Practice physics class test — Year 4: magnetostatics.
15 questions drawn at random from a bank of 25, on the block of the programme your teacher is finishing: every attempt is a different test. No penalty for wrong answers, so answer even if you are not sure. At the end you receive by email the correct answer to every question and your weak topics — with an account you see them straight away here on the page. The step-by-step solution unlocks with your first lesson.
A class test is the written test an Italian high-school class sits after each block of the programme; this practice version is multiple choice.
Note on school types. At the liceo scientifico magnetism closes the Year 4 programme, between April and May; at the classical, languages and human-sciences high schools it arrives in Year 5, right after circuits.
Test in ItalianThe questions of this simulator are in Italian, as in the real exam.
Programme covered by the test
- Magnetic field lines and the absence of monopoles
- The experiments of Oersted, Faraday and Ampere
- Field of a straight wire, a loop and a solenoid
- Ampere’s theorem and the circulation of B
- Force on a wire carrying a current
- Force between two parallel wires and the definition of the ampere
- The Lorentz force and the circular motion of a charge
- Diamagnetic, paramagnetic and ferromagnetic materials
Two worked examples from the test
Una barretta magnetizzata viene spezzata esattamente a metà.
Che cosa si ottiene?
Solution
- I poli magnetici non si possono separare: non esistono monopoli magnetici.
- Spezzando la barretta si formano due nuovi magneti completi, ciascuno con il proprio nord e il proprio sud.
- Ripetendo la divisione si otterrebbero sempre magneti con due poli, fino alla scala atomica.
- È la differenza di fondo con l'elettrostatica, dove una carica positiva può benissimo esistere isolata da una negativa.
Confronta le linee del campo elettrico di una carica puntiforme con le linee del campo magnetico di una calamita.
Quale affermazione è corretta?
Solution
- Il campo elettrostatico ha sorgenti puntiformi: le sue linee nascono sulle cariche positive e muoiono su quelle negative.
- Il campo magnetico non ha sorgenti isolate: le sue linee sono curve chiuse, escono dal polo nord, rientrano dal polo sud e proseguono all'interno del magnete.
- Nessuna linea di può divergere da un punto né terminare nel vuoto.
- Da qui segue che il flusso di attraverso una qualsiasi superficie chiusa è nullo, mentre quello di in generale non lo è.
In the online practice test you will find 13 more questions like these; the correct answer to every question arrives by email.
Prefer paper? Download the test as a PDF (15 questions, 4 pages · 80 KB, ready to print). You receive the solutions by email after taking it online.
Download the PDFWhat a physics test on magnetostatics looks like
The field produced by a wire, a loop and a solenoid, the force on a wire carrying a current, the force between two parallel wires, and the Lorentz force with the radius of the circular path of a charge. Usually also a question on magnetic materials.
The mistake that costs the grade
Applying the Lorentz force without looking at the angle: if the velocity is parallel to B the force is zero, not maximum. And mixing up the field of the wire (which falls off as 1/r) with that of the solenoid, which is uniform inside and does not depend on the distance.
How to use this practice test
Take it once cold, without revising and with the timer on: it is there to show you where you stand, not to look good. Then look at your weak topics, revise only those — usually two or three, not the whole chapter — and retake it after a few days. The 15 questions are drawn from a bank of 25, so the second attempt is not the same test and the scores are genuinely comparable.
Is the score not enough?
See which topics lost you the most marks, then read the electromagnetism you need for the maturità — or we look at your results together: the diagnostic is free.