AP Physics 2 : Electricity and Magnetism

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Physics 2

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Example Questions

Example Question #51 : Magnetism And Electromagnetism

Flux

 resistor is connected to a coil with  turns and a cross sectional area of . A magnet is lowered as shown in the figure. The magnetic field increases from  to  in . Find the magnitude of the current going through the resistor.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

There is a change in flux produced by the changing magnetic field which is given by

where  is the cross sectional area of the coil,  is the change in magnetic field, and  is the angle of the field lines relative to the normal of the cross section of the coil.

In this case the magnet is perpendicular to the cross section of the coil and so

The change in magnetic field is just the final given value minus the intial value. Faraday's Law says that an emf will be generated by a change in flux,

where  is the number of turns in the coil. Plugging in the change in flux gives

The change in time is just  since we can start our clock at zero. The current can be found using Ohm's Law where

Example Question #1 : Solenoids

Suppose a  long solenoid has a current increase from zero to  in . The induced EMF magnitude is . Find the inductance.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Write the formula for inductance and substitute the givens. The length of the solenoid has no effect in this problem.

Example Question #1 : Solenoids

A transformer is plugged into a household outlet  that supplies  of current. The transformer steps up the potential to  having a secondary coil with  turns. How many turns does the primary coil have?

Possible Answers:

 turns

 turns

 turns

 turns

Correct answer:

 turns

Explanation:

The relationship between the number of turns for the primary coil and secondary coil in a transformer ( and  respectively) to the relative potentials is

Solving for ,

Example Question #51 : Electricity And Magnetism

Which of the following is not likely to cause a magnet to lose strength?

Possible Answers:

Heating the magnet

All of these will cause a magnet to lose strength

Striking the magnet with a hammer

Dropping the magnet on the floor

Cooling the magnet

Correct answer:

Cooling the magnet

Explanation:

Magnetism is caused by electrons in a material aligning and causing an aggregate magnetic field that can exert influence over other things. The magnetic strength is limited by random fluctuations in the electrons, making them no longer aligned. If the magnet were to be cooled, the electrons would have less kinetic energy, and would be less likely to have random fluctuations. This would make the strength increase.

All of the other things would make the strength of a magnet decrease. Striking it would impart kinetic energy, and would momentarily vibrate the electrons. Likewise, heating it would make the electrons vibrate more.

Example Question #2 : Other Magnetism Concepts

Suppose there is a velocity filter than can detect a particle's speed at the instant where the electric force is equal to the magnetic force. In order to increase the particle's speed, which of the following factors should be changed?

Possible Answers:

Increased charge of the particle

Increased magnetic field

Increased magnetic field and electric field

Increased charge of the particle and magnetic field

Increased electric field

Correct answer:

Increased electric field

Explanation:

In this question, we're told that the velocity filter is able to detect the speed of a particle when the magnetic force and electric force are equal to each other. In order to determine when the particle's velocity will be the greatest, we'll need to keep in mind the equations for both the electric force and magnetic force:

Next, we'll need to set them equal to each other:

Then, we can isolate the velocity term:

Based on this equation, we see that if we want to increase the particle's velocity, we'll need to increase the electric field. Increasing the particle's charge will have no effect on the particle's velocity, and increasing the magnetic field will actually decrease the particle's velocity.

Example Question #2 : Other Magnetism Concepts

Which of the following scenarios would not result in a lower overall magnetic field?

Possible Answers:

Heating a permanent magnet

Cooling a permanent magnet

Adding an external magnetic field to a diamagnet

Dropping a permanent magnet on the floor

All of these scenarios lower the effective magnetic field.

Correct answer:

Cooling a permanent magnet

Explanation:

The magnetic field around permanent magnets is caused by the alignment of the material's electrons, which no longer average out to a net field of zero and instead combine to form a greater field. If the electrons come out of alignment, then the field wanes or stops altogether. Additionally, the random vibrations of the electrons inhibits the effectiveness of the field. Therefore, if you were to apply energy to a magnet, it would be less effective because the electrons would have greater random motion. Heating the magnet applies thermal energy to it, and dropping it applies kinetic energy to it, which means neither of them would be the right answer. When you cool a magnet, you are removing some of the energy it has, making the electrons have less random motion.

A diamagnet is a material that, when it is exposed to a magnetic field, produces a magnetic field in the opposite direction as the external field, which leaves an overall lesser field.

Example Question #1 : Electrostatics

You have two charges on an axis. One charge of  is located at the origin, and the other charge of  is located at 4m. At what point along the axis is the electric field zero?

Possible Answers:

There is no point on the axis at which the electric field is 0

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The equation for an electric field from a point charge is

To find the point where the electric field is 0, we set the equations for both charges equal to each other, because that's where they'll cancel each other out. Let  be the point's location. The radius for the first charge would be , and the radius for the second would be .

Therefore, the only point where the electric field is zero is at , or 1.34m.

Example Question #701 : Ap Physics 2

A charge of  is at , and a charge of  is at . At what point on the x-axis is the electric field 0?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find where the electric field is 0, we take the electric field for each point charge and set them equal to each other, because that's when they'll cancel each other out.

The 's can cancel out. 

Therefore, the electric field is 0 at .

Example Question #1 : Point Charges

Imagine two point charges 2m away from each other in a vacuum. One of the charges has a strength of . If the force between the particles is 0.0405N, what is the strength of the second charge?

Possible Answers:

There is not enough information to determine the strength of the other charge

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The equation for force experienced by two point charges is

We're trying to find , so we rearrange the equation to solve for it.

Now, we can plug in our numbers.

Therefore, the strength of the second charge is .

Example Question #1 : Electrostatics

Physics2set1q12

What is the electric force between these two point charges?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The force between two point charges is shown in the formula below:

, where  and  are the magnitudes of the point charges,  is the distance between them, and  is a constant in this case equal to 

Plugging in the numbers into this equation gives us

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