Waves: past paper questions

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• Question 21May/June 2026, paper 11Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  The ray diagram shows light reflecting off a plane mirror. What is the angle between the incident and reflected rays?

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• Question 18Oct/Nov 2025, paper 11Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  The sentences describe sound waves.

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• Question 22May/June 2026, paper 11Multiple choice1 mark

  Which equation gives the speed of a wave?

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• Question 19Oct/Nov 2023, paper 11Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  The diagrams show light travelling in air incident on the surface of a glass block.

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• Question 20Oct/Nov 2025, paper 11Multiple choice1 mark

  The following lists show colours of the spectrum.

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• Question 20Oct/Nov 2023, paper 11Multiple choice1 mark

  Which statement is correct?

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• Question 24May/June 2026, paper 11Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  Light travelling in glass is incident on a glass–air boundary. The angle of incidence of the light is greater than the critical angle. Which arrow shows the direction of the light after it is incident on the boundary?

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• Question 21Oct/Nov 2025, paper 11Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  An object O is placed near to a thin converging lens. The diagram shows three rays of light from the object passing through the lens. Which row describes the image formed and gives the position of a principal focus (focal point) of the lens?

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• Question 28Oct/Nov 2024, paper 11Multiple choice1 mark

  Which waves are longitudinal?

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• Question 21Oct/Nov 2023, paper 11Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  An object is placed in front of a converging lens of focal length $4.0\text{ cm}$. The height of the image is $6.0\text{ cm}$. The arrangement is shown on the scale diagram.

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• Question 25May/June 2026, paper 11Multiple choice1 mark

  Three students suggest an advantage of using optical fibre cables in telecommunications rather than using copper cables.

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• Question 22Oct/Nov 2025, paper 11Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  In which diagram is the path of the light ray not correct?

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• Question 22Oct/Nov 2023, paper 11Multiple choice1 mark

  Which range of sound frequencies includes only frequencies of sound that can be heard by a healthy human ear?

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• Question 26May/June 2026, paper 11Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  An object of height $5.0\text{ cm}$ is placed $2.0\text{ cm}$ from a converging (convex) lens which is being used as a magnifying glass. The image produced is $6.0\text{ cm}$ from the lens and has height $15.0\text{ cm}$. What is the focal length of the lens?

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• Question 19Oct/Nov 2024, paper 12Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  Which row gives the velocity and wavelength of a wave that is an ultrasound wave?

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• Question 24Oct/Nov 2023, paper 12Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  The diagram shows two waveforms. Which arrow shows the wavelength of a longitudinal wave?

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• Question 27May/June 2026, paper 11Multiple choice1 mark

  The approximate range of audible frequencies for a sheep is $100\text{ Hz}$ to $30000\text{ Hz}$. Which statement is correct?

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• Question 20Oct/Nov 2024, paper 12Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  The diagram shows a ray of light incident on a plane mirror. What is the angle of reflection?

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• Question 21Oct/Nov 2024, paper 12Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  An object O is placed in front of a plane mirror. Which diagram shows the image I formed by the mirror?

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• Question 38May/June 2026, paper 11Multiple choice1 mark

  The Sun radiates most of its energy in three regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. What are these three regions?

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• Question 22Oct/Nov 2024, paper 12Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  The diagram shows a ray of light travelling from air to medium Q. What is the critical angle for the boundary between medium Q and air?

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• Question 27Oct/Nov 2023, paper 12Multiple choice1 mark

  Light travelling in air is incident on a water surface. The refractive index of water is $1.3$ and the angle of refraction in the water is ${40}^{\circ }$. What is the angle of incidence in the air?

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• Question 26Oct/Nov 2025, paper 12Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  The table shows the speed and the wavelength for different sound waves in four different materials.

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• Question 23Oct/Nov 2024, paper 12Multiple choice1 mark

  Which two waves are components of the electromagnetic spectrum?

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• Question 28Oct/Nov 2023, paper 12Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  The diagram shows a ray of light passing through a triangular glass block. Which angle is the critical angle of light in glass?

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• Question 21May/June 2026, paper 12Multiple choice1 mark

  The frequency of a wave is $0.60\text{ MHz}$ and the wavelength of the wave is $0.50\text{ km}$. What is the speed of this wave?

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• Question 27Oct/Nov 2025, paper 12Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  Light passes into a transparent material that has a refractive index $n$. The angle of incidence at the surface of the transparent material is $i$. Which equation is used to calculate the angle of refraction $r$ ?

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• Question 4Oct/Nov 2024, paper 21Structured8 marksHas a diagram

  A student directs a beam of white light from a filament lamp towards a glass prism in a dark room. Fig. 4.1 shows the beam of white light incident on the left-hand side of the glass prism. A screen is placed to the right of the glass prism.

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• Question 22May/June 2026, paper 12Multiple choice1 mark

  Which list consists only of transverse waves?

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• Question 28Oct/Nov 2025, paper 12Multiple choice1 markHas a diagram

  Which diagram shows a ray of light that is reflected by a plane mirror?

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