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Test your basic knowledge |
SAT Subject Test: hysics
Start Test
Study First
Subjects
:
sat
,
science
,
physics
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
If you are not ready to take this test, you can
study here
.
Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.
This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. The distance between the focal point and the vertex of a mirror or lens. For concave mirrors and convex lenses - this number is positive. For convex mirrors and concave lenses - this number is negative.
Inclined plane
Collision
Displacement
Focal length
2. Linear momentum - p - commonly called "momentum" for short - is a vector quantity defined as the product of an object's mass - m - and its velocity - v.
Deposition
Medium
Momentum
Diffraction
3. A particle - identical to an electron. Beta particles are ejected from an atom in the process of beta decay.
Beta particle
Component
Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation
Centripetal acceleration
4. The separation of different color light via refraction.
Tip
Incident ray
Atom
Dispersion
5. The particles and energy released by the fission or fusion of one atom may trigger the fission or fusion of further atoms. In a chain reaction - fission or fusion is rapidly transferred to a large number of atoms - releasing tremendous amounts of ene
Radian
Kinematic equations
Chain reaction
Kepler's Second Law
6. A neutrally charged particle that - along with protons - constitutes the nucleus of an atom.
Center of curvature
Thermal energy
Torque
Neutron
7. Defined as the rate at which work is done - or the rate at which energy is transformed. P is measured in joules per second (J/s) - or watts (W).
Power
Period
Planck's constant
Elastic collision
8. A nuclear reaction that takes place only at very high temperatures. Two light atoms - often hydrogen - fuse together to form a larger single atom - releasing a vast amount of energy in the process.
Efficiency
Nuclear fusion
Half
Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics
9. When objects collide - each object feels a force for a short amount of time. This force imparts an impulse - or changes the momentum of each of the colliding objects. The momentum of a system is conserved in all kinds of collisions. Kinetic energy is
Ideal gas law
Collision
Equilibrium
Real image
10. The lowest theoretical temperature a material can have - where the molecules that make up the material have no kinetic energy. Absolute zero is reached at 0 K or -273º C.
Elastic collision
Absolute zero
Static friction
Right-hand rule
11. A vector quantity defined as the rate of change of the displacement vector with time. It is to be contrasted with speed - which is a scalar quantity for which no direction is specified.
Component
Tail
Total internal reflection
Velocity
12. The disorder of a system.
Snell's Law
Entropy
Principal axis
Beta decay
13. A reference frame in which Newton's First Law is true. Two inertial reference frames move at a constant velocity relative to one another. According to the first postulate of Einstein's theory of special relativity - the laws of physics are the same i
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Pitch
Cosine
Inertial reference frame
14. The emf created by the motion of a charge through a magnetic field.
Motional emf
Strong nuclear force
Impulse
Nuclear fission
15. The building blocks of all matter - quarks are the constituent parts of protons - neutrons - and mesons.
Quark
Force
Ideal gas law
Traveling waves
16. A pendulum consists of a bob connected to a rod or rope. At small angles - a pendulum's motion approximates simple harmonic motion as it swings back and forth without friction.
Normal force
Strong nuclear force
Pendulum
Angular displacement
17. The property of a vector that distinguishes it from a scalar: while scalars have only a magnitude - vectors have both a magnitude and a direction. When graphing vectors in the xy-coordinate space - direction is usually given by the angle measured cou
Direction
Inelastic collision
Spring constant
Impulse
18. A vector quantity - equal to the rate of change of the angular velocity vector with time. It is typically given in units of rad/s2.
Completely inelastic collision
Angular acceleration
Photon
Calorie
19. Another word for the frequency of a sound wave.
Newton's Third Law
Pitch
Harmonic series
Work
20. The force that binds protons and neutrons together in the atomic nucleus.
Strong nuclear force
Constant of proportionality
Velocity
Phase
21. The longest side of a right triangle - opposite to the right angle.
Ideal gas law
Boiling point
Hypotenuse
Isolated system
22. The amount of heat necessary for a material undergoing sublimation to make a phase change from gas to solid or solid to gas - without a change in temperature.
Temperature
Latent heat of sublimation
Nucleus
Chain reaction
23. An equation - PV = nRT - that relates the pressure - volume - temperature - and quantity of an ideal gas. An ideal gas is one that obeys the approximations laid out in the kinetic theory of gases.
Ideal gas law
Quark
Chain reaction
Photoelectric effect
24. The gravitational force exerted on a given mass.
Weight
Boyle's Law
Angle of reflection
Quark
25. For a reflected light ray - . In other words - a ray of light reflects of a surface in the same plane as the incident ray and the normal - and at an angle to the normal that is equal to the angle between the incident ray and the normal.
Law of reflection
Tangent
Acceleration
Wave
26. The experience of being in free fall. If you are in a satellite - elevator - or other free-falling object - then you have a weight of zero Newtons relative to that object.
Dynamics
Weightlessness
Motional emf
Radioactive decay
27. In the Bohr model of the atom - the state in which an electron has the least energy and orbits closest to the nucleus.
Mechanical energy
Superposition
Ground state
Virtual image
28. Kinematics is the study and description of the motion of objects.
Static friction
Kinematics
Frequency
Momentum
29. In a right triangle - the tangent of a given angle is the length of the side opposite the angle divided by the length of the side adjacent to the triangle.
Sublimation
Margin of error
Tangent
Nuclear fusion
30. The amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. 1 cal = 4.19 J.
Angle of reflection
Calorie
Margin of error
Diffraction
31. A scalar quantity that tells us how fast an object is moving. It measures the rate of change in distance over time. Speed is to be contrasted with velocity in that there is no direction associated with speed.
Inelastic collision
Motional emf
Translational kinetic energy
Speed
32. The point of a mirror or lens where all light that runs parallel to the principal axis will be focused. Concave mirrors and convex lenses are designed to focus light into the focal point. Convex mirrors and concave lenses focus light away from the fo
Focal point
Atomic number
Spectroscope
Pendulum
33. The position - of an object according to a co-ordinate system measured in s of the angle of the object from a certain origin axis. Conventionally - this origin axis is the positive x-axis.
Focal length
Neutron
Angular position
Potential energy
34. When a light ray strikes a surface - the angle of incidence is the angle between the incident ray and the normal.
Work function
Reflection
Angle of incidence
Medium
35. The bending of light at the corners of objects or as it passes through narrow slits or apertures.
Vertex
Sublimation
Diffraction
Radioactivity
36. In an interference or diffraction pattern - the places where there is the least light.
Torque
Minima
Planck's constant
Kepler's Third Law
37. The study of the properties of visible light - i.e. - the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths between 360 and 780 nm (1 nm = m/s).
Wave speed
Inversely proportional
Optics
Reflection
38. The line that every particle in the rotating rigid body circles about.
Right-hand rule
Component
Radian
Axis of rotation
39. The amount of heat necessary to transform a liquid at a given temperature into a gas of the same temperature - or the amount of heat needed to be taken away from a gas of a given temperature to transform it into a liquid of the same temperature.
Latent heat of vaporization
Electric generator
Thermal equilibrium
Amplitude
40. In oscillation - a cycle occurs when an object undergoing oscillatory motion completes a "round-trip." For instance - a pendulum bob released at angle has completed one cycle when it swings to and then back to again. In period motion - a cycle is the
Frequency
Strong nuclear force
Universal gas constant
Cycle
41. Occurs when every point in the rigid body moves in a circular path around a line called the axis of rotation.
Rotational motion
Principal axis
Frequency
Inelastic collision
42. The substance that is displaced as a wave propagates through it. Air is the medium for sound waves - the string is the medium of transverse waves on a string - and water is the medium for ocean waves. Note that even if the waves in a given medium tra
Thermal energy
Tail
De Broglie wavelength
Medium
43. A coefficient that tells how much the volume of a solid will change when it is heated or cooled.
Coefficient of volume expansion
Latent heat of sublimation
Thermal equilibrium
Pressure
44. Indicates how "bouncy" or "stiff" a spring is. More specifically - the spring constant - k - is the constant of proportionality between the restoring force exerted by the spring - and the spring's displacement from equilibrium. The greater the value
Destructive interference
Spring constant
Universal gas constant
Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation
45. A unit of force: 1 N is equivalent to a 1 kg · m/s2.
Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics
Normal force
Newton
Inertia
46. An almost massless particle of neutral charge that is released along with a beta particle in beta decay.
Work
Neutrino
Refraction
Orbit
47. The distance between successive wave crests - or troughs. Wavelength is measured in meters and is related to frequency and wave speed by = v/f.
Displacement
Pendulum
Angle of reflection
Wavelength
48. The force that causes simple harmonic motion. The restoring force is always directed toward an object's equilibrium position.
Rigid body
Mass number
Decibel
Restoring force
49. A body or set of bodies that we choose to analyze as a group.
System
Convex mirror
Direction
Angular frequency
50. A means of defining the direction of the cross product vector. To define the direction of the vector - position your right hand so that your fingers point in the direction of A - and then curl them around so that they point in the direction of B. Th
Tension force
Right-hand rule
Unit vector
Bohr atomic model