GAMSAT (Graduate Medical School Admissions Test) · Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences

Quantitative science problems

39 practice questions, each with the answer and an explanation.

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Random questions from this topic, one at a time. You see the answer and the explanation straight after each one.

All 39 questions

  1. A ball is thrown at 30 m/s at 45° to the ground. Taking m/s², what is its horizontal range?
  2. A simple pendulum has length 3.6 m. Taking m/s², what is its time period?
  3. Two point charges of 6 μC and 2 μC are placed 0.2 m apart in air. Taking N m²/C², what is the force between them?
  4. Capacitors of 3 μF and 4 μF are joined in series. What is the equivalent capacitance?
  5. How much energy is stored in a 4 μF capacitor charged to 10 V?
  6. Photons of energy 5 eV fall on a metal of work function 1.5 eV. What is the maximum kinetic energy of the emitted photoelectrons?
  7. An object is placed 60 cm from a convex lens of focal length 20 cm. At what distance from the lens is the image formed?
  8. A Carnot engine works between a source at 600 K and a sink at 300 K. What is its efficiency?
  9. A sample has 64 radioactive nuclei. How many remain undecayed after 3 half-lives?
  10. A 2 kg mass moves in a horizontal circle of radius 2 m at a speed of 6 m/s. What centripetal force acts on it?
  11. A straight wire of length 0.4 m carries a current of 2 A at right angles to a magnetic field of 0.5 T. What force acts on the wire?
  12. What is the kinetic energy of a 5 kg body moving at 10 m/s?
  13. A projectile is launched at 40 m/s at 30° above the horizontal. Taking m/s², what is the maximum height it reaches?
  14. A ball is thrown at 40 m/s at 45° to the ground. Taking m/s², what is its horizontal range?
  15. A simple pendulum has length 0.4 m. Taking m/s², what is its time period?
  16. Two point charges of 1 μC and 2 μC are placed 0.6 m apart in air. Taking N m²/C², what is the force between them?
  17. Capacitors of 2 μF and 6 μF are joined in series. What is the equivalent capacitance?
  18. How much energy is stored in a 20 μF capacitor charged to 100 V?
  19. Photons of energy 6 eV fall on a metal of work function 2.5 eV. What is the maximum kinetic energy of the emitted photoelectrons?
  20. An object is placed 30 cm from a convex lens of focal length 10 cm. At what distance from the lens is the image formed?
  21. A Carnot engine works between a source at 800 K and a sink at 250 K. What is its efficiency?
  22. A sample has 160 radioactive nuclei. How many remain undecayed after 4 half-lives?
  23. A 1 kg mass moves in a horizontal circle of radius 5 m at a speed of 6 m/s. What centripetal force acts on it?
  24. What is the kinetic energy of a 4 kg body moving at 10 m/s?
  25. A projectile is launched at 80 m/s at 30° above the horizontal. Taking m/s², what is the maximum height it reaches?
  26. A simple pendulum has length 2.5 m. Taking m/s², what is its time period?
  27. A car starts from rest and accelerates uniformly at 2.0 m/s^2 for 5.0 s. How far does the car travel in that time?
  28. A 4.0 ohm resistor is connected across a 12 V supply. What power does the resistor dissipate?
  29. Resistors of 6.0 ohm and 3.0 ohm are connected in parallel. What is their combined resistance?
  30. A drug is prescribed at 5 mg per kg of body mass. The patient weighs 70 kg and the tablets contain 50 mg each. How many tablets are needed for one dose?
  31. A bacterial population doubles every 20 minutes. By what factor does it grow in 1 hour?
  32. A converging lens has a focal length of 15 cm and an object stands 20 cm from it. How far from the lens does the real image form?
  33. Water has a density of 1000 kg/m^3. Taking g = 9.8 m/s^2, what extra pressure does a diver feel at a depth of 10 m compared with the surface?
  34. The sound level from a machine rises by 20 decibels. By what factor has the sound intensity increased?
  35. In a population in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, 9% of people show a recessive trait. What proportion of the population are carriers (heterozygous)?
  36. A 2.0 kg trolley moving at 3.0 m/s collides with a stationary 1.0 kg trolley and they stick together. What is their speed just after the collision?
  37. A 2.0 kg book is lifted 1.5 m onto a shelf. Taking g = 10 m/s^2, how much gravitational potential energy does the book gain?
  38. A nurse must give 1.0 L of fluid over 8 hours through a drip set that delivers 20 drops per mL. What drip rate is needed, to the nearest whole number?
  39. A stone is dropped from rest from a height of 20 m. Taking g = 10 m/s^2 and ignoring air resistance, how long does it take to reach the ground?

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