GCSEPhysicsOCR GatewayTopic Questions9. Practical skills9.1 Practical Skills

Practical Skills (OCR Gateway GCSE Physics)

Topic Questions

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1a1 mark

A student investigates how well different balls bounce.

  • She drops five different balls from the same height and measures the height the balls bounce.
  • She repeats the experiment three times for each ball.

q20-paper2-specimen-ocr-gcse-physics

Her results are shown in Table 20.1.

Ball Drop height
(cm)		 Bounce height (cm) Mean
bounce
height (cm)
1st reading 2nd reading 3rd reading
Red 100 75 77 73 75
Blue 100 61 62 60 61
Green 100 60 31 58  
White 100 84 86 85 85
Yellow 100 26 24   26

Table 20.1

Calculate the mean bounce height for the green ball.

Answer = .......................... cm

How did you do?

1b1 mark

The student forgot to write down one of the bounce heights for the yellow ball.

Suggest the missing result for the yellow ball.

Answer = .........................cm

How did you do?

1c3 marks

Evaluate the reliability of the results.

Suggest how she could have improved her experiment.

How did you do?

1d3 marks

Higher Only

 

The student suggests that 15% of the white ball’s initial energy was not transferred usefully.

i)
Show that her suggestion is correct and suggest where the energy has been transferred to.

Use calculations and the information in Table 19.1 to help you answer.

[2]

ii)
How could the efficiency of the ball be improved?

[1]

How did you do?

1e2 marks

Explain how energy is transferred and lost from the ball when it bounces.

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2a1 mark

A student drops a paper ball from a balcony 4.00m high. Her friend measures the time taken for the paper ball to reach the ground.

Suggest the equipment used to measure the height of the balcony and the time taken for the paper ball to reach the ground.

Height ..................................................................................................

Time taken ...........................................................................................

How did you do?

2b6 marks

They record their results in a table.

Attempt 1 2 3 4 5
Time taken (s) 1.84 2.08 2.02 2.08 1.98

i)
Use the data in the table to calculate the mean, median and mode of their results.

Mean = .................................................

Median = ..................................................

Mode = ...................................................

[3]

ii)
The results are not very precise. Explain how you can tell from the data in the table.
 [1]

iii)
Suggest a possible source of error in the experimental method and how it could be improved.

Source of error ...............................................................................

Improvement ...................................................................................

[2]

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3a2 marks

A student wants to investigate how a ball bounces.

He drops the ball from different heights and measures the bounce height each time.

q17-paper2-june2098-ocr-gcse-physics

He calculates the ratio bounce height / drop height.

The table shows his results.

Drop height (cm)  Bounce height (cm)  Bounce height / drop height
100 70 0.70
80 64 0.80
60 54 0.90
40 40 1.00
20    

The student predicts the ratio bounce height / drop height to be 1:1 when the drop height is 20 cm.

i)
Suggest why he has made this prediction.

[1]

ii)

Use ideas about energy to explain why this prediction cannot be correct.

[1]

How did you do?

3b2 marks

Suggest two improvements to his experiment.

1 ........................................................................................................

2 ........................................................................................................

How did you do?

3c3 marks

The mass of the ball is 60 grams.

i)
Calculate the mass of the ball in kg.

Mass = ................................ kg [1]

ii)
Calculate the potential energy of the ball when it is 0.80 m above the ground.

Use your answer to (c)(i) and the equation:
potential energy = mass × height × gravitational field strength

Gravitational field strength = 10 N/kg

Potential energy = ................................ J [2]

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4a3 marks

A student investigates the rate of cooling using a cardboard box to model the walls of a building.

She puts a beaker of hot water into the cardboard box. She measures the temperature of the water every two minutes.

She investigates how the rate of cooling changes with the thickness of the walls.

Describe a method she can use to do this investigation.

How did you do?

4b7 marks

Here are the results of one of her experiments.

Time (minutes) Temperature of water (°C)
0 90
2 75
4 63
6 54
8 47
10 41
12 37

i)
Plot the results on the grid in Fig. 17.1.

Two of the points have been plotted for you.
[2]

ii)
Draw a line of best fit on your graph.
[1]

fig-17-1-paper4-oct-nov2020-ocr-gcse-physics

Fig. 17.1

 

iii)
Describe how the temperature of the water changes with time.
Use data from the graph Fig. 17.1 in your answer

 [2]

iv)
The thickness of the cardboard box is doubled. Everything else stays the same.

Sketch a line on the graph in Fig. 17.1 to suggest what these new results may look like.
Label your line Z.
[1]
v)
Suggest one way to improve the investigation.

 [1]

How did you do?

4c1 mark
c)
Explain why the rate of cooling of a metal box is different to a cardboard box.
Assume the thickness of the walls is the same in both boxes.


[1]

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5a8 marks

Two students investigate the resistance of a wire.

They tape a length of wire to a metre ruler and connect it to a resistance meter using crocodile clips.

q19-paper3-june2018-ocr-gcse-physicsLook at their results.

Length of
wire (cm)		 Resistance (Ω)
Attempt 1 Attempt 2 Attempt 3 Mean
25 8.8 8.3 8.5 8.533
50 16.2 16.1 16.4 16.4
75 23.5 23.8 18.7 23.7
100 30.8 31.1 31.0 31.0

i)
Describe the pattern shown by these results.

Use data in your answer.

[2]

ii)
The students made two mistakes when they recorded their results and completed the table.

Identify the mistakes and explain what they should have done.

[2]

iii)
The students have correctly handled an anomaly in their results.

Identify the anomaly and explain how it was correctly handled.

[2]

iv)
The students plan to plot a graph of mean resistance against length.

What would you expect a graph of these results to look like?

[2]

How did you do?

5b3 marks
i)
The actual mean resistance values are more than expected.

Suggest two possible errors with the experiment.

[2]

ii)
For one of the errors, suggest how the experimental procedure could be improved.

[1]

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6a1 mark

Student A investigates how well different balls bounce.

  • She drops five different balls from the same height and measures the height the ball bounce.
  • She repeats the experiment three times for each ball.

q20-paper4-specimen-ocr-gcse-physics

Her results are shown in Table 20.1.

Ball Drop height
(cm)		 Bounce height (cm)

Mean
bounce height(cm)
1st
reading		 2nd
reading		 3rd
reading
Blue 100 61 62 60 61
Green 100 60 31 59 50
White 100 84 86 85 85
Yellow 100 26 24   26

Table 20.1.

Student A forgot to record one of the bounce heights for the yellow ball in Table 20.1.

Suggest the value of the missing result.

Answer ......................... cm

How did you do?

6b2 marks

Student B does an experiment with bouncing balls.

  • He does his experiment with a drop height of 200 cm.
  • One ball bounces 100 cm.

Student B says that this ball is a better bouncer than any of Student As balls.

Use Table 20.1 and ideas about efficiency to explain why Student B is incorrect.

How did you do?

6c2 marks

Student B uses a new ball. He says this ball is an amazing bouncer.

He says if you drop it from 200 cm it will bounce to a height of 250 cm.

Explain why this is not possible.

How did you do?

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