The mountain · Science ridge · camp 1 of 4
Physics
Physics: forces and motion, energy, electricity, waves and light, and the calculations that turn a description into a number with a unit.
Walk to this camp
Three questions light the next lantern. Nothing to install, no sign-up.
Eight rungs, one trail
Every camp on the mountain has the same eight rungs: the eight altitudes Alpenrise measures, read back in the words of your own school system. Rung 1 is the bottom of secondary school; rung 8 is beyond the final exam.
| Rung | New Zealand | United Kingdom | Cambridge | IB |
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| R1Explorer | Year 7 | Year 7 | Stage 7 | MYP 1 |
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| R2Pathfinder | Year 8 | Year 8 | Stage 8 | MYP 2 |
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| R3Voyager | Year 9 | Year 9 | Stage 9 | MYP 3 |
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| R4Navigator | Year 10 | Year 10 · GCSE yr 1 | IGCSE Yr 1 | MYP 4 |
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| R5Pioneer | Year 11 | Year 11 · GCSE | IGCSE Yr 2 | MYP 5 |
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| R6Summit | Year 12 | Year 12 · AS | AS Level | DP 1 |
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| R7Apex | Year 13 | Year 13 · A Level | A Level | DP 2 |
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| R8Beyond | NZ Scholarship | beyond A Level | STEP prep | DP HL+ |
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One question from each rung
The mountain draws three questions per rung from the same slice as the free placement. Here is one from each rung of Physics, shown without its answer.
- Rung 1 · Explorer · Year 7In tug of war, both teams pull equally hard in opposite directions and the flag in the middle doesn’t move. Why?The forces are equal and opposite, so they cancel out · The rope in the middle is far too heavy for anyone to move · Gravity is holding the flag still in the middle of the rope · Both teams have quietly stopped pulling hard on the rope
- Rung 2 · Pathfinder · Year 8A rescue team fires a signal from a ridge 1 020 m away across a valley. Sound travels at about 340 m/s in air. Determine how long the sound takes to reach the camp, in seconds.
- Rung 3 · Voyager · Year 9Of the 1 250 houses in a valley, 950 are connected to the electricity network. Interpret the figures and determine the percentage of the houses that are connected.
- Rung 4 · Navigator · Year 10A child sits 2 m from the middle (pivot) of a see-saw and pushes down with a force of 150 N. Using moment = force × distance from pivot, what is the moment, in Nm?
- Rung 5 · Pioneer · Year 11A 4 Ω resistor and a 12 Ω resistor are connected in parallel. That parallel pair is then joined in series with a 10 Ω resistor. What is the total resistance of the circuit, in ohms?
- Rung 6 · Summit · Year 122 kg of water at 80 °C is poured into 3 kg of water at 30 °C inside a well-insulated flask, so no energy escapes. The heat lost by the hot water equals the heat gained by the cold water, and both have the same specific heat capacity, so the final temperature is (m₁ × T₁ + m₂ × T₂) ÷ (m₁ + m₂).
What temperature does the mixture settle at, in °C?
- Rung 7 · Apex · Year 13Two resistors of 12 Ω and 24 Ω are joined in parallel. What is their combined resistance, in Ω?
- Rung 8 · Beyond · NZ ScholarshipA steady force acts on a 12 kg trolley for 6 s and changes its speed by 15 m/s. What is the size of the force, in N?
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