FE Mechanical Physics — practice questions
66 free MCQs with worked solutions. Tap any question for the answer + explanation, or practice them all in the app.
Practice FE Mechanical Physics in the app →A beam sits still under several forces. The first condition it must satisfy concerns the forces on it, and theAll the forces on a small object act along the axis of rotation, so every torque is zero. Only one condition sBoth equilibrium conditions are stated with respect to something the engineer must fix first. That is a:The origin of the chosen reference frame, about which torques are taken, is called the:Before writing equilibrium equations for a rigid body, an engineer should first draw a:On such a diagram, the weight vector is attached at the:For practical purposes, that point coincides with another familiar point. That other point is the:The two points separate only when a body is so large that the gravitational field across it is:In the torque equation, the perpendicular distance from the pivot to the line of the force is the:A box tips slightly but its center of gravity stays over its base, so gravity turns it back. That position is Two terms describe forces on a deforming object. One is strain and the other is:Stress is generally defined as force divided by:An engineer reports a stress figure in SI units. Those units are:Strain is reported as a fractional change in length, volume or geometry. That makes strain:An elastic band is pulled and stretches longer. The stress applied to it is:A column carries a load that squeezes it shorter. The stress in it is:A diver deep underwater is squeezed equally from every side. That kind of stress is also known as:The elastic modulus for tensile stress carries a name of its own. It is:The tendency of a solid to return to its original shape once the load is removed is called:Two parameters together fix how elastic a material is: its elastic modulus and its elastic:Within the linear range, the stress-strain relation is described by analogy with the law that governs a springTwo materials carry the same stress, but one has a much larger elastic modulus. In that one, the deformation iAn engineer reports a pressure in SI units. Those units are named after a French mathematician. They are:Pressure is defined for every state of matter, but it matters most when discussing:The pressure a column of fluid exerts equals the weight of the fluid divided by the:A tyre gauge reads pressure relative to the surrounding air. Such a reading is called:Meteorologists often quote atmospheric pressure in a convenient unit. That unit is the:Rather than quoting density in units, engineers often compare materials using a dimensionless quantity. That qA block of wood and a block of brass of equal mass go into water. The brass sinks because of its greater:Pressure on a submerged object is larger underneath than on top, because pressure grows with:That net upward push on a submerged object is called the:If that upward force is smaller than the object's weight, the object will:A submerged object seems lighter than it does in air. That apparent weight loss equals the weight of the fluidMany worked examples assume a fluid with negligible viscosity. Such a fluid is called:The volume of fluid passing a location in a given time is the:For an incompressible fluid, the same amount must pass every point of a tube in a given time. That relation isWater leaves a narrow hose nozzle much faster than it travelled in the hose. That speed-up follows from:Applying conservation of energy to frictionless laminar flow links pressure with flow speed. That relation is:A measure of the internal friction inside a fluid is its:Smooth, parallel streamlines in a pipe indicate a flow that is:Irregular streamlines that change over time indicate a flow that is:A dimensionless indicator tells an engineer whether flow will be laminar or turbulent. It is the:Building that indicator for a tube requires the fluid density, its viscosity, the tube radius and the fluid's:A pressure gauge built from a U-shaped tube of mercury is called a:An engineer adds up the mechanical energies of every molecule in a gas. That total is the system's:The imagined wall separating a system from its surroundings, across which heat and work pass, is the:A kettle exchanges both heat and steam with the room. Such a system is described as:Gas sealed inside rigid, thermally insulating walls exchanges nothing at all. Such a system is called isolatedA system takes in 400 J of heat and does 100 J of work. Its internal energy therefore changes by:That calculation follows one law relating heat, work and internal energy. It is the:That law is described, at bottom, as a statement of energy:One physicist summarised the same law humorously as: you cannot get more energy out of a system than you:A gas expands and pushes the piston outward. The work done by the gas is counted as:The piston is pushed back in and the gas is compressed. That same work is now counted as:On a pressure-volume graph, the work done by a slowly expanding gas is read off as the:Internal energy depends only on the current state, not on how the system got there. Quantities like this are cA system is taken round a cycle and returns to its starting state. The change in its internal energy over thatFor an ideal gas specifically, internal energy is fixed by one variable alone. That variable is the:A gas expands while its temperature is held constant throughout. That process is:In an ideal gas that process leaves internal energy unchanged, so all the heat supplied goes into:A gas is insulated so that no heat enters or leaves while its state changes. That process is:A gas expands while the pressure is held constant. That process is described as:The gas is then cooled in a rigid container so its volume cannot change. That process is:A system is taken through several steps and ends in exactly the state it began in. That sequence is a:Three different quasi-static routes connect the same two equilibrium states. Work generally differs between thA machinist calculates a temperature rise in a copper fitting and needs a property of copper. That property is