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HSCScience

Year 11 · 2025 syllabus · 30 marks · Suggested 45 min

Physics: mechanics and data

A focused assessment of vectors, motion graphs, forces, momentum and measurements. The 2025 syllabus starts Year 11 teaching in 2027; this pack matches the site's published 2025 lessons. Positive direction must be stated. This is not a whole-course paper.

Focus outcomes: PY-11-01; PY-11WS-02,04,05,07. Original HSCScience questions; not an official NESA paper.

Attempt the questions first. Record working and units. The marking guide gives criteria and repair links; it does not automatically grade written answers.

Open marking guide after attempting →

Question 1 (1 mark)

A runner travels 30 m east and then 10 m west. Which pair gives distance and displacement?

  1. 20 m; 40 m east
  2. 40 m; 20 m east
  3. 40 m; 40 m east
  4. 20 m; 20 m west

Question 2 (1 mark)

On a velocity–time graph, which quantity is represented by signed area under the graph?

  1. Displacement
  2. Acceleration
  3. Instantaneous speed
  4. Force

Question 3 (1 mark)

A 2.0 kg trolley experiences a net horizontal force of 6.0 N. What is its acceleration?

  1. 12 m s⁻²
  2. 0.33 m s⁻²
  3. 3.0 m s⁻²
  4. 8.0 m s⁻²

Question 4 (1 mark)

Two objects collide in a system with negligible external impulse. Which quantity must be conserved for the system?

  1. Each object's velocity
  2. Each object's kinetic energy
  3. Total kinetic energy in every collision
  4. Total momentum

Question 5 (3 marks)

A trolley has constant velocity +3.0 m s⁻¹ for 4.0 s, then −2.0 m s⁻¹ for 3.0 s. Calculate its displacement, distance and average velocity over the full interval.

Question 6 (3 marks)

A force of 10 N acts at 30° above the positive horizontal direction. Take upward as positive. Resolve the force into horizontal and vertical components.

Question 7 (3 marks)

A 0.50 kg trolley moving at +4.0 m s⁻¹ sticks to a stationary 1.50 kg trolley. Neglect external impulse. Calculate the common velocity and explain whether kinetic energy is conserved.

Question 8 (3 marks)

Use the synthetic position data to estimate velocity between 1.0 s and 3.0 s. Is the object moving at constant velocity across the entire table? Support your answer.

Synthetic position measurements
Time (s)Position (m)
00
11
24
39

Question 9 (3 marks)

A horizontal force sensor reads 5.0 N while friction exerts 1.0 N in the opposite direction on a 2.0 kg trolley. Calculate the acceleration and explain why using 5.0 N as the net force would be incorrect.

Question 10 (3 marks)

A speed measurement is reported as (2.40 ± 0.05) m s⁻¹, where the ± value is a stated measurement bound. Give its interval and percentage bound. Does this by itself show the result is accurate?

Question 11 (4 marks)

Design an investigation of the relationship between net force and acceleration for a trolley of fixed total mass. Explain four choices that would make the inference defensible.

Question 12 (4 marks)

A student says: ‘The velocity is negative, so the object must be slowing down.’ Evaluate this statement using examples of acceleration signs.

Scope reference: NESA syllabus outcomes. All scenarios and datasets here are original and any classroom data are labelled synthetic.