Category Archives: High School

Items appropriate for use in a high school physics course.

A2L Item 270

Goal: Unspecified.

Source: Unspecified.

A person throws a ball straight up. The ball rises to a maximum height
and falls back down so that the person catches it. When is the
acceleration of the ball at its MAXIMUM?

  1. Just after it leaves the person’s hand.
  2. At its maximum height.
  3. Just before the person catches it.
  4. Both 1 and 3.
  5. None of the above.

Commentary:

None provided.

A2L Item 262

Goal: Hone the concept of a collision

Source: CT151.2S02-43

A cart
of mass m is moving with speed v. Is it possible for the kinetic energy
or the momentum to be larger after a collision?

  1. No; it is impossible
  2. Yes; the kinetic energy can be larger
  3. Yes; the momentum can be larger
  4. Yes; both can be larger

Commentary:

Answer

(4) Many students get fixated on the idea that all collisions are head
on and cause the object to lose energy and momentum.

A2L Item 263

Goal: Reason regarding interactions

Source: CT151.2S02-43

A
cart of mass 2m collides and sticks to a cart of mass m that is
initially at rest. Which cart exerts the larger force on the other?

  1. m
  2. 2m
  3. Both exert the same force
  4. Cannot be determined

Commentary:

Answer

(3) Yet another instance of Newton’s Third Law. Some students still
stumble because they the question considers the object exerting the
larger force as opposed to the one having the larger force applied to
it.

A2L Item 260

Goal: Interrelate representations of kinematical quantities

Source: CT151.2-10

An object’s motion is described by the graph above. The displacement
of the object during the entire 16 seconds is most nearly…

  1. 200 meters
  2. 250 meters
  3. 300 meters
  4. 350 meters
  5. 400 meters
  6. 450 meters
  7. Cannot be determined

Commentary:

Answer

(7) Students have difficulty reading graphs and finding areas.