AP Physics Review Questions
Chapters 1 – 11, 13, 14
1. How do you calculate the magnitude of the dot (scalar) product of two vectors whose
tails join at some angle, θ?
2. How do you determine the direction of the result?
3. How do you calculate the magnitude of the cross product of two vectors whose tails
join at some angle, θ?
4. How do you determine the direction of the resultant vector?
5. What is the purpose of the unit vector?
6. Given a velocity vector of 50 m/s at 30º, how would you calculate its x- and y-
components?
7. The kinematics equations from Chapters 2 and 3 hold only for what type of
acceleration?
8. The first derivative (with respect to time) of a velocity equation gives…
9. The area under the curve on a velocity vs. time graph gives you…
10. What is the y-velocity of a projectile at the very top of its path?
11. What is its acceleration at the same position?
12. What is special about the x-velocity of a projectile?
13. What is the y-direction acceleration for any projectile?
14. In general, acceleration measures the rate of change of ______ ?
15. More specifically, radial acceleration measures the rate of change of _______ ?
16. And tangential acceleration measures the rate of change of ________?
17. The time a projectile is in the air is determined by only two things; what are they?
18. State each of Newton’s laws of motion in its complete form.
19. Forces always occur in: singles, pairs, or triplets?
20. Which pulls harder, the Earth on the moon or the moon on the Earth?
21. When we sum the forces acting on an object, why do we often put negative signs in
front of some of the forces?
22. How does N2 explain Galileo’s law of falling bodies – i.e., why do heavy objects and
light objects fall with the same acceleration in the absence of air resistance?
23. Say you’re pulling a box across a rough surface with some tension force, T. Write a
differential equation for the velocity of the box as a function of time.
24. What are the four fundamental forces in the universe and which is by far the
weakest?
25. For a force to be considered a centripetal force, what must it be doing?
26. How can a string be pulling inward on a ball undergoing UCM even through the ball
never moves toward the center of the circle?
27. Identify four different forces that often act as a centripetal force.
28. What is a centrifugal force?
29. If an object is at rest on an incline (at an angle θ above the horizontal), what is the
magnitude of the normal force acting on it (assume no forces other than friction and
gravity act on it)?
30. Why is the static friction force less than or equal to µsFn while the kinetic friction force
is always equal to µkFn?
31. According to the physics definition, work is equal to ______ ?
32. Can a normal force ever do work on an object?
33. If you do positive work on an object, you increase the object’s _____ ?
34. The net work done on an object is always equal to the change in the object’s
_______ ________ .
35. Generally, work is the area under the curve on a _______ vs. ______ graph.
Express this as an integral.
36. In the most general terms, energy is the measure of an object’s ability to do ______ .
37. What are the SI units for energy?
38. Power is the rate of doing what? What are the SI units for power?
39. What are the two types of potential energy we discussed? What are the formulas
for each?
40. What is the difference between a conservative and a non-conservative force?
41. Name the two conservative forces we discussed extensively.
42. Mechanical energy is the sum of what two types of energy?
43. When is mechanical energy conserved?
44. Provide a generalized formula for the Law of Conservation of Energy.
45. How can you determine the x component of the force acting on an object if you know
its potential energy as a function of position?
46. Given a U(x) vs. x graph, how can you identify points of stable, unstable, and neutral
equilibrium?
47. What is the formula for the linear momentum of a particle?
48. In which types of collisions did we apply the law of conservation of linear
momentum?
49. Provide an example of each type of collision.
50. What is the primary requirement for linear momentum to be conserved?
51. In which type of collision is kinetic energy also conserved?
52. Unlike work, impulse is defined as the areas under the curve on a _______ vs.
_____ graph.
53. Impulse causes a change in _________________ .
54. If the net external force on a system is zero, its CM continues to do what?
55. What is the formula for the measure of an interior angle in radians?
56. How do the angular quantities θ, ω, and α relate to the translational quantities x, v,
and a?
57. What is the rotational analog of inertia? How can you calculate it – both for a system
of discrete particles and for an extended object (such as a cylinder)?
58. What is the parallel axis theorem and when is it useful?
59. What is torque? How is it calculated? What does it tend to cause?
60. What are the rotational analogs of force, mass, kinetic energy, and linear
momentum? What are the formulas for the last two quantities?
61. What is the primary requirement for angular momentum to be conserved?
62. Why do gymnasts, divers, ballerinas, skaters, etc. spin faster when they pull their
limbs inward or tuck their bodies?
63. What is precessional motion and what causes it?
64. What are the two conditions for an extended object to be in equilibrium?
65. Why doesn’t it matter which point we choose as the axis of rotation when solving a
static equilibrium problem?
66. If you balance a baseball bat at its CG and then cut it there (into two pieces) which
piece would weigh more?
67. Why can’t we simply use w = mg when calculating the gravitational force acting on
an object?
68. Why did we have to define a new function for gravitational potential energy?
69. Use conservation of energy to derive the equation used to calculate the escape
velocity for a planet.
70. Derive Kepler’s 3rd Law beginning with N2 and Newton’s Law of Universal
Gravitation.
71. Given the following expression for position as a function of time for a SHO,
determine its amplitude, its angular frequency, its linear frequency, and its period:
x(t) = 1.3cos(18.85t) where x is in cm.
72. If a SHO of mass 2.0 kg oscillates according to the above equation, what is its total
energy?
73. What effect does increasing the mass of an object attached to the end of a vertical
spring have on its period?
74. What effect does increasing the mass of a simple pendulum have on its period?
75. Provide the equations for the period of a mass on a spring, a simple pendulum, a
physical pendulum, and a torsional pendulum.
76. What is resonance? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
77. What is damping? Is it a good thing?
78. Describe what would happen if you drilled a hole from the North Pole to the South
Pole of the earth and then dropped a rock into it.
79. What would be the gravitational force acting on an object at rest, half-way through
this tunnel?
80. At its most basic level, physics is the study of _______________ and
_____________ .