Sample Questions for Physics Olympiad 2010

Students Association, Physics Department, IIT Bombay January 15, 2010

Mechanics
s3 P2 1 m 60o s2 M2
Figure 1: see Problem 1

2m P1

1m 30o

s1

M1

As shown in g. 1, an objects of mass M1 is suspended from a massless string s3 and M2 is held stationary. Masses M1 and M2 are connected to xed frictionless pivots P1 and P2 by strings s1 and s2 . At time t = 0 the string s3 is cut and mass M1 falls under gravity. 1. Find the time t1 after which the string s1 becomes taut again, the height h through which the mass M1 falls freely and the speed v1 of the mass M1 just after the string s1 is taut. 2. At time t = t1 , M2 is released with the same speed v1 in a direction perpendicular to the string in anticlockwise sense. Find the velocity of both the masses just before they collide. 3. Will the string s1 be taut immediately after the collision? 4. If M1 = M2 and the collision is perfectly elastic, what is the maximum height attained by the mass M1 relative to the point of collision.

Source

Rotating Mirror

Source

Rotating Mirror

Fixed Mirror
Figure 2: see Problem 2

Fixed Mirror

Optics

In the mid-19th century, French physicist Leon Foucault made the most accurate measurement to-date of the speed of light using a laboratory-sized apparatus consisting of rotating and xed mirrors. Consider a source of light emitting a beam which bounces o a rotating mirror and then reects o a small xed mirror. By the time it reaches back to the rotating mirror, the mirror has rotated by a small angle. This rotation will deect the beam through a small angle from its original path. 1. Prove that if a mirror rotates by an angle then the reected beam deects by an angle 2. 2. If the mirror rotates with a frequency , show that the deection of the beam is given by = 2 (2 ) (2D/c) and hence the speed of light is given by 8D/

Modern Physics

In order to probe the structure of a nucleus, a beam of electrons from a particle accelerator is red at a solid target containing a high density of nuclei. If the wavelength of the electrons is of the same order as the size of the nucleus, then a diraction pattern is observed and we can determine the size of the nucleus. 1. If the diameter of the nucleus is 1015 m, then determine the momentum of the electrons needed to make the wavelength of the electrons equal to the diameter. 2. Use the classical formula for the momentum of a particle, p = mv to determine the velocity of the electron. Is this velocity permissible? 3. Now instead of p = mv use the relativistic formula, p = mv where = 1 v 2 /c2 to determine the velocity of these electrons. c is the speed of light in vacuum. Use E 2 = p2 c2 + m2 c4 and determine the energy E of the electrons in electron volts. 4. If the beam current is 108 A then determing the number of electrons hitting the target per second. 5. The beam has a cross sectional area of 9mm2 and hits a copper target of thickness 1mm. What is the volume of copper through which the beam passes. Estimate the number of copper nuclei in this volume. (Density of Copper = 8900kg/m3 ). 6. Take the diameter of copper nuclei to be 1015 m. Assume that the copper nuclei do not lie behind each other and calculate the ratio of the total cross-sectional area of the nuclei lying in the path of the beam to the cross-sectional area of the beam. 7. The ratio in 6. can be taken as the probability that an electron will collide with the nucleus. Using the result of part 4, calculate the number of interactions per second.
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