Final answer:
It is true that an object can have high speed and a small velocity if it returns close to its starting position. Physics concepts such as velocity, acceleration, displacement, and wave-particle duality have intricate nuances, often leading to counterintuitive facts like gravity affecting light with no rest mass.
Step-by-step explanation:
For the statement 'For any given motion, it is possible that an object could move very fast yet have an abnormally small velocity', the answer is true. This is because velocity is a vector quantity, meaning it has both magnitude and direction, while speed only measures the magnitude of motion. An object can be moving back and forth very quickly (high speed) but if it returns to a position close to its start, its overall displacement is small, leading to a low velocity. For example, a pendulum moves rapidly but its average velocity over time can be close to zero if it returns to its starting point.
Regarding other true or false questions:
- The position vs time graph of an object that is speeding up is not a straight line. It's curved, indicating acceleration, so the statement is false.
- Instantaneous speed and instantaneous velocity can be the same if there is no change in direction of motion, making the statement false.
- The observed frequency does not become infinite when the source is moving at the speed of sound; it increases, but does not reach infinity, so the statement is false.
- When an object moves with constant acceleration, its displacement vs time graph is curved, and displacement vs time squared is a straight line, making the statement true.
Average velocity can be negative if the net displacement is in the negative direction of the chosen coordinate system, meaning the first option is true.
Lastly, as GRASP CHECK indicates, average speed can be less than average velocity if the path taken is longer than the displacement, so the statement is true.
Light, which behaves as a particle or a wave and has no rest mass, is indeed affected by gravity due to its energy/momentum, hence the statement is true. Wave-particle duality exists primarily on the microscopic scale for elementary particles like electrons, and not on the macroscopic scale, so the statement is false.