UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA

PRESIDENT’S OFFICE

REGIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

FORM FIVE SPECIAL SCHOOLS JOINT EXAMINATION

131 PHYSICS

TIME: 3:00 Hours

INSTRUCTIONS.

1. This paper consists of section A, B and C.

2. Answer a total of TEN (10) questions, four(4) questions from section A and any three(3
questions from each section B and C.
3. Each question carries ten (10) marks.
4. Mathematical tables and non – programmable calculators may be used.
5. Cellular phones are not allowed in the examination room.
6. Write your name on every page of your answer booklet(s).

7. Wherever necessary the following information may be useful:

a) Acceleration due to gravity g = 9.8 ms -1.
b) Density of water kgm -3
c) Density of copper = 9000 kgm-3
d) Gravitational constant G = 6.67 x10 -11 Nm 2kg -2
e) Radius of the Earth R = 6.4 x10 6 m
f) Velocity of light c = 3.0 x10 8 ms -1
g) Velocity of sound v = 340 ms -1
h) Surface tension of mercury = 4.72 x10 -1 Nm -1
i) Surface tension of water = 7.3 x 10 -2 Nm -1
j) Electronic charge e = 1.6 x10 -19 c
k) Specific heat capacity of copper = 0.42 Jg -1k -1
l) Universal gas constant R = 8.31 Jmol -1 k -1
m) Permittivity of free space = 8.85 m-2

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 SECTION A

1(a)(i) What is principle of homogeneity of dimensions? (01mark)

(ii) The number of particles n crossing a unit area perpendicular to x - axis in a unit time is
given by the expression : n = -D ,where and are the number of particles
for the value of x meant and .Determine the dimensions of diffusion (02 marks)
constant D.
(b) A simple pendulum oscillates with a period T proportional to ,where m is mass
of the bob, l length of the string and g acceleration due to gravity .Determine the values
of a, b and c . (04marks)
(c) The drag force F of an Airplane is found to depend on the cross sectional area ,A velocity
of the plane ,v and density of the air .Find the proportionality relationship using
dimensional analysis in terms of F ,A ,v and . (03marks)

2(a) Define projectile (01 mark)

(b) Find the velocity and direction of projection of a body which can be fired so that it
passes in a horizontal direction just over the top of the wall which is 32 m away and 12 m
high. (05marks)
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(c) An aero plane flying in a horizontal direction with velocity 200 ms drops a bomb at a
height of 1900 m to hit the target . Determine
(i) the horizontal distance from the target that the bomb should be dropped. (02marks)
(ii) the velocity of the bomb as it reaches the ground (02marks)

3(a)What is the differences between a free orbit and parking orbit? (02marks)
(b) An artificial satellite moving in a circular orbit around earth has a period of revolution
equal to that of earth’s rotation about its own axis. Find the distance of earth’s satellite
from the surface of the earth. (03marks)
20 20
(c) Two stars masses 1.0 x10 kg and 2.0x10 kg respectively ,rotate about their common
centre of mass speed with angular speed ω .Assuming that the only force on a star is the
mutual gravitational force between them and that the distance between the stars is 10 6 km .
Compute the angular speed of the stars . (05marks)

4(a) Mention conditions under which a body execute Simple Harmonic Motion(SHM).
(b) A body is attached to a spring undergoes SHM .The maximum acceleration of the particle
is 18 ms -2 and the maximum speed is 3 ms -1.Determine the following:
(i) the frequency of the particle’s motion. (02marks)
(ii) the amplitude of the particle’s motion. (02marks)
(c) A body of mass 0.1 kg hangs from a long spiral spring .When pulled down 10 cm below its
equilibrium position and released it executes SHM with a period of 2 seconds.
(i) the velocity of the body as it passes the equilibrium position. (02marks)
(ii) the acceleration of the body when it is 5cm above the equilibrium position. (02marks)

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5(a) What is head-on collision? (01mark)
(b) Two bodies N and M of masses 0.1 kg and 0.4 kg respectively are moving towards each
other with speed of 1.0 ms -1 and 0.1ms -1 .They suffers a head-on collision and stick
together. Find their common velocity after collision (03marks)
(c)(i) Explain why the load on the back wheels of a motor car increases when the vehicle is
accelerating. (01mark)
(ii) When a man who weighs 1000 N pulls a rope, the force he exerts on the floor of a cage is
450. If the cage weighs 250 N see the diagram below. Find the acceleration (05marks)

6(a) What is the origin of centripetal force when

(i) A train is moving around a circular track (01mark)
(ii) A satellite orbiting around the Earth (01mark)
(b) A car of mass 1800 kg is moving along a circular level road of radius 200 m with a
maximum speed of 20 ms -1 without skidding. Find the value of coefficient of friction
between the tyres and the road. (3marks)
(c) (i) What is moment of inertia of a body about a given axis ? (01mark)
(ii) A fan starting from rest takes 5.0 seconds to attain maximum speed of revolution of
300 r.p.m, assuming constant angular acceleration. Compute the time taken by the fan in
attaining half the maximum speed. (04marks)

SECTION B

7(a)(i) Define Doppler effect. (01mark)

(ii) Find the frequency of beats heard by a stationary observer when a source of sound when
a source of sound of frequency 300 HZ moves directly away from him with a speed of
20 ms -1 toward a vertical wall. (03marks)

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 (b)(i) Mention three (3) basic differences between light waves and sound waves (03marks)

(ii) A beam of light is incident on a transparent glass plate of refractive index 1.6 .If the
refracted and reflected rays are perpendicular to each other at the point of incidence .
Determine the angle of refraction and the velocity of light in the glass. (03marks)

8(a) Write down Bernoulli’s Equation for fluid flow and indicate the terms:
(i) Which vanish when the pipe is horizontal .
(ii) Which vanish when the flow of the fluid stops. (03marks)
(b) Water enters a horizontal pipe of non-uniform cross- section with a velocity 2.4 ms -1 and
leaves the other end with a velocity of 1.0 ms -1 . At the first end pressure of water is
1800 Nm -2 . Compute the pressure at the other end . (03marks)
(c) A cylindrical tank 1 m in radius rests on a platform 5m high .Initially the tank is filled with water
to a height of 5 m. A plug whose cross sectional area is 10 – 4 m 2 is removed from orifice
on the side of bottom .Find initial speed with which water strikes the ground, assuming
that there is no wasted energy. (04marks)

9(a) (i) Define dielectric constant (01mark)

(ii) Two capacitors of 3.0μF and 6.0μF are joined in series and then connected across the
two terminals of an 18V battery. Calculate the charge stored on each capacitor and the potential
difference across each capacitor. (04marks)
(b) (i) If the distance from a point charge is doubled how is the field strength changed?
(02marks)
(ii) A spherical oil drop, radius 10-4cm has on it at a certain time a total charge of 40
electrons. Calculate the energy that would be required to place an additional electron on the drop.
(03marks)

10(a) Define electric field strength E of an electrostatic field (01mark)

(b) Two polythene balls each of mass 0.1g hang in contact with each other from two silk
thread before they are as shown in the figure below. When they are given the same charge
of 2 each, the two balls fly apart. In equilibrium they their thread make an angle of 60
with each other .Compute the electric field intensity between the charges balls. (04marks)

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(c) A 10 capacitor is charged to 100 V. After being disconnected it is immediately
connected to an uncharged capacitor of 5 .Determine
(i) the potential difference (p.d) across the combination. (03marks)
(ii) the initial and final amount of energies. (02marks)

SECTION C
11. (a) Define the following:

(i) Progressive wave (01mark)

(ii) Standing wave (01mark)

(b) Two progressive waves travelling in the opposite direction in the medium are represented by
   
y1  5 sin t   and y2  5 sin t   . If the two progressive waves form a standing
 3  3
wave, determine the resultant amplitude and the phase angle formed. (04marks)

(c ) (i) What do you understand by the term interference of waves? (01mark)

(ii) A viewing screen is separated from a double-slit source by 1.2m. The distance between
the two slits is 0.03mm. The second order bright fringe (m-2) is 4.5cm from the Centre line.
Determine the wavelength of the light and the distance between adjacent bright fringes.

(03 marks)

12(a)(i) Show that the energy stored in the wire when it is stretched is given by =
Where F is the final force and e is increase in length. (02marks)
(ii) A wire of 2.0 m long and diameter 0.6mm is stretched by load of 20N .Find work done
in stretching this wire . (03marks)
(b) A short piece of copper wire of radius 1mm is fixed at a ceiling and the other end is
hanged by a 20kg body and a wire breaks down immediately due to that weight.
(i) Does its temperature rise or decrease ? Explain briefly . (01mark)
(ii) Compute the change in temperature. (04marks)

13(a)(i) Define root mean square speed of the molecules of a gas. (01mark)
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(ii) Helium molecules have root mean square speed of 900 ms at 27 C and pressure of
1.0 x 10-5 Nm -2 . Find the root mean square speed of this gas when temperature is
127 C and Pressure is 1.0 x 10-5 Nm -2. (03marks)
(b) Given that the kinetic energy of a gas molecules of oxygen gas at a temperature of 0 0C
is found to be 5.6 x 10 -21 J . Determine the Avogadro’s number . (03marks)
(c) Six molecules have speeds of 12 ms ,16 ms 24 ms ,32 ms ,40 ms and 48 ms -1 .
-1 -1 -1 -1 -1

Determine the following:

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 (i) the mean square speed of these molecules (02marks)
(ii) the root mean square speed of these molecules (01mark)

14(a) (i) Mention two (2) conditions for adiabatic process to take place. (02marks)
(ii) Why is the energy needed to raise the temperature of one mole of the gas at constant?
pressure is greater than that at constant volume ? (01mark)
(b) A gas cylinder initially at a temperature of 17 C and pressure of 1.01x 10 Nm -2,is to
-5

be compressed to one- eighth of its volume. Calculate the difference in pressure if the
compression were done
(i) isothermally (2marks)
(ii) adiabatically ( (02marks)
(c) Calculate the work done by a system undergoing isothermal expansion from to for a
gas which obey the Van der Waal’s equation of state ( p + (v- nb ) = nRT (03marks)