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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. A wave with wave crests that propagate down the length of the medium - in contrast to stationary standing waves. The velocity at which a crest propagates is called the wave speed.
Angular momentum
Pendulum
Law of conservation of energy
Traveling waves
2. The velocity at any given instant in time. To be contrasted with average velocity - which is a measure of the change in displacement over a given time interval.
Photoelectron
Instantaneous velocity
Refracted ray
Rarefaction
3. A pulley is a simple machine that consists of a rope that slides around a disk or block.
Angular momentum
Pulley
Crest
Minima
4. A unit vector is a vector with length 1.
Unit vector
Electromagnetic wave
Reflect
Melting point
5. Done when energy is transferred by a force. The work done by a force F in displacing an object by s is W = F · s.
Conduction
Kinetic energy
Kepler's Third Law
Work
6. The bending of light as it passes from one medium to another. Light refracts toward the normal when going from a less dense medium into a denser medium and away from the normal when going from a denser medium into a less dense medium.
Spectroscope
Radioactive decay
Refraction
Ideal gas law
7. The number of hydrogen atoms in one gram of hydrogen - equal to . When counting the number of molecules in a gas - it is often convenient to count them in moles.
Completely inelastic collision
Calorie
Torque
Mole
8. The amount heat necessary to cause a substance to undergo a phase transition.
Speed
Normal
Conservation of momentum
Latent heat of transformation
9. A device that breaks incoming light down into spectral rays - so that one can see the exact wavelength constituents of the light.
Restoring force
Spectroscope
Neutrino
Gamma decay
10. A wavelength - given by = h/mv - which is associated with matter. Louis de Broglie proposed the idea that matter could be treated as waves in 1923 and applied this theory successfully to small particles like electrons.
Electric generator
De Broglie wavelength
Inversely proportional
Weak nuclear force
11. 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
Kinetic energy
Deposition
Medium
Convection
12. The unit of magnetic flux - equal to one T · m2.
Weber
Loudness
Specific heat
Temperature
13. An area of high air pressure that acts as the wave crest for sound waves. The spacing between successive compressions is the wavelength of sound - and the number of successive areas of compression that arrive at the ear per second is the frequency -
Compression
Diffraction grating
Coefficient of static friction
Deposition
14. A class of elementary particle whose mass is between that of a proton and that of an electron. A common kind of meson is the pion.
Power
Dot product
Activity
Meson
15. When a solid - liquid - or gas changes into another phase of matter.
Phase change
Diffraction
Incident ray
Gamma ray
16. 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.
Radiation
Tangent
Focal length
Work
17. The ray of light that is refracted through a surface into a different medium.
Weightlessness
Destructive interference
Melting point
Refracted ray
18. A scale for measuring temperature - defined such that water freezes at 0ºC and boils at 100ºC. 0ºC = 273 K.
Angular frequency
Celsius
Compression
Meson
19. 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.
Nuclear fusion
Constructive interference
Instantaneous velocity
Node
20. A transfer of thermal energy. We don't speak about systems "having" heat - but about their "transferring" heat - much in the way that dynamical systems don't "have" work - but rather "do" work.
Component
Weak nuclear force
Medium
Heat
21. In the Bohr model of the atom - the state in which an electron has the least energy and orbits closest to the nucleus.
Ground state
Mechanical energy
Boyle's Law
Activity
22. A vector quantity defined as the rate of change of the velocity vector with time.
Diffraction
Orbit
Acceleration
Equilibrium
23. An almost massless particle of neutral charge that is released along with a beta particle in beta decay.
Polarization
Quark
Neutrino
Conservation of momentum
24. A scalar quantity. If an object is moved from point A to point B in space along path AB - the distance that the object has traveled is the length of the path AB. Distance is to be contrasted with displacement - which is simply a measure of the distan
Rutherford nuclear model
Law of reflection
Electric generator
Distance
25. The mass number - A - is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in a nucleus. It is very close to the weight of that nucleus in atomic mass units.
Mass number
Inertial reference frame
Strong nuclear force
Dynamics
26. The energy of a particle moving in space. It is defined in s of a particle's mass - m - and velocity - v - as (1/2)mv2.
Total internal reflection
System
Kinetic energy
Translational kinetic energy
27. Kinematics is the study and description of the motion of objects.
Latent heat of sublimation
Kinematics
Inclined plane
Momentum
28. A mirror that is curved such that its center is closer to the viewer than the edges - such as a doorknob. Convex mirrors reflect light away from a focal point.
Decay constant
Heat
Concave lens
Convex mirror
29. The mass difference between a nucleus and the sum of the masses of the constituent protons and neutrons.
Mass defect
Weak nuclear force
Pitch
Sublimation
30. Two materials are in thermal equilibrium if they are at the same temperature.
Thermal equilibrium
Cosine
Electromagnetic induction
Gravitational Potential Energy
31. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.
Internal energy
Pitch
Acceleration
Electronvolt
32. 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.
Equilibrium position
Concave mirror
Pendulum
Convex mirror
33. The force that binds protons and neutrons together in the atomic nucleus.
Law of reflection
Strong nuclear force
Alpha particle
Weight
34. For a heat engine - the ratio of work done by the engine to heat intake. Efficiency is never 100%.
Cycle
Displacement
Efficiency
Radioactive decay
35. The number of digits that have been accurately measured. When combining several measurements in a formula - the resulting calculation can only have as many significant digits as the measurement that has the smallest number of significant digits.
Neutrino
Significant digits
Superposition
Michelson-Morley experiment
36. The constant of proportionality in Newton's Law of Gravitation. It reflects the proportion of the gravitational force and - the product of two particles' masses divided by the square of the bodies' separation. N · m2/kg2.
Gravitational constant
Torque
Angular momentum
Angular position
37. A force caused by the roughness of two materials in contact - deformations in the materials - and a molecular attraction between the materials. Frictional forces are always parallel to the plane of contact between two surfaces and opposite the direct
Restoring force
Frictional force
Nucleus
Kepler's First Law
38. The time it takes a system to pass through one cycle of its repetitive motion. The period - T - is the inverse of the motion's frequency - f = 1/T.
Coefficient of static friction
Angular velocity
Loudness
Period
39. If the net torque acting on a rigid body is zero - then the angular momentum of the body is constant or conserved.
Pulley
Conservation of Angular Momentum
Work
Efficiency
40. The force between two surfaces that are not moving relative to one another. The force of static friction is parallel to the plane of contact between the two objects and resists the force pushing or pulling on the object.
Radian
Displacement
Static friction
Radius of curvature
41. 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.
Sound
Nucleus
Momentum
Amplitude
42. A push or a pull that causes an object to accelerate.
Photon
Force
Beta decay
Translational motion
43. A frequency - f - defined as the number of revolutions a rigid body makes in a given time interval. It is a scalar quantity commonly denoted in units of Hertz (Hz) or s-1.
Gold foil experiment
Magnitude
Angular frequency
Significant digits
44. A measurement of a body's inertia - or resistance to being accelerated.
Cross product
Crest
Equilibrium
Mass
45. The points of maximum displacement along a wave. In traveling waves - the crests move in the direction of propagation of the wave. The crests of standing waves - also called anti-nodes - remain in one place.
Real image
Compression
Crest
Centripetal force
46. The time - T - required for a rigid body to complete one revolution.
Cross product
Electromagnetic induction
Kepler's Third Law
Angular period
47. The unit for measuring pressure. One Pascal is equal to one Newton per meter squared - 1 Pa = 1 N/m2.
Minima
Tension force
Spring constant
Pascals
48. The coefficient of static friction - for two materials is the constant of proportionality between the normal force and the maximum force of static friction. It is always a number between zero and one.
Coefficient of linear expansion
Diffraction
Coefficient of static friction
Work-energy theorem
49. In an interference or diffraction pattern - the places where there is the most light.
Constant of proportionality
Maxima
Transverse waves
Heat transfer
50. A machine that operates by taking heat from a hot place - doing some work with that heat - and then exhausting the rest of the heat into a cool place. The internal combustion engine of a car is an example of a heat engine.
Node
Heat engine
Law of conservation of energy
Inclined plane