Physics Study Guide
Name: _________________________________
Answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
Motion
1. A coconut falls from a 50-foot-tall palm tree. The coconut takes 2 seconds to reach the sand
below. Assume the tree is straight. What is the average speed of the fruit as it falls?
2. What is the difference between speed and velocity?
3. An object falls with an acceleration of 10 m/s2. What will happen to the object’s velocity?
Forces
1. Draw a force diagram for a box being pushed across a table. The box weighs 50 N. The push on
the box is 25 N. Friction is 15 N. Assume the box is not falling through the table (or floating off
of it).
o Which forces in the previous example are balanced? What does that mean for the box’s
speed?
o Which forces in the previous example are unbalanced? What does that mean for the
box’s speed?
o What is the net force on the box in the previous problem?
o Will the box accelerate? Why or why not? If so, in which direction?
2. If a car is driving down the road, traveling at a CONSTANT SPEED, draw a force diagram,
assuming the car weighs 2000 Newtons and is pushing itself forward with 500 Newtons.
3. If the box sits on the table without anyone pushing on it, we would expect the box to stay still as
long as nothing interfered. Which of Newton’s Laws does this expectation demonstrate?
4. Create a scenario where Newton’s third law is clearly demonstrated.
Energy
1. What two things do potential energy depend on? What two things do kinetic energy depend
on?
2. What is the “Law of Conservation of Energy?”
3. If the velocity of a car is doubled, what might we expect to happen to its kinetic energy? What
happens to its potential energy (assuming you’re driving on a flat road)?
4. If two water balloons are filled to the same volume and dropped from rest, but one starts on the
first floor of a house and the second starts on the second floor, how do their potential energies
compare? What do their final kinetic energies look like?
5. Two identical watermelons are prepared for a drop off a building. The second melon is cut in
half. Both are dropped off a roof from the same point. How does the first melon’s final speed
compare to the second melon’s?
6. Using the diagram below, show where a ball rolling down a ramp might be located with the
following energies.
7. What are the seven different types of energy?
8. What kinds of energy can you find in your kitchen? List as many places for each type as you can.
9. During an energy transformation, some energy is always lost as ____________________.
10. Draw the energy transformation diagram for turning on a cell phone. As the phone turns on,
there is a vibration, a jingle, and the screen turns on. Ignore any heat as the phone warms up.
11. Define renewable and non-renewable resources. Give an example of each.
12. What resource is the top electricity-generating resource in the United States?
13. Name two major concerns with fossil fuels. Name two benefits.
14. If a community is looking to produce clean energy and move away from fossil fuels, what kind of
energy should they look to use if they have an abundance of empty, flat, gusty land?
15. Nuclear energy is a very tempting energy source, but the toxic waste produced cannot be stored
easily. How is the waste currently handled? What other cons are associated with nuclear
energy? How is nuclear energy more effective/efficient than energy from fossil fuels?
16. In the picture below, show where all 3 forms of heat transfer are represented.
17. Define insulator and conductor. Give an example of each.
Light and Sound
1. How does light travel differently than sound in a vacuum? What about through a door?
2. What causes an echo?
3. What phase of matter does light travel fastest in?
4. What phase of matter does sound travel fastest in?
5. What color(s) are reflected by a:
o Blue shirt
o Red ball
o Orange flower
6. What color(s) are absorbed by a:
o Purple shirt
o Green grass
o Yellow bug
7. Why does a pencil look broken in a glass of water?
Parent Signature: _______________________________________________________