Units and Measurements

CBSE
Time Allowed : 3 hours
Maximum Marks : 70
Motion in a Straight Line
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
(i) All questions are compulsory.
(ii) Q. no. 1 to 5 are very short answer questions and carry 1 mark each.
(iii) Q. no. 6 to 10 are short answer questions and carry 2 marks each.
(iv) Q. no. 11 to 22 are also short answer questions and carry 3 marks each.
(v) Q. no. 23 is a value based question and carries 4 marks.
(vi) Q. no. 24 to 26 are long answer questions and carry 5 marks each.
(vii) Use log tables if necessary, use of calculators is not allowed.

section-A
1. Does a quantity have different dimensions in
different systems of units?
2. If the size of a nucleus ( 1015m) is scaled up to the
tip of a sharp pin ( 105m), what roughly is the size
of an atom?
3. In the expression, surface area = 4pr2, the factor 4 is
an exact number. How many number of significant
figures are there in the factor 4?
4. A body covered a distance of l metre along a
semicircular path. Calculate the magnitude of
displacement of the body and the ratio of distance
to displacement.
5. Can earth be regarded as a point object when it is
describing its yearly journey around the sun?
section-B
6. Two railway tracks are parallel to west-east
direction. Along one track, A moves with a speed of
54 km h1 from west to east while along the second
track, train B moves with a speed of 90 km h1 from
east to west. Find (in m s1) the (i) relative velocity
of B with respect to A and (ii) relative velocity of
earth with respect to B.
7. Find the value of 60 joule per minute on a system
which has 100 g, 100 cm and 1 minute as the
fundamental units.
OR
The equation of a wave is given by :
p
y = r sinw qp
v
where the symbols have their usual meanings. What
are the dimensions of p and q?
8. The position of a particle moving along a straight
line is given by x = 2 5t + 6t2.
Find the acceleration of the particle at t = 2 s.
9. Show dimensionally that the relation : t = 2p
l
g
is incorrect, where l is length, t is time period of a
simple pendulum and g is acceleration due to gravity.
Find correct form of the relation, dimensionally.

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10. The displacement x of the body in motion is given
by x = A sin(wt + q). Determine the time at which
the displacement is maximum.
section-c
11. (a) Explain the principle of homogeneity of
dimensions.
(b) Pressure is defined as momentum per unit
volume. Is it true?
12. (a) Give two drawbacks of dimensional analysis.
(b) What is the importance of dimensional analysis
inspite of its drawbacks?
13. If a, b, c be the distances moved by a particle moving
with a constant acceleration during the lth, mth and
nth second of its motion respectively, show that
a (m n) + b (n l) + c (l m) = 0.
OR
The driver of a car travelling at a velocity v suddenly
sees a broad wall in front of him at a distance r. Is it
better to brake or to turn sharply? Explain.
14. The velocity of a train increases at a constant rate
a from 0 to v and then remains constant for some
time interval and then finally decreases to zero at a
constant rate b. If the total distance covered by the
particle be x, then show that the total time taken
will be
x v 1 1
t = + + .
v 2 a b
15. (a) State the rules for rounding off a measurement.
(b) Add 7.21, 12.141 and 0.0028 and express
the result to an appropriate number of significant
figures.
16. Which of the following is the most precise device
for measuring length and why?
(a) A vernier calliper with 20 divisions on the
sliding scale, coinciding with 19 main scale
divisions where smallest division on the main
scale is 1 mm.
(b) A screw gauge of pitch 1 mm and 100 division
on the circular scale.
(c) An optical instrument that can measure length
to within a wavelength of visible light.
17. An object has uniformly accelerated motion. The
object always slows down before the time, when
its velocity becomes zero. Prove this statement
graphically, when (a) both u and a are positive (b) u
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is negative and a is positive (c)u is positive and a is
negative and (d) both u and a are negative.
18. (a) What is the necessity of selecting some units as
fundamental units ?
(b) For the estimation of Young's modulus of a
wire, Y = 4 Mg L .
pd 2 l
For the specimen of a wire, following observation
were recorded : L = 2.890, M = 3.00, d = 0.082,
l = 0.087. Calculate the maximum percentage
error in the value of Y and mention which physical
quantity causes maximum error.
19. A balloon is ascending at the rate of 14 m s1 at a
height of 98 m above the ground when a packet is
dropped from the balloon. After how much time
and with what velocity does it reach the ground?
20. A raindrop starts falling from clouds at a
considerable height above the surface of the Earth.
During the fall, the raindrop experiences retardation
due to air resistance. The retardation is directly
proportional to the instantaneous speed of the drop.
Obtain an expression for (a) the distance travelled
by the drop in time t and (b) the terminal speed.
21. (a) What are positive and negative accelerations ?
Give examples.
(b) The position of an object moving along
x-axis is given by x = a + bt2, where a = 8.5 m,
b = 2.5 m s2 and t is measured in seconds. What is
its velocity at t = 0 s and t = 2 s ? What is the average
velocity between t = 2 s and t = 4 s ?
22. (a) How can one determine (i) the distance (ii) the
displacement covered by a uniformly accelerated
body from its velocity-time graph?
(b) Draw position-time graphs for two objects
having zero relative velocity.
section-D
23. Read the given paragraph and answer the following
questions :
As is known, the result of an experiment is
calculated by performing mathematical operations
(like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division,
etc.) on several measurements, which have different
degrees of accuracy. It has been established that
(a) When x = a + b ; Dx = (Da + Db)
(b) When x = a b ; Dx = (Da + Db)
Dx Da Db
(c) When x = a b ; = +
x a b
 a Dx Da Db remain constant. Calculate the velocity with which
(d) When x = ; = + the balls were thrown and the exact time interval
b x a b
(i) Why is absolute error in x = (a b), sum of the between their throw.
absolute errors in a and b ?
a
(ii) Why is fractional error in x = ; sum of
fractional errors in a and b ? b
(iii) What do you learn from this?
section-e
24. Figure shows v t graph for various situations.
What does each graph indicate?
v

A B
D
G
C H
E
I

t
O F
OR
The motion of a particle along a straight line is
described by the equation : x = 6 + 4t2 t4
where x is in metres and t is the positive time in
seconds.
(i) Find the position, velocity and acceleration at
t = 2 s.
(ii) During what time interval is the velocity
positive ?
(iii) During what time interval is x positive?
(iv) What is the maximum possible velocity attained
by the particle?
25. How is random error eliminated? What do you
mean by (i) absolute error (ii) mean absolute error
(iii) relative error and (iv) percentage error ?
OR
State the rules for counting the number of significant
figures in a measured quantity.
26. A ball is dropped from a height of 90 m on a floor.
At each collision with the floor, the ball loses one
tenth of its speed. Plot the speed-time graph of its
motion between t = 0 to 12 s.
OR
A man is standing on top of a building
100 m high. He throws two balls vertically, one at
t = 0 and other after a time interval (less than
2 seconds). The later ball is thrown at a velocity
of half the first. The vertical gap between first and
second ball is +15 m at t = 2 s. The gap is found to

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