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Engineering Physics

PART A

PROPERTIES OF MATTER
1. Define elasticity.
Elasticity is the property of the material by virtue of which it tends to regains its original shape and size after the
removal of deforming forces.

2. Define elastic limit and plastic limit.

The maximum stress upto which a body can recover its original shape and size after removing the external force is
called as elastic limit. After elastic limit, if the elasticity of the body is completely lost, then the body will be in a
limit called as plastic limit.

3. What is yield point?

The point at which the body losses its elasticity is called as yield point.

4. Define elastic fatigue.

If a body is continuously subjected to stress or strain, it gets fatigued called as elastic fatigue.

5. Define stress and strain and write down their units.

(i) Stress
Stress is defined as the restoring force per unit area. Unit for stress: N/m2.
(ii) Strain
Strain is defined as the change in dimension produced by the external force on the body. It can also be defined as
the ratio of the change in dimension to the original dimension. It has no unit.

6. Define longitudinal strain.

It is defined as the rate of changes in length to the original length without any change in its shape after the removal
of the external force. It is also called as tensile strain.
Longitudinal strain = l/L

7. What is shearing strain?

It is the angular deformation produced on the body due to the application of external tangential force on it.

8. Define volumetric strain.

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It is defined as the ration between the changes in volume and the original volume without any change in its shape.
Volumetric strain = v/V

9. Mention the factors affecting the elasticity of a material.

i) Temperature
ii) Impurities
iii) Hammering, Rolling and Annealing

10. What do you infer from stress – strain diagram?

 Within elastic limit the stress is directly proportional to the strain.
 It determines the ultimate strength of the material.
 It distinguishes the elastic and plastic limit of a material.
 This diagram also helps us to distinguish the material based on the properties such as ductility and brittleness.

11. State Hooke’s law.

Hooke discovered a simple relation between stress and strain. Within elastic limit. stress is proportional to strain
Stress α Strain

12. Define Poisson’s Ratio.

The lateral strain is proportional to the longitudinal strain so long as it has a small volume. The ratio of lateral
strain to longitudinal strain is called Poisson’s ratio and is denoted by σ.

13. Define moment of force.

The moment of a force about a point is defined as the product of the magnitude of the force and the perpendicular
distance from the point to the line of action of force.

14. What is a couple?

A couple constitutes a pair of two equal and opposite forces acting on a body in such a way that the lines of action
of the two forces are not in the same straight line.

15. Define torque.

Torque is the product of one of the forces forming couple and the perpendicular distance between the two
opposite forces.

THERMAL PHYSICS
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1. Define thermal conductivity.

Co-efficient of thermal conductivity is defined as the amount of heat conducted per second, normally across unit
area of cross section maintained at unit temperature gradient.

2. Define conduction.
Conduction is the process of heat transmission from one point to another through the substance without the actual
motion of the particles.

3. Define convection.
Convection is the process in which heat is transferred from hotter end to colder end by the actual movement of
particles.

4. State Newton’s law of cooling.

The rate of loss of heat of a body is directly proportional to the temperature difference between the body and its
surroundings of same nature.

5. Name the different modes of heat transfer.

1. Conduction
2. Convection
3. Radiation

6. What is meant by temperature gradient?

The quantity (�1− �2/�) is known as the rate of fall of temperature with distance and is also known as the
temperature gradient.

7. Define radiation.
Radiation is the process of heat transfer in which heat is transmitted from one place to another place without the
necessity of the intervening medium.

8. What is the purpose of thermal insulation?

The purpose of thermal insulation in building is to minimize the transfer of heat between outside and inside the
building. Due to thermal insulation, the room temperature remains cool in summer and warm in winter.

9. Name the thermal insulation materials.

The popular thermal insulating materials are fur, hair, wool, sand, saw dust.
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QUANTUM PHYSICS

1. What is meant by perfect black body and black body radiation?

A Perfect black body is one which absorbs and emits all the radiations (corresponding to all wavelengths) that fall
on it. The radiation given out by a perfect black body is called black body radiation.

2. What are the characteristics of black body?

We have to coat the black color over the surface to make a black body. Black body is said to be a perfect absorber,
since it absorbs all the wavelengths of the incident radiation. The black body is a perfect radiator, be cause it
radiates all the wavelength absorbed by it.

3. What is meant by energy spectrum of a black body?

The distribution of energy for various wavelength at various temperature is known as energy spectrum of a black
body.

4. State Kickoff’s law of radiation.

Ratio of emissive power to the co-efficient of absorption of any given wavelength is the same for all bodies at a
given temperature and is equal to the emissive power of the black body at that temperature.

5. Define Stefan-Boltzmann’s law.

It is defined as “ the radiant energy (E) of the body which is directly proportional to fourth power of the
temperature (T) of the body
(i.e) E αT 4 (or) E= σT4

6. Define Wien’s radiation law . Give its limitation.

The product of the wave length (λ) corresponding to maximum energy and the absolute temperature (T) is a
constant.
λm T = Constant
7. Define – Rayleigh –jeans law . give its limitation.
The radiant energy is directly proportional to the absolute temperature and is inversely proportional to the fourth
power of the wave length.
8. Explain Planck’s Hypothesis (or) postulates of Planck’s quantum theory ?(or) what are the assumption of
quantum theory of black body of radiation ?
(i) The electrons in the black body are assumed as simple harmonic oscillator .
(ii) The oscillator will not emit the energy continuously.
(iii) They emit radiation is term of quanta’s of magnitudes ‘ hʋ ’ and are discrete in nature.
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E = nhʋ. Where n= 0,1,2,3,4…

9 .What is meant by photon? Give any four properties

The discrete energy value in the form of small packets (or) bundles (or) quanta’s of definite frequency or
wavelength are called photons. The photons propagates like a particle with the speed of light (3×108 m/s).
Properties of photon:
(i) Photons will not have any charge. They are neutral and hence they are not affected by magnetic (or) electric
fields.
(ii) They do not ionize gases
(iii) The energy and momentum of a photon is given by E=hʋ and P = mc where h is Planck’s constant, ʋ is
frequency ‘m’ is the mass of photon and ‘c’ is the velocity of light

10. Define Compton effect and Compton shift.

When a photon of energy ‘hv’ collides with a scattering element, the scattered bean has two components, viz. One
of the same frequency (or) wavelength as that of the incident radiation and the other has lower frequency (or)
higher wavelength compared to incident frequency (or) wavelength. This effect is called Compton Effect. The shift
in wavelength is called Compton shift

11. State de-Broglie’s hypothesis (or) Explain the concept of wave matter (or) what is meant by matter
waves? Give the origin of this concept.
We know nature loves symmetry, since the light exhibits the dual nature (ie) it can be have both as a particle and
the wave, De Broglie suggested that an electron, which is particle can also behave as a wave and exhibits the dual
nature. Thus the wave associated with a material particle (electron) are called as matter waves.

12. What is the physical significance of a wave function?

(i) The probability of finding a particle in space, at any given instant of time is characterized by a function ψ(x,y,z,
t) called wave function.
(ii) It relates the particle and the wave statistics. It gives the information about the particle behavior.
(iii) It is a complex quantity.
(iv) IψI2 represents the probability density of the particle, which is real and positive.
PHOTONICS AND FIBER OPTICS

1. What is laser?
LASER is the acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The absorption and emission
of light by materials has been very ingeniously and skillfully exploited in making a device that amplifies light and
generates extremely intense, highly directional, more coherent and monochromatic radiation. This device is called
"Laser".
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2. What are the coherent sources?

Coherent sources are the sources which have same wavelength and frequency. It has correlation with the amplitude
and phase at any point with any other point

3. What are the characteristics of Laser light ( Or) State the properties of laser beam? The four important
characteristics of the laser beams are:
1. It is highly directional.
ii. It has high intensity.
iii. The beam is purely monochromatic.
iv. It has coherence.

4. What is Stimulated Emission?

An atom in the excited state is induced to return to ground state thereby resulting in two photons of same
frequency and energy is called as stimulated emission.

5. What is Spontaneous Emission?

The atom in the excited state returns to ground state thereby emitting a photon, without any external inducement is
called as spontaneous emission.

6. What is stimulated absorption?

An atom in the ground state with energy E1 absorbs a photon of energy hv and go to the excited state with energy
E2 provided the photon energy hv is equal to the energy difference (E2 — E1). This process is called stimulated
absorption or simply absorption.

7. What is stimulated emission?

The atom in the excited state returns to ground state by artificial stimulation and thereby emitting a photon is
called as stimulated emission.
8. What is meant by population inversion?
In general the number of atoms in the ground state will be more than that of the atoms in the excited state and it is
called as usual population. The reverse, more number of atoms in the higher energy level than that of the lower
energy level is called population inversion.

9. What is meant by pumping?

Naturally, the population inversion is achieved only at negative temperature which is impossible. Thus the laser
beam is produced. Hence, population inversion is a must for the production of Laser beam.
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10. What are different methods of pumping?

The pumping can be made, viz.,
i. Optical pumping.
ii. Direct electron excitation (Electron Discharge)
iii. Inelastic atom — atom collision
iv. Chemical process

11. What are the conditions required for laser action?

The two important conditions required for laser action are
i. Population inversion should be achieved.
ii. Stimulated emission should be predominant over spontaneous emission

12. What is meant by optical resonator (or) Resonance cavity?

An optical resonator (or) a resonance cavity is a feedback system, which consists of an active medium kept in
between a 100% mirror and a partial mirror. Here, the intensity of light produced in the active medium is increased
by making the light to bounce back and forth between the mirrors. Finally the laser beam comes through the
partially silvered mirror

13. What is the use of nitrogen and Helium in CO2 laser?

In CO2 laser the nitrogen helps to increase the population of CO2 atoms in the upper level while helium helps to
depopulated the atoms to the lower level and also to cool the discharge tube

14. State some of the applications of lasers in engineering and Industry.

i. High power laser are useful to blast holes in diamonds and hard steel.
ii. They are used to test the presence of pores, cracks flows, blow holes etc in the materials.
iii. They are used for welding and cutting.
15. What is holography?
Holography deals with image construction by means of interference techniques without using lenses. Here the
distribution of amplitude and phase is recorded in 3D manner so as to get complete information of an object.

16. Explain the importance of holographic storage.

i. Each point of an object is recorded on the whole hologram.
ii. From each piece of a hologram we can reconstruct the image.
iii. Laser is used for recording and reconstruction processes.
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iv. The phase and amplitude information in the reflected waves from the object are completely recorded in the
hologram.

17. What is optical fiber?

Optical fiber is a wave guide, made up of transparent dielectric like glass or plastices in cylindrical form through
which a light is transmitted by total internal reflection. An optical fiber consists of a central core glass about 50μm
diameter surrounded by cladding about 125μmto 200μm diameter which is slightly lower refractive
index than core material.

18. Define the acceptance angle.

Acceptance angle may be defined as the maximum angle below which the light can suffer total internal reflection
is called as acceptance angle. The cone is referred as acceptance cone.

19 . What are the condition to obtain the total internal reflection?

 Light should travel from denser medium to rarer medium
 The angle of the incidence at the core should be greater than the critical angle.

20. What are the feature of optical fiber?

 It is light weight
 It has high band width and low loss
 There is no internal noise or cross talk

21. Define numerical aperture of a fiber.

The sine of the acceptance angle (sinθa) of the fiber is known as numerical aperture . it denotes the light gathering
capacity of the optical fiber.

22. What is meant by fractional index?

The ratio of fractional difference between the refractive indices of the core and cladding to the refractive index of
core is known as fractional refractive index.

23. Distinguish between active and passive sensors?

Active sensors:
1. It senses physical properties
2. Eg. Pressure sensor
Passive Sensor:
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It has separate sensing element and fiber act as wave guide

Eg. Displacement sensor

24. Distinguish between step-index and graded index fiber.

Step-index
1. The refractive index of the core is uniform throughout step change at the cladding boundary
2. Attenuation is more
3. Numerical aperture is more.
Graded index fiber
1. The refractive index of the core is made to vary in the parabolic manner such that the maximum refractive index
is presented at center of the core
2. Attenuation is less
3. Numerical aperture is less

25. Differentiate between single mode and multimode fiber.

Single mode fiber
1. Only one mode of light can propagate through the fiber
2. It has smaller core diameter
3. Fabrication is difficult and costly
Multimode fiber
1. It allows large number of light modes
2. It has a large core diameter
3. Less difficult and not costly

26. What is meant by fiber optic endoscope?

A medical endoscope is a tabular optical instrument used to inspect or view the internal parts of the human body
which are not visible to naked eye. A photograph of an internal part can also be taken using fiber optic endoscopes.

FUNDAMENTALS OF NANOSCIENCE

1. Define nanoscience
The study of objects and phenomena at a very small scale, roughly 1-100 nanometers (nm) is called as Nanoscale
science or Nanoscience.
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2. What is nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology can be defined as the design, characterization, production and application of structures devices
and systems by controlling shape and size at a nanometer scale.

3. What are natural nanomaterials?

Nanomaterials which are belonging to resource of nature are defined as natural nanomaterials. Examples: virus,
protein molecules including antibody originated from nature are some natural nano structured materials.

4. What are artificial nanomaterials?

Artificial nanoparticles are those which are prepared deliberately through a well defined mechanical and
fabrication process. Examples of such materials are carbon nanotubes, semiconductor nanoparticles like quantum
dots etc.

5. How are nanomaterials classified based on their dimension?

 Zero dimensional
 One dimensional
 Two dimensional
 Three dimensional

6. Define density of states.

The density of states of a system describes the number of states per interval of energy of each level that are
available to be occupied by electrons.

7. Give the classification of nanomaterials based on their morphology.

 Nanoparticles
 Nanotubes
 Nanowires

8. How are nanotubes formed?

Nanotubes are formed by rolling up a graphene sheet into a cylinder and capping each end with half of a fullerene
molecule.

9. What are the three types of carbon nanotubes?

There are three types of carbon nanotubes which are
 Armchair
 Zig-zag and
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 Chiral (helical) nanotubes.

10. List the properties of nanoparticles.

1. Nanoparticles are particles between 1 and 100 nanometers in size.
2. They exhibit three-dimensional confinement. This structure does not permit free particle motion in any
dimension.
3. Nanoparticles may exist as amorphous or crystalline structure
4. Nanoparticles melt at lower temperature.

11. What are one dimensional nanomaterials? Give examples.

One dimensional nanomaterials are those in which one dimension of the nanostructure will be outside the
nanometer range. Examples: nanowires, nanorods and nanotubes.

12. Give some properties of carbon nanotubes.

1. Carbon nanotubes are the strongest, flexible and stiffest materials yet discovered in terms of tensile strength and
elastic modulus respectively.
2. The hardness (152 Gpa) and bulk modulus (462–546 Gpa) of carbon nanotubes are greater than diamond, which
is considered the hardest material.
3. Nanotube has a very high current carrying capacity because of the symmetry and unique electronic structure of
graphene.

13. Write a note on nano composites.

Nano composites combine nanoparticles with other nanoparticles or with larger, bulk-type materials. The
composites may be any combination of metal based, carbon based or polymer based nanomaterials with any form
of metal, ceramic, polymer or bulk materials.

14. How are artificial nanomaterials classified?

 Carbon based nanomaterials
 Metal based nanomaterials
 Dendrimers
 Composites

15. What are two dimensional nanomaterials? Give examples.

In two dimensional nanomaterials, two dimensions are outside the nanometer range. These include different kind
of nano films such as coatings and thin-film-multilayers, nanosheets or nano-walls.
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PART B – Answer All Questions

1. Illustrate the strain produced in an elastic material due to the gradual increase in stress with a neat sketch.
2. Consider a wire of length ‘L’ fixed to a rigid support. Let the wire be subjected to a twisting couple at the free
end. Analyze the work done due to the application of couple.
3. Classify the elastic moduli depending on the three types of strain. Explain with necessary diagrams.
4. State and derive the equation for Poisson’s ratio.
5 . Describe the phenomenon of thermal conduction in solids, liquids and gases.
6. Explain the three modes of heat transfer using neat sketches.
7. Derive an expressdion for the quantity of heat transfer across the materials kept parallel.
8. Analyze different methods of thermal insulation in buildings.
9. Interpret black body spectrum using a perfect black body.
10. Deduce Wien’s radiation law and Rayleigh Jean’s law from Planck’s radiation law.
11. Estimate Compton wave shift when θ = 0, 90 and 180. Compare these values with JP Thompson experimental
values.
12. Explain dual nature of matter particles and derive de Broglie wavelength in terms of energy, voltage and
temperature.
13. Explain the following
(a) Characteristics of laser (b) different pumping mechanism in laser.
14. Describe spontaneous absorption and stimulated emission.
15. Illustrate the recording and retrieval of image using holography.
16. What are the advantages of fiber optic communication over the microwave communication?
17. Explain artificial nanomaterials and natural nanomaterials.
18. Derive the density of state for 0D nanomaterials
19. Explain the optical properties of nanomaterials.

PART C – Answer All Questions

1. Consider a unit cube of an isotopic material. Let P, Q and R are the three stresses acting in mutually
perpendicular directions that results in elongation and contraction of the material. Interpret the relation
between elastic constants.
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2. Let us assume that a steel wire of length ‘L’ cm is hung from a rigid rod. A circular metallic disc is
suspended at the free end and when a force is applied the disc executes torsional oscillations. Evaluate an
expression for the rigidity modulus of the wire executing torsional oscillations.

3. Let us assume that a cylindrical wire of length ‘L’ and radius ‘r’ is hung from a rigid support. A torque is
applied at the lower end and the wire is twisted through an angle θ. Evaluate an expression for the twisting
couple on a wire.

4. A slab of uniform area of cross section ‘A’ is heated at one end and due to difference in temperature heat
flows from hot end to cold end. Assuming the time of conduction to be 1 sec, derive an expression for
the coefficient of thermal conductivity.

5. Two slabs A and B were kept in series. Let the end A be heated and its temperature is assumed as θ1 and the
temperature of cold end B is assumed to be θ2. Deduce an expression for quantity of heat flow from slab A
to B which are in physical contact.

6. Explain an appropriate method to determine the thermal conductivity of a bad conductor with necessary
theory and diagram.
7. Explain Photo electric effect with neat diagram.
8. Explain Davisson and Germer experiment.
9. A particle of mass ‘m’ is moving with a potential V(x). Derive Schrodinger time dependent and time
independent wave equation on the assumption that the particle exhibits wave form.
10. Using quantum theory deduce an expression for the average energy emitted by a black body
and arrive at the Planck’s radiation law in terms of frequency. State the assumptions before
starting the derivations.

11. Explain Compton effect and derive an expression for the Compton shift in wavelength that suffered by an
X ray photon when it colloids with an electron.

12. Interpret the Schrodinger wave equation for a particle in a box to obtain the energy Eigen values and
corresponding Eigen functions.

13. Explain quantum tunneling in PN junction diode with illustration.

14. With suitable diagram explain how laser action is achieved in solid state laser.
15. Explain the construction and working of CO2 laser with a neat diagram.
16. Describe the function of hmojunction and Heterojunction semiconductor laser.
17. Derive an expression for acceptance angle and numerical aperture.
18. Explain the classification of fiber optic materials based on materials, modes and refractive index profile.
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19. Explain the construction and working of (a) Displacement sensor, (b) temperature sensor and (c) fiber optic
endoscopy.

20. Derive the density of state for 1D nanomaterials.

21. Derive the density of state for 2D nanomaterials
22. Derive the density of state for 3D nanomaterials