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    STEMS 2021 Phy A Final Solutions

    Uploaded by

    Anju Gupta
    This document contains solutions to physics problems from the 2021 Category A final round: 1. The first problem involves thermal expansion in a Wheatstone bridge circuit. The maximum expansion cannot occur since the resistors are non-zero. 2. The second problem involves minimal surfaces. The area of a soap film spanning a tetrahedron is less than the surface area of the tetrahedron. Forces acting on two point charges connected by a rod are analyzed. 3. The third problem proves that points on a plane mirror are equidistant from the incident and reflected rays using proposition and induction. If a circle is drawn centered at the meeting point of two mirrors, it will touch all reflected rays.

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    STEMS 2021 Phy A Final Solutions

    Uploaded by

    Anju Gupta
    22 views3 pages
    This document contains solutions to physics problems from the 2021 Category A final round: 1. The first problem involves thermal expansion in a Wheatstone bridge circuit. The maximum expansion cannot occur since the resistors are non-zero. 2. The second problem involves minimal surfaces. The area of a soap film spanning a tetrahedron is less than the surface area of the tetrahedron. Forces acting on two point charges connected by a rod are analyzed. 3. The third problem proves that points on a plane mirror are equidistant from the incident and reflected rays using proposition and induction. If a circle is drawn centered at the meeting point of two mirrors, it will touch all reflected rays.

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    This document contains solutions to physics problems from the 2021 Category A final round: 1. The first problem involves thermal expansion in a Wheatstone bridge circuit. The maximum expansion cannot occur since the resistors are non-zero. 2. The second problem involves minimal surfaces. The area of a soap film spanning a tetrahedron is less than the surface area of the tetrahedron. Forces acting on two point charges connected by a rod are analyzed. 3. The third problem proves that points on a plane mirror are equidistant from the incident and reflected rays using proposition and induction. If a circle is drawn centered at the meeting point of two mirrors, it will touch all reflected rays.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    22 views3 pages

    STEMS 2021 Phy A Final Solutions

    Uploaded by

    Anju Gupta
    This document contains solutions to physics problems from the 2021 Category A final round: 1. The first problem involves thermal expansion in a Wheatstone bridge circuit. The maximum expansion cannot occur since the resistors are non-zero. 2. The second problem involves minimal surfaces. The area of a soap film spanning a tetrahedron is less than the surface area of the tetrahedron. Forces acting on two point charges connected by a rod are analyzed. 3. The third problem proves that points on a plane mirror are equidistant from the incident and reflected rays using proposition and induction. If a circle is drawn centered at the meeting point of two mirrors, it will touch all reflected rays.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    Physics Category A 2021

    Final Round Solutions

    1 Solution
    (a)
    The maximum of thermal expansion occurs when there is minimum in equivalent
    resistance.
    Ri ∈ R+ , therefore the minimum of equivalent resistance occurs only when
    R1 = R4 = 0, but it is given that all of the resistors are non-zero, implies there
    does not exist a situation where maximum thermal expansion happens in this
    domain.

    (b)
    There does not exist such a condition, hence there does not exist such an equiv-
    alent resistance.
    (Note: This was an intentionally unconventional question to check the under-
    standing of students in Wheatstone bridge.)

    (c)
    The plate will have the same shape after any time t with its geometrical prop-
    erties unaltered.
    After any time t the plate will just be an enlarged version, scaled by an amount
    greater than 1 with its area increasing time.

    2 Solution
    (a)
    Let the vertices of the tetrahedron be A, B, C, D and the geometric center of
    the tetrahedron be O .
    The film of the soap bubble is the set of all points in the lines joining the
    geometric centre and the edges/vertices of the tetrahedron.
    The current shape is the minimal surface area given a set of boundaries for the
    soap film, the boundaries being the edges of tetrahedron.

    1
    Also define a := AB = BC = CD = DA.
    √
    3 2
    Area of tetrahedron = Stetrahedron = 4 × a
    √ 24
    = 3a
    1 1
    Area spanned by soap film = Sf ilm = 6 × √ · a2
    2 2 2
    3
    = √ a2
    2 2
    By taking the ratios one can easily figure out that Sf ilm < Stetrahedron .

    (b)
    Drawing FBD for the system containing the charges at A and B, and the rod
    joining AB.
    Let the force exerted by object xi on xj be represented by Fxi xj . The forces
    FCA and FCB are equal in magnitude therefore the net force of them lie along
    the bisector of ∠ACB which is a median of 4ACB.
    Similarly FDA and FDB the net force will lie along ∠ADB which is a median
    of 4ADB.
    Now both of the medians intersect in AB, lets say at M . They are equally
    aligned with respect to OM and the net force in both cases have equal mag-
    nitude, therefore the final net force by the point charges by electrostatic and
    −→
    gravitational field on this system lies along OM . For surface tension, the force
    −→
    lies in the plane of the surface and by symmetry it is along M O. Remember
    2 2
    that kq −Gm
    a2 ≥ 0 because otherwise the system will collapse to a single point
    which will violate our condition given in the question i.e. the soap film’s nature
    and shape is unaltered at all times.
    We are left only to write force equations:

    kF~surface tension k = kF~field k


    r !!
    kq − Gm2
       
    ◦ 2
    2aT = 2 2 cos (30 ) cos cos−1
    a2 3
    √ ! r !
    kq − Gm2
    
    3 3 2
    a = (4)
    2 3 2T
    s√
    3 2(kq 2 − Gm2 )
    ∴ aeq =
    T

    2
    3 Solution
    Proposition 1: Distance of any point on a plane mirror is equidistant from both
    the incident and reflect ray(Can be proved synthetically as well as analytically).

    (a)
    Use Proposition 1, take the point of consideration on the mirror(s) to be the
    meeting point of mirrors in the normal plane specified, call the point O.
    For the first mirror the incident and reflected ray are equidistant. A ray after
    n reflections will be equidistant from the (n − 1)nth ray with respect to O. By
    induction all rays are equidistant from O.

    (b)
    From the previous part we know that if a circle of radius r = dmeeting point, incident ray
    is drawn with centre at O, it will touch all the rays.

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