0%

HL - Space, Time & Motion

25 MCQ from 2025 Question Bank Space, Time & Motion (all topics)

DP IB HL Physics Quiz

1 / 25

1. A basketball is launched at an angle and undergoes projectile motion. Air resistance is negligible. Which of the following is correct for the direction of its velocity vector and its acceleration vector at the highest point of its trajectory?

Direction of velocity vector Direction of acceleration vector
A. horizontal no acceleration
B. no velocity no acceleration
C. no velocity downward
D. horizontal downward

2 / 25

2. A student throws a ball with an initial velocity in the horizontal direction. Air resistance is negligible. At t=2.0 s, the ball has travelled a distance x in the horizontal direction and a distance  in the vertical direction.

What are the horizontal and vertical distances covered at t=1.0 s, in terms of x and ?

Horizontal distance Vertical distance
A. x/2 y/4
B. x/2 y/2
C. x/4 y/2
D. x/4 y/4

3 / 25

3. Which of the following units is not a unit of power?

 

4 / 25

4. A ball is projected in an environment where air resistance can be ignored.

PH0545

Which graph shows the variation of the resultant force  acting on the ball with the height  of the object?

A. B.
PH0545a PH0545b
C. D.
PH0545c PH0545d

5 / 25

5. An object moves  east, then  north.

What is the magnitude of the total displacement of this object?

6 / 25

6. Two trucks X and Y are pulling a car out of thick mud along a straight path. The only other horizontal force acting on the car is a drag force opposite to the direction of motion. The diagram shows the direction of the force applied by truck  and the direction of motion of the car.

PH0490

Which of the following vectors shows the direction of the force applied by truck ?

PH0490-1

7 / 25

7. A ball rolls horizontally off the edge of the top of a cliff. It hits the ground at a distance 2.0 from the base of the cliff with a vertical speed of 20. What is the height of the cliff?

8 / 25

8. Which of the following is a vector quantity?

 

9 / 25

9. The diagram below shows a tennis ball of mass  striking a wall with an initial velocity, u, and rebounding with velocity . A second, softer ball of the same mass strikes the wall with the same speed but rebounds with a slower rebound speed.

PH0124

Which of the following statements is correct about the magnitudes of the impulse and change in momentum applied to the second ball compared to the first?

Impulse Change in momentum
A. Greater Smaller
B. Smaller Greater
C. Greater Greater
D. Smaller Smaller

10 / 25

10. The engine of a racing car provides a forward thrust of . The average of the total resistive forces acting on the car is  and the car covers a distance of 1.0 km in .

What is the average output power of the engine?

11 / 25

11. Observations of muon decay can be used as evidence of

I. Time dilation
II. Length contraction
III. Absolute simultaneity

12 / 25

12. Consider the weight, , of a skydiver falling through air with a drag force 

If the skydiver experiences terminal velocity, which of the following best represents the skydiver's motion by means of a free body diagram?

A. B.
PH0130A PH0130B
C. D.
PH0130C PH0130D

13 / 25

13. A cargo container is released from an airplane. A parachute is opened remotely a few seconds later to land it safely. Which graph shows the variation of the vertical acceleration with time  for the cargo container from when it leaves the plane until landing?

 

 

A. B.
PH0033a1 PH0033b1
C. D.
PH0033c1 PH0033d1

14 / 25

14. An electric motor is used to raise a block of mass 18.0 kg vertically to the top of a building at a constant speed of . If the power rating of the motor is 297 W, calculate the efficiency of the motor.

15 / 25

15. A lead ball is dropped from a height of 12 above the ground. Assuming that air resistance is negligible, which of the following expressions best describes the total energy of the ball when it is at a height of 3m above the ground in terms of its kinetic energy (E) and gravitational potential energy (E)?

16 / 25

16. A box is pulled by a child with a horizontal force of 5 N. The box moves a horizontal distance of 4 in a time of 2. The average power delivered by the child to the box is

17 / 25

17. The figure below shows Sankey's diagram for a small thermal plant. What is the efficiency of the system?

PH0142c

18 / 25

18. Two cyclists,  and , start riding their bicycles from the same point. Cyclist  moves northwards with a speed of  relative to the ground, and cyclist  moves westwards with a speed of  relative to the ground.

PH0721aa

The magnitude of the velocity of the Cyclist  relative to the Cyclist  is

19 / 25

19. A projectile is fired with a launch angle α above the horizontal and an initial velocity of 40 m s^ towards a cliff that rises 300 m above the plane of projection. The cliff is 120 m from the launch point.

PH0132

Assuming that air resistance has no effect on the motion, then the time of flight taken by the projectile to reach the plane of the cliff, is given by;

20 / 25

20. An object sits on a rotating horizontal disc. The disc rotates from rest with uniform angular acceleration . After time  the object slides off of the disc.

What is the linear speed of the object at this time?

21 / 25

21. A stone attached to one end of a rod rotates in a vertical circle at a constant speed. Two positions of the stone at two different instants, X and Y, are shown in the diagram below.

PH0231-1

In the table below, which row is correct for the centripetal force acting on the stone at X and Y?

 The direction of centripetal Force The magnitude of centripetal Force
A. Same Same
B. Same Different
C. Different Same
D. Different Different

22 / 25

22. A mass is attached to the mirror of a car by a string. As the car accelerates to the left, the string makes an angle with the vertical as shown in the diagram below.

PH0284Q

Which of the following shows the correct free-body diagram that represents the forces acting on this mass when it is accelerating?

A. B.
PH0284A PH0284B
C. D.
PH0284C PH0284D

23 / 25

23. A spring of negligible mass and length of lo is attached to a fixed point. When the spring is extended by an external force , the length of the spring increases to . The graph shows how the length of the spring varies with the tension in spring. The tension in the spring is equal to , where k is a constant and  is the extension of the spring.

PH0036

What are the gradient and y-intercept of the graph?

 Gradient  y-intercept
 A. 1k l
 B. 1/k lo
 C. k lo
 D. 1/k Δl

24 / 25

24. A car of mass m and a truck of mass  travelling in opposite directions collide and stick together. The speeds of the car and the truck just before the crash are  and  respectively. What is their speed after the collision?

25 / 25

25. A football player bounced the ball off their head as shown while diving sideways

PH0146-1

Which of the following gives a Newton’s Third Law pair of forces that applies to this situation?

 Force 1  Force 2
A. Force of the ball on the player Force of the ball on the earth
B. Force of the player on the earth Force of the ball on the player
C. Force of the earth on the ball Force of the ball on the earth
D. Force of the earth on the player Force of the player on the ball

Your score is

0%