WGU C165 Integrated Physical Sciences Pre-Assessment EXAM
2026-2027 ACTUAL COMPLETE REAL EXAM QUESTIONS AND
CORRECT DETAILED ANSWERS WITH RATIONALES (VERIFIED
ANSWERS) ALREADY GRADED A+!!
A student proposes that sugar will dissolve faster in rubbing alcohol than in
water. The student reasons that sugar and rubbing alcohol both contain
carbon so they will mix more easily.
Which type of scientific idea is the student's proposal an example of?
Hypothesis
Why was the shrinking Earth idea replaced by the theory of plate tectonics?
Plate tectonics explained observations about Earth that the shrinking Earth
idea could not explain.
Astronomers have long accepted that plate tectonics exists nowhere in our solar
system except on Earth. In 2011, a scientist analyzed 100 NASA-space-mission
photographs of Valles Marineris on Mars, the longest known series of canyons in
the solar system. The scientist found that Valles Marineris showed features found
only in locations on Earth
where major tectonic plates divide.
What would be the appropriate response of scientists to this information?
Carry out further research to gain more understanding of possible plate
tectonics on Mars
,According to the theory of plate tectonics, volcanoes are especially likely to
form along plate boundaries because of rising magma. New satellite data
mapping the ocean floor reveals thousands of seamounts, which are small
volcanoes. Some of the seamounts are in lines that could correspond to past
or present plate boundaries, but many are not
aligned in this way.
How should scientists appropriately respond to the idea that some new
mechanism of forming the volcanoes is involved?
Carry out more research to understand better how the seamounts form
For many decades, scientists thought they understood how ozone breaks down in
the
stratosphere, creating ozone holes. However, new data show significantly lower
reaction rates than can be explained by the long-held model.
What is the appropriate scientific approach for dealing with this contradiction?
Conduct additional experiments to confirm the new data
For almost 1500 years most scientists in Europe accepted Ptolemy's geocentric
planetary model that suggested the sun revolved around Earth. By the eighteenth
century, most scientists supported a heliocentric model that suggests that Earth
revolves around the sun.
What is an appropriate scientific basis for this change in view?
The existing theory was changed to account for new data
, A woman does pushups by lowering her body to the floor using her arms and
then pressing against the floor with her hands to push herself back up.
A woman is in a typical prone, plank position doing a push-up. She is looking at
the floor. Her toes are contacting the floor with her feet perpendicular to the
floor. Her hands are flat on the floor with wrists bent so that her forearms are
perpendicular to the floor and elbows bent so that her upper arms are parallel
to the floor.
Which force causes her to rise?
The upward force that the ground exerts on the woman
Two boxes sitting on the floor look identical, but one has more mass than the
other.
What happens when the same net force, sufficient to overcome static friction,
is applied to each box?
The box with less mass accelerates more
2026-2027 ACTUAL COMPLETE REAL EXAM QUESTIONS AND
CORRECT DETAILED ANSWERS WITH RATIONALES (VERIFIED
ANSWERS) ALREADY GRADED A+!!
A student proposes that sugar will dissolve faster in rubbing alcohol than in
water. The student reasons that sugar and rubbing alcohol both contain
carbon so they will mix more easily.
Which type of scientific idea is the student's proposal an example of?
Hypothesis
Why was the shrinking Earth idea replaced by the theory of plate tectonics?
Plate tectonics explained observations about Earth that the shrinking Earth
idea could not explain.
Astronomers have long accepted that plate tectonics exists nowhere in our solar
system except on Earth. In 2011, a scientist analyzed 100 NASA-space-mission
photographs of Valles Marineris on Mars, the longest known series of canyons in
the solar system. The scientist found that Valles Marineris showed features found
only in locations on Earth
where major tectonic plates divide.
What would be the appropriate response of scientists to this information?
Carry out further research to gain more understanding of possible plate
tectonics on Mars
,According to the theory of plate tectonics, volcanoes are especially likely to
form along plate boundaries because of rising magma. New satellite data
mapping the ocean floor reveals thousands of seamounts, which are small
volcanoes. Some of the seamounts are in lines that could correspond to past
or present plate boundaries, but many are not
aligned in this way.
How should scientists appropriately respond to the idea that some new
mechanism of forming the volcanoes is involved?
Carry out more research to understand better how the seamounts form
For many decades, scientists thought they understood how ozone breaks down in
the
stratosphere, creating ozone holes. However, new data show significantly lower
reaction rates than can be explained by the long-held model.
What is the appropriate scientific approach for dealing with this contradiction?
Conduct additional experiments to confirm the new data
For almost 1500 years most scientists in Europe accepted Ptolemy's geocentric
planetary model that suggested the sun revolved around Earth. By the eighteenth
century, most scientists supported a heliocentric model that suggests that Earth
revolves around the sun.
What is an appropriate scientific basis for this change in view?
The existing theory was changed to account for new data
, A woman does pushups by lowering her body to the floor using her arms and
then pressing against the floor with her hands to push herself back up.
A woman is in a typical prone, plank position doing a push-up. She is looking at
the floor. Her toes are contacting the floor with her feet perpendicular to the
floor. Her hands are flat on the floor with wrists bent so that her forearms are
perpendicular to the floor and elbows bent so that her upper arms are parallel
to the floor.
Which force causes her to rise?
The upward force that the ground exerts on the woman
Two boxes sitting on the floor look identical, but one has more mass than the
other.
What happens when the same net force, sufficient to overcome static friction,
is applied to each box?
The box with less mass accelerates more
