SPH4U Exam Review Problems
1. Kyle is in his car traveling at a constant speed of 150 km/h down the road. He passes a police
car that was stationary at the side of the road. He sees the radar reading and immediately begins
accelerating (8 m/s/s) in order to catch the delinquent teenager. How long and how far down the
road does he catch Kyle?
2. A train is travelling at 23 m/s [E] when it enters a curved portion of the track and experiences an
average acceleration of 0.14 m/s2 [S] for 95 s. Determine the velocity of the trains after this
acceleration.
3. A catapult launches a cat from ground level to a target located on the ground. The cat leaves the
catapult moving at 100 km/h at an angle of 40º.
a) What is the cat’s velocity half-way through the trajectory (size and direction)?
b) What is the cat’s velocity at impact (size and direction)?
c) How long is the cat in the air for?
d) What is the maximum height?
e) What is the range of the cat?
4. After landing safely on the target the cat tries another projectile apparatus. This time the cat is
shot out of a cannon over a 30 m high wall. The cat is launched at an angle of 55º0 and can be
assumed to be at ground level during launch. With what speed (in km/h) does it have to be
launched to make it approximately 5 m over the wall if the wall is 250 m from the cannon?
5. Three blocks of masses m1=26kg, m2=38kg, and m3=41kg, are connected by two strings over
two pulleys as shown in the figure.
a) Determine the acceleration of the blocks.
b) Determine the tension in each of the strings.
6. A skier on a slope inclined at 4.7º to the horizontal pushes on ski poles and starts down the
slope. The initial speed is 2.7 m/s. The coefficient of kinetic friction between skis and snow is
0.11. Determine how far the skier will slide before coming to rest.
7. Box A (m=2.5 kg) is connected by a rope that passes over a frictionless pulley to Box B (m=5.5
kg), as shown in figure. The coefficient of kinetic friction between box and ramp is 0.54.
Determine the acceleration of the boxes.
8. Determine the horizontal acceleration of a 0.5-kg block that is being pushed along the ceiling
with a force of 40N at an angle of 20º upward to the horizontal. See diagram for the coefficient
of friction.
9. A plane is flying in a vertical loop of 1500 m radius. At what speed is the plane flying at the top of
the loop, if the vertical force exerted by the air on the plane is zero at this point?
10. An object of mass 3.0 kg is whirled around in a vertical circle of radius 1.3 m with a constant
velocity of 6.0 m/s. Calculate the maximum and minimum tension in the string.
11. A 1.2x103 kg space probe, travelling initially at a speed of 9.5x103 m/s through deep space, fires
its engines that produce a force of magnitude 9.2x104 N over a distance of 86 km. Determine the
final speed of the probe.
12. A 73 kg skier coasts up a hill inclined at 9.3º to the horizontal. Friction is negligible. Use the
work-energy theorem to determine how far along the hill the skier slides before stopping, if the
initial speed at the bottom is 4.2 m/s.
13. An ideal spring is compressed 15 cm on a horizontal surface. When released, it accelerates a
block (5-g) along the frictionless surface. The block leaves the spring launcher and then travels up
a long ramp and stops when it reaches a height of 0.54 m. What is spring constant of the spring?
14. Tethys, one of Saturn's moons, travels in a circular orbit at a speed of 1.1x104 m/s. The mass of
Saturn is 5.67x1026 kg. Calculate
a. the orbital radius in kilometres.
b. the orbital period in Earth days.
15. A neutron star results from the death of a star about 10 times as massive as the Sun. Composed
of tightly packed neutrons, it is small and extremely dense.
a. Determine the escape speed from a neutron star of diameter 17 km and mass 3.4x1030
kg.
b. Express your answer as a percentage of the speed of light.