plumiSensitivity and frequency response: AQA A‑Level Physics questions
AQA A-Level Physics past-paper questions on 3.10.2.2 Sensitivity and frequency response, 2008–2025, with mark schemes and examiner’s reports where available.
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All 38 questions on Sensitivity and frequency response, as a list
- June 2025, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q03.1 (2 marks): State what is meant by the threshold of hearing for a person with good hearing. [2 marks]
- June 2025, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q03.2 (3 marks): The eardrum of the person being tested has a cross-sectional area of 60 mm2. Calculate the power that is incident on the eardrum when the frequency is 50 Hz. [3
- June 2025, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q03.3 (2 marks): Sketch, on Figure 4, an equal loudness curve that passes through 100 dB at 1 kHz. [2 marks]
- June 2024, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q02.1 (4 marks): A stadium is full of spectators. The peak sound-intensity level at the centre of the stadium is 110 dB. On another occasion the number of spectators in the stad
- June 2023, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q03.1 (1 mark): Define sound intensity. [1 mark]
- June 2023, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q03.2 (1 mark): The intensity level, in dB, of a sound is I. What is the intensity level of a sound with double the intensity? Tick () one box. [1 mark] I + 2 I + 3 I + 7 2I 3
- June 2022, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q03.1 (3 marks): Sketch an equal loudness curve on Figure 3 showing the normal response of a healthy ear. Annotate the frequency axis with an appropriate scale. [3 marks] Figure
- June 2022, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q03.2 (2 marks): Describe the procedure used to gather the data for an equal loudness curve. [2 marks]
- June 2022, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q03.3 (2 marks): Calculate the intensity of a sound that produces an intensity level of 30 dB. [2 marks] intensity = W m−2
- November 2021, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q03.1 (3 marks): A point source of sound has a power of 17 W. Calculate, in dB, the intensity level at a distance of 12 m from the source. [3 marks] intensity level = dB
- November 2021, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q03.2 (2 marks): The frequency of a sound is increased from 3.0 kHz to 8.0 kHz with no change in intensity. One change in the sound perceived by a person with normal hearing is
- June 2019, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q02.1 (2 marks): Customer P moves to a distance of 7.0 m from the loudspeaker. Calculate the sound intensity at the new position of customer P. Assume that the loudspeaker is a
- June 2019, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q02.2 (2 marks): The sound intensity level is 65 dB at the position of customer Q and 42 dB at the position of customer R. Calculate the ratio sound intensity at the position of
- June 2019, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q02.3 (2 marks): Customer Q perceives the loudness of the sound differently to customer R. Discuss whether the use of intensity level or intensity is more appropriate to compare
- June 2018, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q04.1 (4 marks): A source of constant output power is used to generate a sound which is measured using a sound meter. The dashed line in Figure 3 shows the intensity level curve
- June 2018, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q04.2 (4 marks): Mesh barriers are set up to keep pedestrians at a safe distance from a noisy drill. The maximum noise level which pedestrians should be subjected to is 110 dB T
- Specimen, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q02.3 (3 marks): A sound intensity meter, set to the dB scale, is placed near to a source of sound. Th intensity level reading on the sound meter is 82 dB. Calculate in, W m−2,
- Specimen, Paper 3 Medical physics, Q02.4 (2 marks): The sound intensity meter is 2.0 m from the source which is emitting sound equally in all directions. Calculate the power emitted by the source. [2 marks] power
- June 2016, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(a) (2 marks): Figure 1 shows the variation of hearing level with frequency for the person found to have normal hearing. Figure 1 It is known that the ear of a person with nor
- June 2016, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(c)(i) (2 marks): Calculate the intensity of the sound incident on the sound meter. [2 marks] I0 = 1.0 × 10–12 W m–2 intensity = _______________________ W m–2
- June 2016, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(c)(ii) (2 marks): The sound from the foghorn is emitted equally in all directions. Assume that the sound is not reflected at the surface of the sea and that there is no attenuati
- June 2015, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(a)(i) (2 marks): State and explain which sound meter scale is used for line P. [2 marks]
- June 2015, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(a)(ii) (2 marks): State and explain which sound meter scale is used for line Q. [2 marks]
- June 2015, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(b)(i) (1 mark): Explain the significance of the point R. [1 mark]
- June 2015, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(b)(ii) (1 mark): Explain the significance of the point S. [1 mark]
- June 2015, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(c) (2 marks): A sound of intensity level 95 dB is incident on a human ear. Calculate the intensity incident on the ear drum. I0 = 1.0 × 10–12 W m–2 [2 marks] intensity = W m–
- June 2014, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(a) (2 marks): Define the threshold of hearing, Io. [2 marks]
- June 2014, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(b) (2 marks): Sound intensity levels are usually measured in decibels which is based on a logarithmic scale. State two reasons why this logarithmic scale is used. [2 marks] r
- June 2013, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(b) (2 marks): Define intensity of sound. (2 marks)
- June 2013, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(c) (3 marks): A human ear has a threshold of hearing of 54dB at a given frequency. Calculate the intensity of sound incident on the ear at this frequency. Give your answer to
- June 2012, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(a)(i) (1 mark): State and explain what the reading would be for a sound of frequency 1kHz if the meter was changed to the dBA scale. (1 mark)
- June 2012, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(a)(ii) (2 marks): State and explain what would happen to the reading on each scale if the frequency of the sound was changed to 500Hz.
- June 2012, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(b) (3 marks): A drill is operated in an otherwise silent room. The drill produces sound of power 2.0 W which is given out equally in all directions. A sound meter is placed 5
- June 2011, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(a) (2 marks): Define the threshold of hearing,I0. (2 marks)
- June 2010, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(b) (3 marks): An intensity meter, set to the dB scale, measures the intensity level of a sound as 46dB. Calculate the intensity of the sound at the meter, giving an appropria
- June 2010, PHYA5 Medical physics (old spec), Q2(c) (2 marks): The scale on the intensity meter is changed to the dBA scale and the new reading, for the same sound, is found to be 50dBA. Explain this change. (2 marks)
- June 2008, PHA6W (2008 spec), Q3(a) (2 marks): 3 (a) The threshold of hearing is 1.0 × 10 –12 W m –2. Explain what is meant by the threshold of hearing. (2 marks)
- June 2008, PHA6W (2008 spec), Q3(b) (6 marks): 3 (b) The graph shows an equal loudness curve for a person with good hearing. 10 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 30 100 300 1000 3000 10000 40 phons intensity level/d
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