All College Physics Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #2 : Electrostatics
The figure shows four Gaussian surfaces surrounding a distribution of charges. Which Gaussian surfaces have an electric flux of through them?
B
C
B and D
A
B
Gauss' laws states that the the electric flux through a Gaussian surface will be proportional to the net total charge inside the Gaussian surface. By inspection of the figure, we see that Gaussian surface B is the correct answer.
Example Question #4 : Electrostatics
The Figure shows four Gaussian surfaces surrounding a distribution of charges. Which Gaussian surfaces have no electric flux through them
A
B
C
B and D
C
According to Gaussian law, the electric flux will be zero when the net electric charge inside the Gaussian surface is zero. By inspection, we see this is Gaussian surface C.
Example Question #92 : College Physics
Gaussian surfaces A and B enclose the same positive charge +Q. The area of Gaussian surface A is three times larger than that of Gaussian surface B. The flux of electric field through Gaussian surface A is __________.
unrelated to the flux of electric field through Gaussian surface B
equal to the flux of electric field through Gaussian surface B
nine times larger than the flux of electric field through Gaussian surface B
three times smaller than the flux of electric field through Gaussian surface B
equal to the flux of electric field through Gaussian surface B
According to Gauss's law, the total electric flux is equal to the net total electric charge inside the a Gaussian surface. If the Gaussian surface is three times larger, the electric flux will be the same if both Gaussian surfaces contain the same amount of total electric charge.
Example Question #93 : College Physics
Which of the arrows shown in the figure represents the correct direction of the electric field between the two metal plates?
C
B
A
D
A
The direction of electric field describes the trajectory of a positive test charge. Since a positive test charge would want to move away from the positive metal plate and towards the negative metal plate, the direction would be A.
Example Question #24 : Electromagnetics, Waves, And Optics
An x-ray machine emits electromagnetic photons carrying a frequency of . What is the approximate energy carried by each photon?
The energy of a photon of a given frequency is determined by the equation
, where is Plank's constant
So plug in Plank's constant and the frequency of the x-ray photons to get an energy of very near
Example Question #94 : College Physics
You are given three resistors with known values:
You are asked to create a circuit with a total resistance of between and . How should you arrange the resistors to accomplish this?
and in parallel, connected to in series
and in parallel, connected to in series
and in parallel; is not necessary
, , and in parallel
, , and in series
and in parallel, connected to in series
This question requires no math to correctly answer! You should not need to 'brute force' it. Although it is designed to appear time consuming, it should be relatively easily once the principle of resistors in parallel is understood. Whenever two resistors are connected in parallel, the net resistance must be less than the resistance of either of the two alone. When resistors are connected in series, the net resistance must be more than the resistance of either alone.
Explanation of correct answer:
and in parallel, connected to in series - It is possible to 'eyeball' this to see that this is at least feasible. and in parallel must make a network with an overall resistance less than . When added in series with (), the overall may fall between and . To confirm, one could do the math to calculate the overall resistance, but the point of this question is to use general principles to quickly eliminate the other, incorrect answer choices.
Explanations of incorrect answers:
, , and in parallel - This combination cannot possibly work since the overall resistance must be less than (the smallest resistor in parallel).
and in parallel, connected to in series - Regardless of the overall resistance of and in parallel, the connection with in series makes the total resistance more than .
and in parallel; is not necessary - Placing and in parallel must result in a resistance less than .
, , and in series - Connecting resistors in series results in an overall resistance greater than that of any one alone. Since and are included in series, the sum of the resistances is obviously much greater than what we are asked to produce and this choice can be immediately eliminated.
Example Question #1 : Circuits
Which of the following expressions gives the capacitance for a capacitor in a circuit in which the only factors known are a) the current through the circuit, b) the resistance of the circuit, and c) the charge that has accumulated on the capacitor?
In this question, we're given a number of parameters of a circuit and are asked to find how we can use these various parameters to show the capacitance of the circuit's capacitor.
First, recall what a capacitor is; something that stores charge for a given voltage difference. In other words, when there is a voltage difference between the two plates of a capacitor, a certain amount of charge can be stored on these plates. The more charge that can be stored for a given voltage difference, the greater that capacitor's capacitance. This can be shown by the following equation.
From the above expression, is the capacitance which we are trying to find a proper expression for. is the charge accumulated on the plates, which is one parameter we're given. Voltage, , on the other hand, is not provided.
To put the voltage into different terms, we'll need to use Ohm's law, which states the following.
In other words, the voltage is proportional to both the current and the resistance of the circuit.
Since we are given both current and resistance as known parameters in the question stem, we can use these for our final answer. By substituting the in the capacitance expression with , we obtain the following answer.
Example Question #3 : Circuits
A parallel plate capacitor with no dielectric has capacitance . The distance between the capacitor plates is halved. What is the new capacitance?
The capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor is proportional to the inverse of the distance between the plates. If the distance is halved, the capacitance is doubled.
Example Question #1 : Capacitors
An RC circuit is connected to a power supply. If the resistance of the resistor is and the capacitance is , how long will it take for this capacitor to become fully charged?
The formula for finding the voltage of a simple RC circuit is
, where is the capacitor voltage, is the source voltage, is the resistance, and is the capacitance.
We want to know when the capacitor will reach the voltage of the power source so
and thus
Using the properties of natural logs yields
Solving for yields
Example Question #1 : Power
A resistive heating element can be modeled as a resistor connected across the terminals of a battery.
If the battery is selected to be , what should the resistance of the heating element be if the radiated power is to total ?
We are asked to calculate the power dissipated through a resistor connected to a battery. We know that . Substituting the values given above, . Solving for R yields .