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Centre
No.

Initial(s)

Paper Reference

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No.

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Paper Reference(s)

6736/01

Examiners use only

Edexcel GCE
Physics
Advanced Level

Team Leaders use only

Question Leave
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Unit Test PHY6

Tuesday 16 June 2009 Afternoon

Time: 2 hours

Materials required for examination

Nil

3
4

Items included with question papers

Insert

Instructions to Candidates
In the boxes above, write your centre number, candidate number, your signature, your surname and
initial(s).
Answer ALL questions in the spaces provided in this question paper.
In calculations you should show all the steps in your working, giving your answer at each stage.
Calculators may be used.
Include diagrams in your answers where these are helpful.

Information for Candidates

This question paper is designed to give you the opportunity to make connections between different
areas of physics and to use skills and ideas developed throughout the course in new contexts.
You should include in your answers relevant information from the whole of your course, where
appropriate.
You should have an insert that is the passage for use with Section I.
The marks for individual questions and the parts of questions are shown in round brackets.
There are four questions in this paper. The total mark for this paper is 80.
The list of data, formulae and relationships is printed at the end of this booklet.

Advice to Candidates
You will be assessed on your ability to organise and present information, ideas, descriptions and
arguments clearly and logically, taking account of your use of grammar, punctuation and spelling.
This publication may be reproduced only in accordance with
Edexcel Limited copyright policy.
2009 Edexcel Limited.
Printers Log. No.

H31180A
W850/R6736/57570 6/5/6/4/

Total

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*H31180A0124*

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*H31180A0224*

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SECTION I
Read the passage on the separate insert and then answer the Section I questions.
(a) Use paragraph 1 of the passage to write two nuclear equations showing the two stages
by which 210Po is produced from 83Bi.
Equation 1:

Equation 2:

(4)
(b) On the grid below sketch a graph to show how the activity of a sample of polonium-210,
with an initial activity of 100 GBq, would vary over one year of 365 days.

80

60

40

20

A / GBq

100

1.

100

200

300

400

t / days
(3)

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(c) (i) Use the equation given in the passage to calculate the activity of this 100 GBq
sample of polonium-210 after one year of 365 days.
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(ii) Show how the equation given in the passage can be deduced from the two basic
relationships
A = A0et

and

t = ln 2

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(4)

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(d) Describe how, in principle and assuming safe conditions, you could experimentally
compare the energy of the -particles from polonium-210 with those from a radium
source.
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(3)
(e) A single gram of polonium-210 contains 2.86 1021 atoms.
Show that such a radioactive source generates about 140 W of power.
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(f) Suggest and explain one reason why polonium-210 is a suitable choice for use in
artificial satellite RTGs and one reason that limits its use there.
Suitable for use: ............................................................................................................
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Limits its use: ...............................................................................................................
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(4)
(g) One such RTG uses 12 thermocouples, each of 4.0 mV, connected in an array of three
parallel groups of four thermocouples in series. This produces an e.m.f. of 16.0 mV.
(i) Draw this arrangement, representing each thermocouple by the symbol for an
electric cell.

*H31180A0624*

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(ii) If each thermocouple (cell) in this arrangement has an internal resistance

of 0.30 , what is the resistance of your arrangement between the 16.0 mV
terminals?
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(iii) Suggest an advantage of such an arrangement for producing a 16.0 mV source.
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(4)

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(h) (i) Describe how a thermocouple operates as a heat engine when it produces a
current. You may be awarded a mark for the clarity of your answer.
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(ii) What is the maximum efficiency possible for a heat engine acting between
temperatures of +80 C and 20 C?
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(6)
(Total 32 marks)
TOTAL FOR SECTION I: 32 MARKS

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Q1

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SECTION II
(Answer ALL questions)
2.

(a) Describe the principle of operation of either the cloud chamber or the bubble chamber
in detecting the tracks of charged particles.
You may be awarded a mark for the clarity of your answer.
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(b) This famous photograph was produced in a cloud chamber in 1933 by Carl Anderson.
It shows the path of a charged particle that penetrates a lead plate in the middle of
the chamber. There is a 1.5 T magnetic field which acts down into the plane of the
photograph.

(i) State the direction in which the charged particle is moving explaining your
answer.
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(ii) Hence explain how the sign of the charge on the particle can be deduced. State
the sign of this particles charge.
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(iii) In the upper part of the photograph the charged particle is moving in a circle of
radius 50 mm (the photograph is reduced). The magnitude of its momentum as
it moves in this circle is 1.2 1020 N s.
Deduce, showing your working, the size of the particles charge.
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(7)
(c) The large magnetic field used by Anderson could have been expressed as
1.5 V s m2.
Show that the unit V s m2 is equivalent to the tesla.
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(3)

Q2

(Total 15 marks)

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3.

(a) The graph below shows how the length of a spring varies with the force F that is
stretching it.
20

F/N

16

12

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

, / cm
(i) Show that the energy stored in the spring when stretched by opposite forces of
16 N is about 3 J.
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(ii) Use the information in the graph to make a table showing how the energy E
stored in the spring varies with the extension x of the spring.

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(iii) Sketch a graph showing the general shape of E against x for this spring. (Do not
attempt to produce an accurate graph.)

(7)
(b) The following statement describes the mechanical behaviour of a spring: When
opposite forces are applied to the ends of a spring they displace the ends of the spring,
i.e. they make it longer.
Write an analogous statement to describe the electrical behaviour of a capacitor.
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*H31180A01324*

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(c) Figure 1 shows three identical springs stretched between two fixed bars and Figure 2
shows three identical capacitors connected in series.
Figure 1

Figure 2

Explain as fully as possible the analogy between these two arrangements. You may
wish to label the diagrams to help your explanation.
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(4)
(d) Describe one other way in which a capacitor is used as part of a different analogy.
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(2)
(Total 16 marks)
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4.

(a) Communications satellites move in geosynchronous Earth orbits.

(i) What is meant by a geosynchronous Earth orbit?
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(ii) Show that for a satellite moving at a speed in a circle of radius r around the
Earth
GmE
2 =
r
where mE is the mass of the Earth and G is the universal gravitational constant.
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(iii) Hence derive an expression relating the radius of a satellites orbit to the product
GmE and the orbital period T.
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*H31180A01524*

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(b) Communications satellites in geosynchronous orbits are 3.6 107 m above the Earths
surface. They broadcast to Earth on frequencies in the range 19.7 GHz to 21.2 GHz.
Diffraction effects occur at the aperture of the satellites transmitting dish. This
means that the transmitted beam spreads out forming a footprint on the Earth as
shown below.
sunlight

N
Earth

footprint
geosynchronous
satellite

beam width
S

solar
panel
NOT TO SCALE

(i) Show that the wavelength of a signal broadcast at 20.5 GHz is approximately
15 mm.
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(ii) For a signal with a beam width of 1.6, estimate the diameter of the footprint on
the Earth produced by such a communications satellite.
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(3)
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(c) How would you demonstrate the diffraction of waves having a wavelength of
approximately 15 mm in the laboratory?

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(d) Communications satellites use solar panels to supply electrical power. The intensity
of sunlight at a satellites orbit is 1.4 kW m2.
State and explain two reasons why 2.5 m2 of solar panel will not produce the 3.5 kW
needed for the continuous operation of a communications satellite.
Reason 1 ........................................................................................................................
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Reason 2 ........................................................................................................................
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(4)
(Total 17 marks)
TOTAL FOR SECTION II: 48 MARKS
TOTAL FOR PAPER: 80 MARKS

END

18

*H31180A01824*

Q4

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*H31180A01924*

19

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20

*H31180A02024*

List of data, formulae and relationships

Data
c 3.00 u108 m s 1

Speed of light in vacuum

Gravitational constant

6.67 u10 11 N m 2 kg 2

Acceleration of free fall

9.81m s 2

Gravitational field strength

Elementary (proton) charge

e 1.60 u10 19 C

me

Electronic mass

9.81 N kg

(close to the Earth)

1

(close to the Earth)

9.11 u10 31 kg

1eV 1.60 u10 19 J

Electronvolt
Planck constant

h 6.63 u10  34J s

Unified atomic mass unit

Molar gas constant

u 1.66 u10 27 kg

R 8.31J K 1 mol 1

Permittivity of free space

H0

8.85 u10 12 F m 1

k 1/ 4S H 0

Coulomb law constant

8.99 u10 9 N m 2 C 2

Permeability of free space

P0

4Su 107 N A 2

Rectilinear motion
For uniformly accelerated motion:
v

u  at

x ut  12 at 2
v2

u 2  2ax

Forces and moments

Moment of F about O = F u (Perpendicular distance from F to O)
Sum of clockwise moments
Sum of anticlockwise moments
about any point in a plane = about that point
Dynamics
Force
Impulse

'v
't

F 't

'p

Fv

'p
't

Mechanical energy
Power
Radioactive decay and the nuclear atom
Activity
Half-life

A ON

Ot 12

(Decay constant O)

0.69

*H31180A02124*

21

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Electrical current and potential difference

I nAQv
Electric current
Electric power

I 2R

H  Ir

Electrical circuits
Terminal potential difference

6H

Circuit e.m.f.

(E.m.f. H Internal resistance r)

6IR

Resistors in series

R1  R2  R3

Resistors in parallel

1
R

1
1
1


R1 R2 R3

Heating matter
Change of state:

energy transfer

Heating and cooling:

energy transfer

l 'm (Specific latent heat or specific enthalpy change l)

mc'T (Specific heat capacity c; Temperature change '7)

T /qC T/K  273

Celsius temperature
Kinetic theory of matter
Temperature and energy

T v Average kinetic energy of molecules

Kinetic theory

1
3

U c 2

Conservation of energy
'U

Change of internal energy

'Q  ' W

Efficiency of energy transfer

Useful output
Input

Heat engine

T1  T2
T1

maximum efficiency

Circular motion and oscillations

Angular speed

'T
't

Centripetal acceleration

v2
r

Period

1
f

(Energy transferred thermally 'Q;

Work done on body 'W)

v
r

(Radius of circular path r)

2S
Z

(Frequency f )

Simple harmonic motion:

displacement x
maximum speed
acceleration a

x0 cos 2 Sft
2Sfx0

(2Sf )2 x

For a simple pendulum

2S

l
g

For a mass on a spring

2S

m
k

22

*H31180A02224*

(Spring constant k)

Waves
Intensity

P
4Sr 2

xs
D

hf

(Distance from point source r;

Power of source P)

Superposition of waves
Two slit interference

(Wavelength O; Slit separation s;

Fringe width x; Slits to screen distance D)

Quantum phenomena
Photon model

hf  M

Maximum energy of photoelectrons

hf

Energy levels

de Broglie wavelength
Observing the Universe

'f
f

Doppler shift

(Work function M

E1  E2
h
p

'O v
|
O c

Hd

F /m

Gm / r 2 , numerically

F /Q

for radial field

kQ / r 2

for uniform field

E V /d

Hubble law

(Planck constant h)

(Hubble constant H)

Gravitational fields
Gravitational field strength
for radial field

(Gravitational constant G)

Electric fields
Electric field strength

For an electron in a vacuum tube

e'V

(Coulomb law constant k)

' ( 12 mev 2)

Capacitance
2
1
2 CV

Energy stored

Capacitors in parallel

C1  C2  C3

Capacitors in series

1
C

1
1
1


C1 C 2 C3

Time constant for capacitor

discharge

RC

*H31180A02324*

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Magnetic fields
Force on a wire

BIl

Magnetic flux density (Magnetic field strength)

in a long solenoid

P0 nI

near a long wire

P0 I /2 Sr

Magnetic flux

BA

E.m.f. induced in a coil

(Permeability of free space P0)

N ')
't

(Number of turns N)

Accelerators
Mass-energy
Force on a moving charge

'E

c 2 'm

BQv

Analogies in physics
Q Q0e t / RC

Capacitor discharge

t 12
RC

ln 2

N = N0eOt

Radioactive decay

Ot1
2

ln 2

Experimental physics
Percentage uncertainty =

Estimated uncertainty u 100%

Average value

Mathematics
sin(90 q  T ) cos T

ln( x n ) n ln x
ln(e kx ) kx

Equation of a straight line

Surface area
Volume

cylinder

2Srh  2Sr 2

sphere

4 Sr 2

cylinder

Sr 2h

sphere

For small angles:

mx  c

4
3

Sr 3

sin T | tan T | T

(in radians)

cosT | 1

24

*H31180A02424*