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Edexcel GCSE Science
Physics topic P1a
Specimen multiple-choice paper
Foundation and Higher Tiers
Date:
Time: 20 minutes

Materials required for examination Items included with question papers

Multiple Choice Answer Sheet None
HB pencil, eraser and calculator

Instructions to Candidates
FOUNDATION TIER CANDIDATES ANSWER QUESTIONS 1- 24
HIGHER TIER CANDIDATES START AT QUESTION 17. ANSWER QUESTIONS 17-40
Use an HB pencil. Do not open this booklet until you are told to do so.
Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet
NB. All candidates are to answer questions 17 – 24

Before the test begins:

Check that the answer sheet is for the correct test and that it contains your candidate details.

How to answer the test:

For each question, choose the right answer, A, B, C or D and
A B D
mark it in HB pencil on the answer sheet.
For example, the answer C would be marked as shown.
Mark only one answer for each question. If you change your mind about an answer, rub out the
first mark carefully, then mark your new answer.
Do any necessary calculations and rough work in this booklet. You may use a calculator if you
wish.
You must not take this booklet or the answer sheet out of the examination room.

This publication may only be reproduced in accordance with Edexcel copyright policy
Printer’s Log No. © 2006 Edexcel

1 Turnover

DRAFT
 FOUNDATION TIER CANDIDATES ANSWER QUESTIONS 1- 24
HIGHER TIER CANDIDATES START AT QUESTION 17.

Rakesh’s garden lights

Rakesh buys some solar lights for her garden.

1. The solar lights contain cells which charge up during the day.

The cells are a source of

A magnetic energy
B electrical energy
C sound energy
D chemical energy

2. Which electrical component causes the lights to come on when it gets dark?

A light-dependent resistor (LDR)

B resistor
C voltmeter
D ammeter

3. One evening Rakesh noticed the lights did not stay on as long as usual.

This was because the weather during the day had been

A cloudy
B sunny
C windy
D cold

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4. Rakesh has a friend called Peter.

Peter said to Rakesh:

‘‘Why did you buy solar
powered lights instead of
battery powered lights?’’

Solar powered lights

A are friendlier to the environment

B harm the environment
C give out a brighter light
D have higher running costs

5. Rakesh noticed that one solar light was not working.

She used a meter to test if there was any current flowing.

Which diagram below shows the correct way to measure the current in a lamp?

A B

D
C

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 Kath’s kitchen

Kath wants to buy some new appliances for her kitchen.

6. Kath buys a new kettle.

The table gives some information about Kath’s new kettle.

energy transferred in boiling 1 400

litre of water (kJ)
time taken to boil 1 litre of water 200
(seconds)

What is the power in kW of the kettle?

A 0.5
B 2
C 200
D 2300

7. The kettle Kath buys has a metal casing.

Which of the following safety features of the kettle are needed to protect Kath from getting an
electric shock?

A fuse and earth wire

B fuse on its own
C earth wire on its own
D fuse and a rubber mat to stand on

8. Kath buys a tumble drier.

Cost of 1 kWh = 10p

Power of tumble drier = 3 kW

cost = power x time x cost of 1 kWh

How much would it cost to use the tumble drier for 3 hours?

A 10 p
B 30 p
C 90 p
D 270 p

4 Turnover
9. Kath buys a battery powered whisk.
This contains a direct current (d.c.) motor.
The d.c. motor in the stirrer is based on the model below:

The part labelled ‘X’ is

A a coil
B an axle
C a magnet
D a commutator

10. Kath’s stirrer has a speed control.

This uses a variable resistor with the motor and the battery.
battery

variable
resistor

motor

Which of the following is correct when the speed of the stirrer is fastest

A the resistance of the variable resistor is lowest

B the current in the motor is lowest
C the voltage from the battery is highest
D the resistance of the variable resistor is highest

5 Turn over
11. Kath’s stirrer is efficient.

This means that it can produce a lot of

A movement energy
B chemical energy
C sound energy
D heat (thermal) energy

12. Kath buys a new energy efficient oven.

This means that the new oven will

A use a lower voltage

B use more power
C cost more to run
D waste less heat energy

John’s digital camera

13. John’s camera needs two rechargeable 1.5 V batteries.

John is interested in how much current the batteries deliver.

In order to work out the current delivered by each battery, he would have to know the camera’s

A power and resistance

B charge and the power
C resistance only
D power only

14. The electric current in the camera is a flow of

A electrons
B protons
C neutrons
D both protons and electrons

15. John processes the camera images on his computer.

As the speed of the computer processors has become faster, the size of the electrical circuits in
the computer have

A stayed the same

B increased
C decreased
D increased, then stayed the same

6 Turnover
16. Some people prefer digital cameras to traditional cameras because

A printing is easier and quicker

B digital cameras use batteries
C traditional cameras are smaller and lighter
D traditional cameras are cheaper

7 Turn over
 FOUNDATION TIER CANDIDATES ANSWER QUESTIONS 17 - 24
HIGHER TIER CANDIDATES START HERE.

Anna rides her bike at night

Anna has a dynamo to power her bicycle right on the wheel of her bicycle. When the wheel
spins the dynamo turns and the lights on her bike come on. The shaft of the dynamo is
connected to the wheel. The dynamo for the bicycle lights is based on the one below.

17. The part labelled X is the

A axle
B brush
C coil
D magnet

18. Anna notices that the brightness of the light changes as she rides.
The lights are brightest when she is pedaling on a road which is

A uphill and rough

B downhill and smooth
C uphill and smooth
D downhill and rough

8 Turnover
19. Anna’s bike has lights which can be powered by a battery as well the dynamo.

This means that

A the lights will be brighter

B the lights are dimmer when she is pedalling
C when the bicycle is stationary the lights stay on
D she does not need to pedal when going downhill

20. Anna is pedalling at a constant speed.

Which of these shows the current used by the lights?

current current

0 0
time time

A B

current current

0 0
time
time

C D

9 Turn over
 Chei’s electric scooter

Chei has a new electric scooter.

• it has a rechargeable battery

• Chei measured the battery voltage
• he rode the scooter in four places and measured the different currents
• he then calculated the power of the motor
• he put the results in the table below

I was Current in amps voltage in volts power in watts

going uphill 20 12 240
going down hill -2 12 -24
on a level road 6 12 72
going round a corner 10 12 120

21. Which formula did Chei use to calculate the power?

A current + voltage = power

B current – voltage = power
C current x voltage = power
D current ÷ voltage = power

22. The result for the current going downhill is negative because

A the battery is flat

B the battery is charging
C the battery is discharging
D the scooter is slowing down

23. The battery’s capacity is 12 Amp-hours.

For how long could Chei ride the scooter on a level road?

A 0.5 hours
B 2 hours
C 18 hours
D 72 hours

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24. Chei wants to visit a friend who lives at the top of a hill on the other side of town.

Which of the following statements is correct if Chei rides there on his scooter rather than
walking?

A it is less tiring, but less environmentally friendly

B it is more tiring, but less environmentally friendly
C it is less tiring, but more environmentally friendly
D it is more tiring, but more environmentally friendly

FOUNDATION TIER CANDIDATES STOP

HIGHER TIER CANDIDATES CONTINUE TO THE END.

TOTAL FOR FOUNDATION-TIER PAPER: 24 MARKS

11 Turn over
 QUESTIONS 25- 40 MUST BE ANSWERED BY HIGHER TIER CANDIDATES
ONLY.

Testing a new car.

Helen is testing an electric car for the manufacturers. She uses it for going to work and
travelling around the city. The car stores energy in a large battery.

25. Helen needs to reverse back into a parking space so the motor has to rotate in the opposite
direction.

To do this

A more coils are added

B the magnetic field is decreased
C the battery connections to the motor are reversed
D the brushes and commutator are reversed

26. The useful power output from the motor in Helen’s car is 20kW when the total power input is
25kW.

The efficiency of the motor is

A 5%
B 45%
C 80%
D 125%

There is a plan to make a motor for the car with superconducting coils instead of magnets.
These coils have lower resistance than ordinary coils.

27. Which row of the table shows the effect of replacing ordinary coils with superconducting coils?

maximum safe coil current efficiency of motor

A Increases increases
B Decreases decreases
C Decreases increases
D Increases decreases

12 Turnover
28. The battery in Helen’s new car costs 3.2p to recharge each week.

• Helen needs to recharge the battery four times each week

• it takes four hours to re-charge the battery each time
• the cost of 1kWh is 8p

cost = power × time × cost of 1 kWh

The power rating of the battery charger is

A 0.025 kW
B 0.065 kW
C 0.1 kW
D 6.4 kW

29. Which of these graphs below show the current from the battery when the motor is running at a
constant speed?

30. Which of these is a reason for not using the electric car in the city?

A its top speed is 60 mph

B there are few recharging stations
C electric motors are very efficient
D the motor in an electric car uses direct current

13 Turn over
 Helen’s car has climate control which uses a thermistor where resistance decreases when the
temperature rises.

She set up this equipment to find the resistance of the thermistor at room temperature.

31. Before starting to heat the water which quantities must she measure?

A voltage and current only

B energy and voltage only
C temperature, current and voltage only
D energy, current and voltage only

32. Helen plotted a graph of her results and found that she had a npt thermistor.
Which of these looks most like the graph she would obtain?

14 Turnover
 Smart houses

Ahmed wanted to turn his house into a ‘smart’ house.

33. Ahmed drew a table about wind power.

Which of these statements is true?

costs after power always

installation available
A Low yes
B Low no
C High no
D High yes

34. Ahmed read an article that said that some solar cells used to heat water could be up to 17%
efficient.

This means that

A 17% of the light energy is transferred to heat

B 17% of the heat energy is transferred from the light
C 83% of the light energy is transferred to heat
D 83% of the heat energy is transferred from the light

35. Ahmed also wanted to know how the temperature in the smart house was controlled using a
thermistor. He decided to investigate how the resistance of a thermistor changes between 0 oC
and 100 oC.

Which set of axes below should he use to display his results?

A B

C D

15 Turn over
36. Ahmed thought that these smart houses would need a lot of current. He worked out how much
current it would need to run five light bulbs. Each light bulb was 12 W and ran off the 240 V
mains. He used the following equation.

power = voltage × current

How much current is needed to run five light bulbs?

A 0.05 A
B 0.025 A
C 0.25 A
D 0.5 A

37. Ahmed thought that a rechargeable battery would be useful in a smart house to power the
security lamps.
The lamps use a current of 0.2A.
He researched some information on the internet.
The table shows some technical details about two types of rechargeable battery.

value vigour
Type NiCd NiMH
MAhr 800 2500
recharge time 5 hours 12 hours
number of times it can be recharged 1000 420

One good reason for NOT buying a value battery is

A it has no memory effect

B it recharges quite quickly
C it won’t power the lamps all night
D it can be recharged 1000 times

Ahmed found more information about the vigour rechargeable battery.

The graph shows the voltage that the vigour cell produces when different currents are used.

38. Which statement about the battery is false?

A the battery lasts longer when the load current is smaller.

B the output voltage is greater when the current is lower.
C when the current is 2.5A, the output voltage is greater than 1V for more than 1 hour.

16 Turnover
 D the battery will need to be recharged more often when the output current is lower
Electroconvulsive therapy

Dr. Simon treats patients suffering from depression and is considering using ECT for one of his
patients. Doctors are still not sure how ECT works, but they have found that it can help some
people to get better.

39. Here are two statements about this.

1 Get the patient’s consent in writing

2 Give the patient a copy of the official guidance

Which of these must Dr. Simon do before he can treat the patient with ECT?

A 1 only
B 2 only
C both 1 and 2
D neither

40. The shocking circuit connected to the patient includes a 1A fuse and a residual current circuit
breaker (RCCB). The pulses of current only last for 1.5 milli seconds.

Here are two statements about this.

1 Residual current circuit breakers are designed to act more quickly then fuses but cannot
completely present a shock.

2 If the shocking current exceeded 1 A, the fuse might not blow because the current exists
for such a short time.

Which of the statements is correct?

A 1 only
B 2 only
C both 1 and 2
D neither

TOTAL FOR HIGHER- TIER PAPER: 24 MARKS

End of paper

17 Turn over
 Answer sheet

Question Answer
1 B
2 A
3 A
4 A
5 A
6 B
7 A
8 C
9 C
10 A
11 A
12 D
13 C
14 A
15 C
16 A
17 D
18 B
19 C
20 A
21 C
22 B
23 B
24 A
25 C
26 C
27 A
28 A
29 A
30 B
31 C
32 D
33 B
34 A
35 C
36 C
37 C
38 D
39 A
40 C

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19 Turn over