cells of the cochlea most strongly
Answer: B
The basilar membrane is narrow and stiff at the base of the cochlea and wide and floppy at the apex, so high frequencies make it vibrate most near the base, by the oval window, and low frequencies near the apex. The apex is a common guess because it is the far end of the coiled tube, but it responds to low-pitched sounds. The semicircular canals, utricle and saccule belong to the vestibular system and sense balance, not sound.
Which of the following conditions is caused by a monosomy?
Answer: E
Turner syndrome is 45,X: one sex chromosome is missing, so it is a monosomy. Klinefelter syndrome is tempting because it also involves the sex chromosomes, but it is 47,XXY, an extra chromosome. Down, Patau and Edwards syndromes are trisomies of chromosomes 21, 13 and 18 respectively.
In peas, yellow seed (Y) is dominant to green (y) and round seed (R) is dominant to wrinkled (r); the two genes assort independently. Two YyRr plants are crossed. Of the offspring with yellow, round seeds, what fraction is expected to be homozygous for both genes?
Answer: C
Yellow, round offspring make up 9 of the 16 combinations, and only one of those 9 is YYRR, so the fraction among yellow, round offspring is 1/9. 1/16 is the share of YYRR among all the offspring, which answers a different question because the stem counts only the yellow, round ones. 4/9 is the fraction of yellow, round offspring that are heterozygous for both genes.
In the Miller–Urey experiment, electric sparks passed through a mixture of methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water vapour produced
Answer: D
Miller and Urey showed that simple organic molecules, including several amino acids, can form from inorganic gases thought to resemble the early atmosphere when energy is supplied. Self-replicating RNA is tempting because the RNA world is part of the same story of the origin of life, but no nucleic acid formed in the experiment. It produced building blocks, not polymers, cells or working enzymes.
What is the maximum number of electrons that the third electron shell (principal quantum number n = 3) can hold?
Answer: C
A shell holds at most 2n² electrons, so for n = 3 that is 2 × 3² = 18: two in the 3s orbital, six in the three 3p orbitals and ten in the five 3d orbitals. The tempting 8 is the number of electrons the period 3 elements place in 3s and 3p, but the 3d subshell also belongs to the third shell; it simply fills after 4s.
How many oxygen atoms are present in 0.25 mol of sodium sulfate, Na₂SO₄? (Nₐ = 6.0 × 10²³ mol⁻¹)
Answer: B
Each formula unit contains four oxygen atoms, so 0.25 mol Na₂SO₄ contains 0.25 × 4 = 1.0 mol of O atoms, which is 1.0 × 6.0 × 10²³ = 6.0 × 10²³ atoms. The tempting 1.5 × 10²³ is the number of formula units (0.25 × 6.0 × 10²³), which forgets the four oxygens in each; 1.05 × 10²⁴ counts all seven atoms of the formula, not only the oxygens.
Which of the following elements has the highest electronegativity?
Answer: D
Electronegativity rises across a period and falls down a group, so oxygen, near the top right of the table, has the highest value here (Pauling 3.4). Chlorine is the tempting choice because it is a halogen, but it lies a period below oxygen and its value is lower (3.2); nitrogen (3.0), sulfur (2.6) and carbon (2.5) are lower still.
Which of the following molecules has a trigonal pyramidal shape?
Answer: A
Phosphorus in PCl₃ is surrounded by three bonding pairs and one lone pair; the four electron pairs point towards the corners of a tetrahedron, and with one corner occupied by the lone pair the atoms form a pyramid. BF₃ is the tempting distractor because it also has three bonds, but boron has no lone pair, so its three bonds spread out in a trigonal plane at 120°. SO₃ and methanal are trigonal planar too, and CH₄ is tetrahedral.
In the Lewis structure of hydrogen cyanide, HCN, how many bonding electron pairs and how many lone (non-bonding) electron pairs are there in total?
Answer: E
HCN has 1 + 4 + 5 = 10 valence electrons, that is 5 pairs. The structure is H–C≡N: one pair in the C–H bond and three in the C≡N triple bond make 4 bonding pairs, and the remaining pair is a lone pair on nitrogen. Counting the triple bond as a single bonding pair gives the tempting answer of 3 bonding pairs, but a triple bond shares three pairs.
Which of the following substances forms a covalent network (atomic) solid?
Answer: C
In quartz every silicon atom is covalently bonded to four oxygen atoms and every oxygen to two silicons, so the whole crystal is one continuous network of covalent bonds, which is why it is so hard and melts above 1600 °C. Sodium chloride also melts high, but it is an ionic solid held by attraction between Na⁺ and Cl⁻ ions. Iodine and dry ice are molecular solids, and copper is metallic.
200 mL of 0.50 mol/L sodium chloride solution is mixed with 300 mL of 0.25 mol/L sodium chloride solution. Assuming the volumes are additive, what is the concentration of NaCl in the mixture?
Answer: A
The amounts add: 0.200 L × 0.50 mol/L = 0.100 mol and 0.300 L × 0.25 mol/L = 0.075 mol, so 0.175 mol of NaCl is in 0.500 L, giving 0.175 / 0.500 = 0.35 mol/L. The tempting 0.375 mol/L is the simple average of the two concentrations, which would only be right if equal volumes were mixed; 0.175 is the amount in moles, not the concentration.
The following gas-phase equilibrium is established in a closed vessel: CO(g) + H₂O(g) ⇌ CO₂(g) + H₂(g), ΔH = −41 kJ/mol. Which change does NOT shift the position of the equilibrium?
Answer: D
There are 2 mol of gas on each side, so compressing the mixture raises every concentration by the same factor and the reaction quotient is unchanged: neither direction reduces the number of gas molecules, so the position does not move. It is tempting to think that an increase in pressure always shifts an equilibrium, but that holds only when the two sides have different amounts of gas. Changing the temperature alters the equilibrium constant of this exothermic reaction, and removing a product or adding a reactant shifts it to the right.
3.15 g of nitric acid, HNO₃, is dissolved in water and the solution is made up to 500 mL. What is the pH of the solution at 25 °C? (Aᵣ: H = 1, N = 14, O = 16)
Answer: B
M(HNO₃) = 1 + 14 + 48 = 63 g/mol, so 3.15 g is 0.0500 mol, and in 0.500 L the concentration is 0.100 mol/L. Nitric acid is a strong monoprotic acid, so [H⁺] = 0.100 mol/L and pH = −log 0.100 = 1.0. The tempting 1.3 is −log 0.0500, which treats the amount in moles as if it were the concentration and ignores the 500 mL volume.
Chlorine reacts with cold, dilute sodium hydroxide solution: Cl₂ + 2NaOH → NaCl + NaClO + H₂O. Which statement about this reaction is correct?
Answer: E
Chlorine starts at 0 in Cl₂, ends at −1 in NaCl and at +1 in NaClO (Na +1, O −2), so half of it is reduced and half oxidised: a disproportionation. Sodium, hydrogen and oxygen keep their oxidation numbers (+1, +1, −2), so nothing else is oxidised or reduced and sodium hydroxide is neither the oxidising nor the reducing agent. Seeing a base as a reactant makes neutralisation tempting, but the change in chlorine's oxidation number makes this a redox reaction.
Which pair consists of two allotropes of the same element?
Answer: A
Allotropes are different structural forms of the same element in the same physical state: diamond (each carbon bonded tetrahedrally to four others) and graphite (layers of carbon rings) are both pure carbon. ¹²C and ¹⁴C are the tempting choice, but they are isotopes, atoms of one element with different numbers of neutrons, not different structures. The other pairs are compounds, not forms of an element.
When ethanol is heated with concentrated sulfuric acid at about 170 °C, ethene and water are formed. What type of reaction is this?
Answer: C
CH₃CH₂OH → CH₂=CH₂ + H₂O: an H and an OH are removed from neighbouring carbon atoms and a double bond forms, which is an elimination (a dehydration). Addition is the tempting answer because the reverse reaction, ethene plus water giving ethanol, is an addition; here one molecule splits into two. No water is consumed, so it is not hydrolysis.
How many structural (constitutional) isomers have the molecular formula C₃H₆Cl₂? Do not count stereoisomers.
Answer: D
The two chlorines can sit on the propane chain as 1,1-, 1,2-, 1,3- or 2,2-dichloropropane: four isomers (3,3- and 2,3- are the 1,1- and 1,2- isomers numbered from the other end). The tempting 3 comes from forgetting that both chlorines may be on the same carbon in one of the two positions, usually the 2,2- isomer.
What is the IUPAC name of CH₃–CH(CH₃)–CH₂–CH(CH₃)–CH₂–CH₃?
Answer: B
The longest chain has six carbons (hexane), with methyl groups on two of them; numbering from the left gives them positions 2 and 4, lower than 3 and 5 from the right, so the name is 2,4-dimethylhexane (C₈H₁₈). 3,5-dimethylhexane is the tempting slip of numbering from the wrong end. A name ending in an ethyl-substituted pentane uses a five-carbon chain when a six-carbon one exists.
Benzene reacts with bromine in the presence of an iron(III) bromide catalyst. What type of reaction takes place, and what are the products?
Answer: E
The catalyst polarises Br₂ into an electrophile that replaces one hydrogen on the ring: C₆H₆ + Br₂ → C₆H₅Br + HBr. Addition is tempting because benzene is often drawn with three double bonds, but its delocalised π system is unusually stable, so substitution, which keeps the aromatic ring intact, is favoured. Benzene does react, but only with a catalyst like this, not with bromine water in the dark.
Which test distinguishes phenol, C₆H₅OH, from cyclohexanol, C₆H₁₁OH?
Answer: A
The phenoxide ion is stabilised because its negative charge is delocalised into the benzene ring, so phenol is acidic enough to react with NaOH (C₆H₅OH + NaOH → C₆H₅ONa + H₂O); cyclohexanol, an ordinary alcohol, is not. Sodium metal is the tempting choice, but every compound with an O–H group, alcohols included, gives hydrogen with sodium, so both react. It is phenol, not cyclohexanol, that reacts with bromine water (giving a white precipitate), and both compounds burn.
Butanone, CH₃–CO–CH₂–CH₃, is reduced with hydrogen over a nickel catalyst. What is the organic product?
Answer: E
Reducing a ketone adds hydrogen across the C=O bond, turning the carbonyl carbon into a CH–OH group without moving it: CH₃–CO–CH₂–CH₃ + H₂ → CH₃–CH(OH)–CH₂–CH₃, a secondary alcohol, butan-2-ol. Butan-1-ol is tempting, but it is a primary alcohol and comes from reducing butanal, the aldehyde. Butanoic acid would require oxidation, not reduction.
What volume of 0.20 mol/L sodium hydroxide solution is needed to neutralise completely 0.90 g of oxalic acid (ethanedioic acid), HOOC–COOH? (Aᵣ: H = 1, C = 12, O = 16)
Answer: C
M(HOOC–COOH) = 2 + 24 + 64 = 90 g/mol, so 0.90 g is 0.010 mol. Oxalic acid has two carboxyl groups: HOOC–COOH + 2NaOH → NaOOC–COONa + 2H₂O, so 0.020 mol NaOH is needed, and 0.020 / 0.20 = 0.100 L = 100 mL. The tempting 50 mL treats the acid as monoprotic and neutralises only one of its two carboxyl groups.
Glycine (Gly) and alanine (Ala) are linked by peptide bonds to make dipeptides, and each amino acid may be used more than once. How many different dipeptides (different sequences) are possible?
Answer: D
A peptide bond joins the carboxyl group of the first amino acid to the amino group of the second, so the order matters: Gly–Gly, Ala–Ala, Gly–Ala and Ala–Gly are four different dipeptides (2 × 2 = 4). The tempting 3 counts Gly–Ala and Ala–Gly as one compound, but in Gly–Ala the free amino group is on glycine and in Ala–Gly it is on alanine, so they are different molecules.
Which statement about sucrose (table sugar) is correct?
Answer: B
Sucrose is a disaccharide of glucose and fructose in which the glycosidic bond joins the anomeric carbon of each (C1 of glucose to C2 of fructose), so neither ring can open to an aldehyde or ketone form and it does not reduce Fehling's solution. Calling it a reducing sugar is tempting because glucose, maltose and lactose all are, but each of those keeps a free anomeric carbon. Two glucose units with an α-1,4 bond describe maltose, glucose with galactose is lactose, and the plant storage polysaccharide is starch.
Water ______ at 100 °C at sea level.
Answer: A
Scientific facts and general truths take the present simple. The present continuous "is boiling" describes something happening at this moment, not a rule that is always true.
She ______ for the hospital for ten years when she was finally promoted to head nurse.
Answer: C
An activity that lasted up to a moment in the past (the promotion) takes the past perfect continuous. The present perfect "has been working" measures time up to now, so it cannot be tied to "when she was promoted"; the past continuous does not express duration up to a past point.
Hardly ______ the operating theatre when the power failed.
Answer: B
When a negative adverb such as "hardly" opens the sentence, subject and auxiliary are inverted, and "hardly ... when" takes the past perfect for the earlier event. "The surgeon had entered" has the right tense but lacks the inversion that the fronted "hardly" requires.
My parents made me ______ the piano every day when I was a child.
Answer: D
In the active voice, "make" + object is followed by the bare infinitive without "to". "To practise" is only used in the passive ("I was made to practise").
The results of your blood test ______ to you by post next week.
Answer: B
The results do not send anything; they receive the action, so a passive is needed, here the future passive "will be sent". "Will send" is active and would make the results the sender.
The patient is thought ______ the infection while travelling abroad last month.
Answer: A
In the impersonal passive ("is thought / said / believed"), an action earlier than the moment of thinking takes the perfect infinitive "to have + past participle". "To catch" is a simple infinitive and would refer to the present or future, not to last month.
There isn't ______ milk left in the fridge; could you buy some on your way home?
Answer: C
"Milk" is uncountable, so a negative sentence takes "much". "Many" and "a few" go only with plural countable nouns, and "no" would make a double negative with "isn't".
She has been married ______ a cardiologist for twenty years.
Answer: D
In English one is married to someone. "Married with" is a common learner error (often carried over from other languages) and is not used for a spouse.
I would be grateful if you could ______ me of your decision at your earliest convenience.
Answer: B
The formal pattern is "inform somebody of something", typical of official letters. "Explain" cannot take the person as a direct object ("explain something to somebody"), and neither "say" nor "announce" is followed by "me of".
Candidates are reminded that mobile phones must remain switched off ______ times during the examination.
Answer: C
"At all times" is a fixed phrase meaning "always", common in formal notices and regulations. "For all times" and "in all times" are not used in this sense; the preposition is fixed by collocation, not chosen by meaning.
What is a scalpel used for?
Answer: D
A scalpel is a small, very sharp surgical knife used to cut tissue during an operation. Injections are given with a syringe and needle, and the ear is examined with an otoscope.
The general English word for patella is
Answer: A
The patella is the small, flat bone at the front of the knee. The shoulder blade is the scapula, the breastbone the sternum and the shin bone the tibia.
The thoracic cavity contains:
Answer: C
The thorax is the chest, so the thoracic cavity holds the heart and lungs, enclosed by the ribs and separated from the abdomen by the diaphragm. The stomach and liver lie just below the diaphragm, in the abdominal cavity.
A nephrologist is a physician who:
Answer: B
The root "nephr-" means kidney (as in nephron), so a nephrologist treats kidney disease. The similar-looking "neur-" belongs to the neurologist, who treats the nervous system.
What is the medical name for a nosebleed?
Answer: D
Epistaxis is bleeding from the nose. Rhinorrhoea is a runny nose, haemoptysis is coughing up blood and haematemesis is vomiting blood, so the "haem-" (blood) terms describe bleeding from elsewhere.
Which of these diseases is caused by a virus?
Answer: A
Measles is caused by the measles virus and is prevented by the MMR vaccine. Tuberculosis and tetanus are caused by bacteria, and malaria by a protozoan parasite carried by mosquitoes.
An antihistamine is usually given to a patient who has
Answer: C
Antihistamines block histamine, the substance released in allergic reactions that causes sneezing, itching and a runny nose. They do not kill bacteria; bacterial infections are treated with antibiotics.
A patient with dyspnoea has difficulty
Answer: D
Dyspnoea ("dys-", difficult, and "-pnoea", breathing, as in apnoea) means shortness of breath. Difficulty swallowing is dysphagia, a similar-looking term with a different ending.
A myocardial infarction is commonly known as
Answer: A
"Myocardial" refers to the heart muscle and "infarction" to tissue death caused by a blocked blood supply, which is what a heart attack is. A stroke is the same kind of event in the brain, not the heart.
A patient described as afebrile
Answer: B
"Febrile" means feverish, and the prefix "a-" means "without", so an afebrile patient has a normal temperature. Choosing "a high temperature" means reading the root and overlooking the negating prefix.
Section 2 of 2
Instead of Chemistry, if you choose it · 20 questions
A runner completes exactly one lap of a 400 m running track in 80 s, finishing where she started. What are her average speed and the magnitude of her average velocity over the lap?
Answer: A
Average speed is distance ÷ time = 400 m ÷ 80 s = 5.0 m/s. Average velocity is displacement ÷ time, and after a full lap the displacement is zero, so the average velocity is 0 m/s. Giving 5.0 m/s for both treats velocity as if it were a scalar like speed.
A ball is thrown vertically upwards at 20 m/s. Taking g = 10 m/s² and neglecting air resistance, at what time(s) after the throw is the ball 15 m above the point of release?
Answer: C
From h = ut − ½gt², 15 = 20t − 5t², so t² − 4t + 3 = 0 and t = 1.0 s or 3.0 s: once on the way up and once on the way down (check: 20 − 5 = 15 m and 60 − 45 = 15 m). Giving 1.0 s only forgets the descent, and 0.75 s divides the height by the launch speed as if the ball did not slow down.
A 60 kg person stands on bathroom scales (reading in newtons) in a lift that is moving upwards and speeding up at 2.0 m/s². Taking g = 10 m/s², what do the scales read?
Answer: B
The scales read the normal force N. Newton's second law upwards gives N − mg = ma, so N = m(g + a) = 60 kg × 12 m/s² = 720 N. 600 N is the reading only when the lift is at rest or moving at constant velocity; 480 N would apply if the acceleration were downwards.
A 4.0 kg block rests on a horizontal floor. The coefficient of static friction between block and floor is 0.50 and the coefficient of kinetic friction is 0.30. A horizontal push of 15 N is applied to the block. Taking g = 10 m/s², what is the magnitude of the friction force on the block?
Answer: D
The maximum static friction is μₛmg = 0.50 × 4.0 × 10 = 20 N, which is more than the 15 N push, so the block does not move and static friction exactly balances the push: 15 N. 20 N is only the upper limit static friction can reach, and 12 N (μₖmg) would apply only if the block were already sliding.
A 1500 kg car slows down on a level road from 20 m/s to 10 m/s. What is the total work done on the car by the forces that slow it down?
Answer: E
By the work–energy theorem, W = ΔEₖ = ½ × 1500 × (10² − 20²) = 750 × (100 − 400) = −2.25 × 10⁵ J; it is negative because the forces act against the motion. −7.5 × 10⁴ J comes from squaring the change in speed, ½m(Δv)², instead of taking the change in v², and −3.0 × 10⁵ J is the whole initial kinetic energy, as if the car had stopped.
A 0.020 kg bullet travelling horizontally at 300 m/s strikes a 1.98 kg wooden block resting on a frictionless horizontal surface and stays embedded in it. How much kinetic energy is converted into other forms (heat, sound, deformation) in the impact?
Answer: B
Momentum is conserved: 0.020 × 300 = 6.0 kg·m/s = (2.00 kg)v, so v = 3.0 m/s. Kinetic energy falls from ½ × 0.020 × 300² = 900 J to ½ × 2.00 × 3.0² = 9.0 J, so 891 J is converted. 900 J forgets that the block and bullet still move afterwards, and 0 J wrongly assumes kinetic energy is conserved in a collision where the bodies stick together.
A car drives round a flat, unbanked bend of radius 50 m. The coefficient of static friction between the tyres and the road is 0.80. Taking g = 10 m/s², what is the greatest speed at which the car can take the bend without skidding?
Answer: A
Friction supplies the centripetal force, so mv²/r ≤ μmg and v_max = √(μgr) = √(0.80 × 10 × 50) = √400 = 20 m/s; the mass cancels. 400 m/s forgets the square root, and 22 m/s (√(gr)) leaves out the coefficient of friction, as if the grip were perfect.
A mass on a horizontal spring oscillates in simple harmonic motion with amplitude A on a frictionless surface. When its displacement from equilibrium is A/2, what fraction of the total energy of the oscillation is kinetic energy?
Answer: C
The elastic potential energy is ½kx² and the total energy is ½kA², so at x = A/2 the potential energy is (1/2)² = 1/4 of the total and the kinetic energy is the remaining 3/4. √3/2 is the ratio of the speed to the maximum speed at that point, not the ratio of energies; 1/2 wrongly assumes energy is shared in proportion to displacement.
Three open containers have bases of the same area but different shapes: a wide bowl, a straight cylinder and a narrow-necked flask. Each is filled with water to the same depth of 20 cm. How does the water pressure on the base compare among the three?
Answer: D
Hydrostatic pressure depends only on depth, density and g (p = p₀ + ρgh), not on the shape of the vessel or the amount of liquid, so with the same depth of water the pressure on each base is the same. The bowl's extra water is supported by its sloping sides, not by the base, which is why the most tempting answer about the bowl holding most water fails.
A steel rail is 20 m long at 15 °C. By how much does it lengthen when its temperature rises to 55 °C? (Coefficient of linear expansion of steel = 1.2 × 10⁻⁵ K⁻¹.)
Answer: E
ΔL = αL₀ΔT, and a rise of 40 °C is a rise of 40 K, so ΔL = 1.2 × 10⁻⁵ K⁻¹ × 20 m × 40 K = 9.6 × 10⁻³ m = 9.6 mm. 13 mm uses the final temperature (55) instead of the change, and 79 mm converts 55 °C to 328 K and uses that absolute temperature instead of the 40 K difference.
A sample of ideal gas is heated from 27 °C to 927 °C. By what factor does the root-mean-square speed of its molecules change?
Answer: A
Kinetic theory gives ½m⟨v²⟩ = (3/2)kT, so v_rms ∝ √T with T in kelvin: 27 °C = 300 K and 927 °C = 1200 K, a factor of 4, so v_rms changes by √4 = 2. 'Four times' is the change in temperature (and in mean kinetic energy), not in speed; the factors of about 34 and 5.9 come from using the Celsius values 927 ÷ 27 directly.
A tube 0.25 m long is closed at one end and open at the other. The speed of sound in the air inside is 340 m/s. Neglecting the end correction, what is the lowest frequency at which the air column resonates?
Answer: D
The fundamental of a tube closed at one end has a node at the closed end and an antinode at the open end, so the tube holds a quarter-wavelength: λ = 4L = 1.0 m and f = v/λ = 340 ÷ 1.0 = 340 Hz. 680 Hz is the fundamental of a tube open at both ends (λ = 2L), and 1360 Hz takes the wavelength to equal the tube length.
An object is placed 15 cm from a thin converging lens of focal length 10 cm. Where is the image formed, and what is it like?
Answer: B
With 1/f = 1/u + 1/v: 1/v = 1/10 − 1/15 = 1/30, so v = +30 cm, a real image on the far side, and the magnification is v/u = 30/15 = 2, inverted. The 6.0 cm answers add the reciprocals (1/10 + 1/15 = 1/6) instead of subtracting; a virtual, upright image needs the object inside the focal length, which 15 cm is not.
A closed surface encloses two point charges, +3.0 nC and −1.0 nC. A third charge of +5.0 nC lies outside the surface. According to Gauss's law, what is the net electric flux through the closed surface? (ε₀ is the permittivity of free space.)
Answer: E
Gauss's law gives Φ = Q_enclosed/ε₀, and only the enclosed charges count: +3.0 − 1.0 = +2.0 nC, so Φ = (2.0 nC)/ε₀. The outside charge sends as many field lines in as out, so it adds nothing to the net flux; (7.0 nC)/ε₀ wrongly includes it, and (4.0 nC)/ε₀ adds the magnitudes of the enclosed charges, ignoring the sign of the negative one.
An air-filled parallel-plate capacitor is connected to a battery and stays connected while its plates are pulled apart until their separation is doubled. What happens to the energy stored in the capacitor?
Answer: C
C = ε₀A/d, so doubling d halves C; the battery keeps V fixed, so U = ½CV² halves. 'It doubles' is the result for a capacitor disconnected before the plates are moved: then Q stays fixed and U = Q²/(2C) doubles as C halves.
A lamp is marked '12 V, 24 W'. What is its resistance when it operates normally at its rated voltage?
Answer: D
From P = V²/R, R = V²/P = 12² ÷ 24 = 144 ÷ 24 = 6.0 Ω (check: I = P/V = 2.0 A and R = V/I = 12 ÷ 2.0 = 6.0 Ω). 2.0 Ω is P/V, which is the current in amperes, not a resistance, and 288 Ω multiplies voltage and power.
A battery of electromotive force 12 V and internal resistance 1.0 Ω is connected across a single 5.0 Ω resistor, forming one simple loop. What is the potential difference across the battery's terminals?
Answer: A
Kirchhoff's loop rule gives ε = I(R + r), so I = 12 V ÷ 6.0 Ω = 2.0 A, and the terminal voltage is IR = 2.0 × 5.0 = 10 V (equally, ε − Ir = 12 − 2.0 = 10 V). 12 V would be the terminal voltage only with no current drawn, and 2.0 V is the voltage lost inside the battery, not across its terminals.
A straight wire 0.50 m long carries a current of 4.0 A in a uniform magnetic field of 0.20 T. The wire is perpendicular to the field. What is the magnitude of the magnetic force on the wire?
Answer: C
F = BIL sin θ, and with the wire perpendicular to the field sin θ = 1, so F = 0.20 T × 4.0 A × 0.50 m = 0.40 N. 0.80 N leaves out the length of the wire, and 0 N would apply only if the wire lay parallel to the field.
A heater of resistance 46 Ω is connected to an alternating supply whose voltage has a peak value of 325 V. What is the average power delivered to the heater, to the nearest value given?
Answer: B
The effective (rms) voltage is V_peak/√2 = 325 ÷ 1.414 ≈ 230 V, and the average power in a resistor is V_rms²/R = 230² ÷ 46 = 52 900 ÷ 46 = 1150 W ≈ 1.15 kW. 2.3 kW uses the peak voltage, 325² ÷ 46, which is the instantaneous power at the peak, not the average.
The energy levels of the hydrogen atom are given by Eₙ = −13.6 eV/n². What is the minimum energy needed to ionise a hydrogen atom whose electron is in the n = 2 level?
Answer: E
E₂ = −13.6/2² = −3.4 eV, and ionisation means raising the electron to the n = ∞ level, where E = 0, so 3.4 eV is needed. 13.6 eV is the ionisation energy from the ground state (n = 1), and 10.2 eV is the excitation energy from n = 1 to n = 2, not an ionisation.
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