What this practice covers
These questions are drawn from past CIE 9702 Physics papers and filtered to particle physics. You answer, you find out immediately whether you were right, and you get the reasoning for the correct option and for each distractor. Wrong answers go to a mistakes locker so you can come back to exactly those.
Practice is free. You need an account only so your progress and your mistakes are still there next time.
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What examiners see students get wrong here
These are the errors that cost marks on particle physics, taken from our own topic notes. Read them before you practise and you will recognise the traps in the questions.
- Saying the large-angle deflections show the nucleus is large; it is their rarity that shows it is small.
- Saying beta-minus decay decreases the proton number.
- Giving the ionising power and penetration in the same order.
- Saying alpha and beta deflect the same way in a magnetic field.
- Calling the electron a hadron, or the proton fundamental.
- Getting the quark charges the wrong way round, so a proton comes out neutral.
- Forgetting the antineutrino in beta-minus decay, and with it the explanation for the energy spectrum.
- Failing to check baryon and lepton number when only charge balances.
Revise it first
If any of the above is unfamiliar, work through the notes before practising: Particle physics revision notes.