IIT JAM Physics case studies
IIT JAM Physics · Put your knowledge to work in context.
JAM (the Joint Admission Test for Masters) is a national postgraduate entrance examination for admission to master's-level science programmes at Indian institutes of technology and the Indian Institute of Science. The official JAM 2026 site describes the test as having "set the benchmark for undergraduate science education in the country for the past two decades," and notes that qualifying candidates can seek admission to 3000 seats in postgraduate programmes at IITs, with 89 postgraduate programmes offered across 22 IITs for the academic year 2026-27. The IIT JAM Physics case studies are 5 cases and about 3,452 words.
1Lightly damped oscillator: log decrement, Q, and two notebook claims
A student in a teaching laboratory suspends a 200 g mass from a vertical spring of stiffness 20 N/m and sets it oscillating vertically. Using a motion sensor she records the positions of successive maxima on the same side of the equilibrium point: 8.0 cm, 5.9 cm and 4.3 cm, with a time gap of 0.63 s between neighbouring maxima.
631 words, about 3 min2Newton's rings with a liquid film: index, ring motion, central spot
In a Newton's rings experiment performed in reflected sodium light of wavelength 589.3 nm, a plano-convex lens of radius of curvature 800 cm rests on a flat glass plate. The student measures the diameter of the tenth dark ring as 1.37 cm with air in the gap.
668 words, about 3 min3Method of mixtures: computing c and diagnosing the direction of systematic errors
An undergraduate determines the specific heat of a metal by the method of mixtures. She heats 100 g of metal shot in boiling water at 98.0 degrees C, transfers it quickly into a copper calorimeter of mass 60 g containing 150 g of water at 25.0 degrees C, stirs, and records a maximum temperature of 30.2 degrees C.
750 words, about 4 min4Grounded conducting shell: charge redistribution and what grounding does and does not change
A solid conducting sphere of radius 5.0 cm carries a net charge of +2.0 microcoulomb and is surrounded by a concentric conducting shell whose inner radius is 10 cm and outer radius 12 cm. In the first experiment the shell is isolated and initially uncharged.
700 words, about 4 min5Counting bound states in a narrow finite well: naive level counting versus the z0 criterion
A student models an electron trapped in a one-dimensional finite square well of width L = 1.0 nm and depth V 0 = 0.90 eV, with the bottom of the well at -V 0 and the top at 0. To decide how many bound states exist, she computes the infinite-square-well levels E n = n^2 h^2/(8mL^2) and argues that only levels lying below the top of the well can be bound.
703 words, about 4 min