IGCSE
Cambridge (CIE)
Physics
20 mins
20 questions
Multiple Choice Questions
Thermal Properties &
Temperature
Thermal Expansion / Specific Heat Capacity / Investigating Specific Heat Capacity /
Melting & Boiling / Evaporation
Easy (6 questions)
/6
Medium (7 questions)
/7
Hard (7 questions)
/7
Total Marks
/20
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1
Easy Questions
1 A substance is cooled. The graph below shows how its temperature changes over time.
What is happening in the portion of the graph labelled XY?
A. The gas is cooling.
B. The liquid is freezing.
C. The gas is condensing.
D. The liquid is cooling.
(1 mark)
2 What are the upper and lower fixed points on a Celsius scale thermometer?
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Upper
Lower
A
The boiling point of saturated salt solution.
The freezing point of salt-water
B
The normal temperature of the human body
The freezing point of salt-water
C
The boiling point of pure water
The freezing point of pure water
D
The boiling point of pure water
Absolute zero
(1 mark)
3 A substance, which is initially in its solid form, is heated at a constant rate.
The graph shows how its temperature changes with time.
Between which points is the substance partly a liquid and partly a gas?
A. V and W
B. W and X
C. X and Y
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D. Y and Z
(1 mark)
4 Which statement best describes a metal experiencing thermal expansion?
A. The size of the metal atoms increases
B. The space between the metal atoms increases
C. The metal atoms change state
D. The metal atoms gain enough energy to overcome the intermolecular forces of
attraction holding them in place
(1 mark)
5
Extended
A rise in temperature of a substance increases its
A. gravitational potential energy
B. specific heat capacity
C. mass
D. internal energy
(1 mark)
6 Below are four statements about evaporation. One of them is correct.
Which statement is correct?
A. Evaporation cannot occur if a liquid’s temperature is too low.
B. Evaporation happens equally, in all directions, from all parts of a liquid.
C. Evaporation cannot occur if a liquid is very dense.
D. Evaporation causes the temperature of the evaporating liquid to decrease.
(1 mark)
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4
Medium Questions
1 Wooden barrels are often reinforced by putting tight iron rings around them.
What procedure would make it easier to get the iron ring onto the barrel?
A. Heating the barrel.
B. Cooling the iron ring.
C. Soaking the barrel in water.
D. Heating the iron ring.
(1 mark)
2 In order to calibrate a degrees Celsius thermometer, the lowest fixed point can be found
by placing the thermometer in:
A. Melting ice with a large quantity of salt mixed in.
B. Pure distilled water.
C. Pure boiling water.
D. Pure melting ice.
(1 mark)
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3 An iron cube is heated by a Bunsen burner.
Which of its properties decreases?
A. Mass
B. Density
C. Volume
D. Internal energy
(1 mark)
4 A National Grid engineer connects an electrical cable between two pylons.
The cable is a bit too tight.
What could happen to the wire if the weather became very cold, and why?
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What could happen?
Why?
A
The wire sags low
It expands
B
The wire breaks
It contracts
C
The wire breaks
It becomes brittle
D
The wire’s resistance increases
It contracts
(1 mark)
5 Internal energy is affected by two properties of the particles which make up a
substance.
Identify the two properties.
A. Motion and position
B. Acceleration and mass
C. Specific heat capacity and volume
D. State of matter and potential energy
(1 mark)
6 The diagram shows four water molecules in a swimming pool. It also shows how much
energy each molecule has.
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Which of the water molecules is most likely to evaporate from the liquid?
A. Molecule A
B. Molecule B
C. Molecule C
D. Molecule D
(1 mark)
7 The water in outdoor swimming pools gradually evaporates.
How does the process of evaporation affect the temperature of the water in the
swimming pool and what is the effect on the average kinetic energy of the water
molecules?
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Temperature
Average kinetic energy per molecule
A
reduces
reduces
B
stays the same
stays the same
C
increases
increases
D
reduces
stays the same
(1 mark)
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9
Hard Questions
1 Which of the following statements defines the specific heat capacity of a substance?
A. The energy required to raise the temperature of 1 kg of a substance by 1℃.
B. The energy per ℃ required to raise the temperature of a substance.
C. The increase in length of 1kg of a substance when its temperature is increased by
1℃.
D. The energy required to change 1kg of a substance from a liquid to a gas.
(1 mark)
2 Drinks are often cooled by putting ice cubes into them.
A delicious cocktail is initially at a temperature of 12℃, when a few ice cubes are put into
the drink.
After some time has passed, some of the ice has melted, and the temperature of the
cocktail has dropped to 7 ℃.
What is the temperature of the remaining, unmelted ice?
A. 7 ℃
B. 0 ℃
C. 5 ℃
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D. 2 ℃
(1 mark)
3 Extended Tier Only
A pan, containing 0.750 kg of water which is initially at 13 ℃ is heated by an electric hob.
35 kJ of thermal energy is put into the water and its temperature rises.
You can assume that all the energy supplied by the hob goes into raising the
temperature of the water.
The specific heat capacity of water is 4200 J/kg ℃.
To the nearest ℃, what is the final temperature of the water?
A. 24 ℃
B. 13 ℃
C. 19 ℃
D. 11 ℃
(1 mark)
4 Extended Tier Only
Two beakers, X and Y, containing different liquids are heated by a student.
Both beakers contain the same mass of liquid, and are heated using the same heater set
to the same power.
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The graph shows how the temperature of each liquid changes with time.
What conclusion can be correctly drawn from the graph?
A. X has a higher melting point than Y.
B. Y boils sooner than X.
C. X has a lower specific heat capacity than Y.
D. Y has a higher boiling point than X.
(1 mark)
5 Extended Tier Only
Two metal cylinders, P and Q, are heated using an electric heater. Both of the cylinders
receive exactly the same amount of thermal energy.
The temperature of P increases by a smaller amount than the temperature of Q.
What conclusion can be drawn?
A. P is a better thermal conductor.
B. Q is a better thermal conductor.
C. P has a higher thermal capacity.
D. Q has a higher thermal capacity.
(1 mark)
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6 Extended Tier Only
A student takes two blocks, block 1 and block 2, of different metals and heats them until
the temperature of both has risen by 20℃.
She then leaves both blocks on the desk to cool.
Block 2 has a greater thermal capacity than block 1.
Which of the blocks loses more energy as it cools to room temperature, and which of the
blocks required more energy to raise its temperature by 20℃?
Lost more energy when cooling
Required more energy to heat up.
A
block 1
block 1
B
block 1
block 2
C
block 2
block 1
D
block 2
block 2
(1 mark)
7 Extended Tier Only
In a children’s experiment, a saucer of water is left outside to evaporate.
Which row shows weather conditions that will each cause the rate of evaporation from
the saucer to increase?
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Temperature
Wind speed
A
warm
windy
B
warm
still
C
cool
windy
D
cool
still
(1 mark)
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14