Physical Science

Evaluate Yourself and Improve

Chapter 2

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Reminder:  It is not too early to think about what you hope to achieve from this study and what you have learned in that direction.  Periodically we should recall what we hope to accomplish and evaluate our progress.

Directions

Use the following to evaluate what you understand and what you need to study further:

Part I:

  1. Review the list (made at the end of Chapter 1) of what you hope this course helps you to understand.

  2. Review what you've learned from the experiments and problems so far to determine the value of your observations and measurements.  Rank the following in order of importance:
  3. Recall the possibility that incomplete observations, measurement difficulties and other experimental errors can lead to erroneous conclusions.  For example, how certain are you of the mass changed or didn't change in the experiments you did?  How certain are you that mass is conserved?  What circumstances would be needed to make you more confident?

  4. Has your ideas about scientific proof changed?  Recall that scientists usually acknowledge they might be wrong while other people sometimes claim they have ABSOLUTE TRUTH.  Does a claim to have ABSOLUTE TRUTH make that claim more believable?  Would a claim by a scientist be more believable if it was based on the measurements of many thousands of experiments or a single case studied?

  5. You may wish to ponder if TRUTH via faith and revelation has a better guarantee of not being but the guise of truth originating with Satan?

Part II:

  1. What property is a measure of the amount of space an object occupies?

  2. Which of the following is (are) true about mass?
    1. Mass can be measured using a balance.
    2. Mass is a reliable measure an amount of matter.
    3. Mass is exactly the same thing as weight.
    4. Mass is the same thing as the of space an object.
  3. If you measure yourself and express your answer in KILOGRAMS, you've determined what property?

  4. When measuring volume by displacement, the volume is the
    1. the level of the meniscus while the object is under water.
    2. the height times length times width of the graduated cylinder.
    3. the amount the water level rises in the graduated cylinder.
    4. the volume of water at the start minus the volume in it.
      graduate
  5. Displacement is the best way to find the volume for
    1. liquids.
    2. objects with shapes that are hard to calculate.
    3. objects that are box-shaped.
    4. objects too large to fit in a graduated cylinder.
  6. What is the volume of liquid in the cylinder?

  7. An ice cube with a volume of 3.0 cm3 is placed in a stoppered graduated cylinder.  After it melts the VOLUME will be
    1. less than 3.0 cm3
    2. still 3.0 cm3
    3. more than 3.0 cm3
  8. When the ice cube melts its MASS will be
    1. less than when it was ice.
    2. more than when it was ice.
    3. the same as when it was ice.
  9. Your veterinarian wishes to find your cat’s mass, but the cat won’t stand on the balance at the vet’s.  You hold your cat in your arms and stood on the balance; the mass is 58 kg.  When you stand on the balance alone, the mass shown is 53 kg. what is the mass of your cat?

  10. Which of the following is a law of nature?
    1. One inch equals 2.54 cm.
    2. The gram is a S.I. unit of mass.
    3. Snow falls only when it is cold.
    4. The graduated cylinder measures mL.
  11. Below are changes in mass from an experiment similar to Lab 2-1.  Make a histogram with 0.1 g bin sizes.  Be sure to include all appropriate scales and labels.
    -0.03 g
    0.09 g
    -0.21 g
    0.13 g
    0.20 g
    0.02 g
    0.29 g
    0.8 g
    -0.79 g
    0.03 g
    0.00 g
    -0.01 g
  12. Recall that in Lab 2.1 ice was melted in a container. Explain what might have caused a result of +0.29g?

    glass box
  13. Propose a reasonable explanation for a result of -0.21g?

  14. Consider the air (blue) trapped in the glass box. The box is open on the right end with a piston (brown) keeping air from escaping out the open right end.  The originally volume of air inside is 200 cm3 with the piston located 5 cm from the left end.  This air has a mass of 0.50 g.  When the piston is pulled out to 10 cm from the left end (see arrows), what will be the new volume of the enclosed air ?

  15. With the piston in the new position, what will be the mass of the enclosed air?
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created 11/15/2003
revised 5/20/2004
by D Trapp
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