VCE Physics practice exams and worked solutions

What the course asks of you

Motion and forces

Newton's laws, momentum and energy applied to collisions and circular motion.

Fields

Gravitational, electric and magnetic fields, and the forces they exert.

Electricity

Circuits, generators and transformers, and where energy goes.

Light and matter

Wave and particle behaviour, and the evidence for each.

Sample questions

Written for this site, in the style of the exam. Answer first, then see the model response and what the marks were for.

1. Question 1

   1 mark

   A 2.0 kg trolley moving at 3.0 m/s collides with a stationary 4.0 kg trolley and they move off together. Their common velocity immediately after the collision is:
   A. 0.50 m/sB. 1.0 m/sC. 1.5 m/sD. 3.0 m/s
   Check answer

2. Question 2

   4 marks

   A car of mass 1200 kg travels around a horizontal circular bend of radius 50 m at a constant speed of 15 m/s. a. Calculate the magnitude of the net force acting on the car. b. State the direction of this force and identify what provides it.
   Show the model answer

3. Question 3

   3 marks

   Explain why a transformer will not operate on a direct current supply.
   Show the model answer

4. Question 4

   3 marks

   In a photoelectric effect experiment, increasing the intensity of the incident light while keeping its frequency constant increases the number of photoelectrons emitted but not their maximum kinetic energy. Explain this observation.
   Show the model answer