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General ScienceMediumAsked in: UPSC CAPF · CAPF 2018, Paper I

If the amplitude of oscillation of a simple pendulum is very small, then its time period of oscillation 1. depends on the length of the pendulum, L 2. depends on the acceleration due to gravity, g 3. depends upon the mass of the bob of the pendulum, m 4. does not depend upon the amplitude of the pendulum, A Select the correct answer using the code given below.

  1. A.1, 2 and 3
  2. B.1, 2 and 4
  3. C.2, 3 and 4
  4. D.1 and 4 only

Correct answer

B. 1, 2 and 4

Explanation

The correct answer is B, 1, 2 and 4. For small swings the time period is T = 2π√(L/g), which contains the length and gravity but neither the mass nor the amplitude.

Statement 1 is correct: T grows with the square root of length, so a pendulum four times longer takes twice as long per swing. Statement 2 is correct: T falls as g rises, so a pendulum clock runs slow on a hill or on the Moon, where g is smaller. Statement 3 is wrong: the mass of the bob cancels out of the equation, so a heavy and a light bob on equal strings swing together. Statement 4 is correct: for small amplitudes the period is the same however wide the swing, which Galileo noticed and which makes pendulum clocks possible.

A is wrong: it includes statement 3 and leaves out statement 4.

C is wrong: it includes the wrong statement 3 and drops statement 1.

D is wrong: it drops statement 2, though g appears in the formula.

Exam tip: T = 2π√(L/g); independent of mass and (small) amplitude; seconds pendulum ≈ 1 m long, T = 2 s.

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Q1.General ScienceHard

Citric acid is produced commercially with the help of which microorganism?

  1. A.Aspergillus niger
  2. B.Lactobacillus bulgaricus
  3. C.Clostridium tetani
  4. D.Anabaena
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Aspergillus niger

Explanation

The correct answer is A, Aspergillus niger, a fungus grown on a sugar medium to make most of the world's citric acid, which is used in soft drinks, food and medicines. Option B is wrong because Lactobacillus species produce lactic acid and are used in curd and other fermented milk products, not citric acid. Option C is wrong because Clostridium tetani is the bacterium of tetanus, an anaerobe that enters through wounds; it is a pathogen, not an industrial organism, although a related species yields butyric acid. Option D is wrong because Anabaena is a nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium, used with the water fern Azolla as a biofertiliser in paddy fields. Other industrial pairs to remember are Saccharomyces for ethanol and Monascus purpureus for statins. Remembering a product with its organism, acid with Aspergillus, alcohol with yeast and antibiotic with Streptomyces, answers a whole set of questions on industrial microbiology.

Q2.General ScienceHard

In the pasteurisation of milk, the milk is heated to about

  1. A.40 degrees Celsius for five minutes
  2. B.70 degrees Celsius for 15 to 30 seconds
  3. C.100 degrees Celsius for ten minutes
  4. D.121 degrees Celsius for twenty minutes
Show answer
Correct answer: B. 70 degrees Celsius for 15 to 30 seconds

Explanation

The correct answer is B, 70 degrees Celsius for 15 to 30 seconds, followed by rapid chilling and storage. The short, sharp heating kills the disease-causing and most spoilage microbes while leaving the taste and most of the food value of the milk unchanged, which is exactly what boiling does not do. Option A is wrong because forty degrees is close to the temperature at which microbes grow best and would preserve nothing. Option C is wrong because a hundred degrees for ten minutes is ordinary boiling, which alters taste and destroys some vitamins. Option D is wrong because a hundred and twenty-one degrees under pressure for twenty minutes describes autoclaving, used to sterilise instruments and culture media, not milk. The method is named after Louis Pasteur.

Q3.General ScienceHard

Viruses are described as standing on the border of the living and the non-living chiefly because

  1. A.they are smaller than bacteria
  2. B.they can multiply only inside a living host cell and are inert outside it
  3. C.they contain both DNA and RNA
  4. D.they can be killed by antibiotics
Show answer
Correct answer: B. they can multiply only inside a living host cell and are inert outside it

Explanation

The correct answer is B. A virus has heredity and mutates like a living thing, yet it has no cell, no metabolism and no means of reproduction of its own; outside a host it is an inert particle that can even be crystallised, as W. M. Stanley showed with the tobacco mosaic virus in 1935, while inside a host cell it directs that cell to make copies of itself. Option A is wrong because small size alone says nothing about being alive; many bacteria are tiny and are fully living. Option C is wrong because a virus carries either DNA or RNA and never both, a favourite point of examiners. Option D is wrong because antibiotics act on bacterial structures and are useless against viruses, which are controlled by vaccines and antiviral drugs.

Q4.General ScienceMedium

Tuberculosis in human beings is caused by

  1. A.A virus
  2. B.The bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis
  3. C.A fungus of the genus Aspergillus
  4. D.The protozoan Entamoeba histolytica
Show answer
Correct answer: B. The bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Explanation

The correct answer is B, the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, identified by Robert Koch in 1882, which is why the organism is also called Koch's bacillus. It spreads through droplets in the air, chiefly attacks the lungs, and is treated with a long and uninterrupted course of several antibiotics. Option A is wrong because tuberculosis is bacterial; treating it as viral is the error that leads candidates to rule out antibiotics. Option C is wrong because Aspergillus causes other lung conditions in people with weak immunity and is used industrially for citric acid, but it does not cause tuberculosis. Option D is wrong because Entamoeba histolytica causes amoebic dysentery, a disease of the intestine spread by contaminated food and water. Leprosy is caused by a related species, Mycobacterium leprae.

Q5.General ScienceEasy

The rising of dough in bread making is due to the action of

  1. A.Bacteria producing lactic acid
  2. B.Yeast producing carbon dioxide
  3. C.A virus multiplying in the flour
  4. D.Protozoa feeding on starch
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Yeast producing carbon dioxide

Explanation

The correct answer is B, yeast producing carbon dioxide. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae ferments the sugars of the dough into ethanol and carbon dioxide, and the gas, trapped in the gluten, makes the dough rise and leaves the bread spongy; the alcohol evaporates during baking. Option A is wrong because lactic acid bacteria sour milk into curd and are what make idli and dosa batter tangy, though their gas plays a smaller part than yeast's. Option C is wrong because a virus cannot multiply except inside a living host cell and has no role in dough. Option D is wrong because protozoa are not used in baking at all. The same fermentation by yeast, carried further, yields alcoholic drinks and industrial ethanol. The gluten of wheat flour is what traps the gas, which is why bread made from wheat rises better than bread of flours poor in gluten.