Students across the state might run screaming from school buildings this morning for two reasons: 1) They just finished taking the Physics Regents and 2) it’s the last Regents they have to take after more than a week of tests….those last screams would be of the joy variety.

All of the Regents tests are high-stakes for students because they must pass five of them in order to graduate. We wish them all luck. And for you? Here are a few questions from the January 2008 Physics Regents. Enjoy. And don’t worry. we picked the easiest questions.

1) Which is a vector quantity?
(a) speed
(b) work
(c) mass
(d) displacement

2) A ball is thrown straight downward with a speed of 0.50 meter per second from a height of 4.0 meters. What is the speed of the ball 0.70 second after it is released? [Neglect friction.]
(a) 0.50 m/s
(b) 7.4 m/s
(c) 9.8 m/s
(d) 15 m/s

3) Which object has the greatest inertia?
(a) a 5.00-kg mass moving at 10.0 m/s
(b) a 10.0-kg mass moving at 1.00 m/s
(c) a 15.0-kg mass moving at 10.0 m/s
(d) a 20.0-kg mass moving at 1.00 m/s

4) Student A lifts a 50.-newton box from the floor to a height of 0.40 meter in 2.0 seconds. Student B lifts a 40.-newton box from the floor to a height of 0.50 meter in 1.0 second. Compared to student A, student B does
(a) the same work but develops more power
(b) the same work but develops less power
(c) more work but develops less power
(d) less work but develops more power

5) A variable-frequency light source emits a series of photons. As the frequency of the photon increases, what happens to the energy and wavelength of the photon?
(a) The energy decreases and the wavelength decreases.
(b) The energy decreases and the wavelength increases.
(c) The energy increases and the wavelength decreases.
(d) The energy increases and the wavelength increases.

6) A 1.0-kilogram laboratory cart moving with a velocity of 0.50 meter per second due east collides with and sticks to a similar cart initially at rest. After the collision, the two carts move off together with a velocity of 0.25 meter per second due east. The total momentum of this frictionless system is
(a) zero before the collision
(b) zero after the collision
(c) the same before and after the collision
(d) greater before the collision than after the collision

BONUS
7) Gravitational forces differ from electrostatic forces in that gravitational forces are
(a) attractive, only
(b) repulsive, only
(c) neither attractive nor repulsive
(d) both attractive and repulsive

Answers after the jump.

1) d
2) b
3) d
4) a
5) c
6) c
7) a