Qualifying

Exam
Jan. 13, 2016
Part 1
Please use blank paper for your work do not write on problems sheets!

Problem 1
Find angle such that the projectile achieves maximal range along the incline of
slope .

Problem 2
An object of mass ! and velocity ! collides elastically head-on with a stationary
object of mass ! . Find the final velocities !! and !! of the objects and analyze your
answer in the following three cases:
a) ! !
b) ! !
c) ! = !

Problem 3
A spool of rope sits on the ground with the end of the rope lying on the top edge of
the spool. A person takes the end of the rope and walks a distance with it, while
the spool rolls behind the person without slipping.

a) What length of the rope unwinds from the spool?
b) How far does the center of mass of the spool moves?

Problem 4
The ends of a uniform steel beam of mass rest on two vertical supports of equal
height. A half of an identical beam is resting on top of the beam, as shown. What is
the vertical support force at each end?

Problem 5
!

Show that the pressure of an ideal gas can be written as = ! ! , where is its
density and is the rms speed of the molecules.

Problem 6
Along the curve from a to c, the work done by gas is !" while the heat !" is added
to it. The work done along the path is !"# .

a) What is !"# for path ?
!

b) If ! = ! ! , what is !"# for path ?

c) What is the change in internal energy !" = ! ! ?
d) Given the change in internal energy !" = ! ! , what is !" for path ?

Problem 7
A thermally insulated container consists of two separated halves. The right half is
evacuated while the left half contains an ideal gas at temperature ! . A small hole is
opened in the separator letting the gas to flow through. Assuming no heat exchange
with the walls and the separator, find the final temperature !"#$% of the system once
it reaches the equilibrium.

Problem 8
particles populate a two-level system with energies ! and ! at temperature in
accordance with the Boltzmann distribution (aka Gibbs distribution).
a) Find the average energy per particle
b) Formulate the limits of high and low temperature in terms of and
= ! !
c) Find the dependence of the average energy per particle on in the limits of
high and low temperature

Problem 9
A parallel-plate capacitor with capacitance is charged to potential and is then
disconnected from the circuit. Calculate work done by slowly changing the distance
between the plates from to ! ? Assume that and ! are much smaller than the
linear dimensions of the capacitor plates so that the edge effects can be neglected.

Problem 10
The circuit below is designed to measure the unknown resistor ! . ! , ! and ! are
known. ! and ! are fixed and ! is variable. It is adjusted so that ammeter shows
zero current when the switch is closed. Find ! in terms of ! , ! and ! .

Problem 11
A proton (charge and mass ! ) enters with speed the uniform magnetic field
region, , at a 45 angle.

a) At what angle does it exit the field region?

b) At what distance does it exit the field region?

Problem 12
A rectangular loop of width (horizontal), length (vertical) and resistance is pulled
from a region of the uniform magnetic field with a constant speed , , by a force
, as shown. Find .

Problem 13
A beam of light enters into the optic fiber from air (refractive index of air is 1). Show
that there will be total internal reflection at the side surface of the fiber (point a) for any
incident angle if the index of the refraction of its material is greater than 2. Hint: Use
the maximal angle = 2.

Problem 14
The threshold wavelength for emission of electrons from a particular metal is !"# . What
will be the maximum kinetic energy of the electrons for the wavelength < !"# ?

Problem 15
A particle of mass is confined within a one-dimensional box of width . Using the fact
that the particle can be considered as a standing wave with the nodes at the edges of the
box, find the expression for the quantized energies of the particle.