2015, Question 4 · Short free-response · 7 points · about 13 minutes
Dropped and launched spheres landing together
Draw the forces on a dropped sphere and a horizontally launched sphere, sketch their horizontal velocities, and explain in a paragraph why they land at the same time.
This exam had five free-response questions in 90 minutes: Questions 1, 4 and 5 were short questions worth 7 points each with about 13 minutes suggested, and Questions 2 and 3 were long questions worth 12 points each with about 25 minutes suggested. The current exam has 4 free-response questions in 95 minutes. The skills these questions practice still count.
Lessons this question draws on
1 Read the question
The question is College Board's, from the 2015 exam. It starts on page 9 of the PDF. College Board no longer posts this exam, so it opens from the copy of College Board's PDF that the Internet Archive saved on May 6, 2026.
2 Write your answer
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3 Score it
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Scoring guidelines (PDF, page 8) What the exam readers saw (Student Performance Q&A)
Question, scoring guidelines and Chief Reader report: College Board, from the Internet Archive. The title and summary are ours.