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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 speed at which a wave crest or trough propagates. Note that this is not the speed at which the actual medium (like the stretched string or the air particles) moves.
Nuclear fusion
Oscillation
Newton's First Law
Wave speed
2. The amount of heat necessary to transform a solid at a given temperature into a liquid of the same temperature - or the amount of heat needed to be removed from a liquid of a given temperature to transform it into a solid of the same temperature.
Constructive interference
Latent heat of sublimation
Magnification
Latent heat of fusion
3. A collision in which the colliding particles stick together.
Completely inelastic collision
Center of curvature
Mass
Gravitational constant
4. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.
Radiation
Electromagnetic spectrum
Internal energy
Conduction
5. A positively charged particle that - along with the neutron - occupies the nucleus of the atom.
Proton
Sine
Conservation of momentum
Hooke's Law
6. When dealing with reflection or refraction - the incident ray is the ray of light before it strikes the reflecting or refracting surface.
Incident ray
Momentum
Equilibrium
Electric generator
7. The force necessary to maintain a body in uniform circular motion. This force is always directed radially toward the center of the circle.
Photon
Centripetal force
Threshold frequency
Michelson-Morley experiment
8. 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.
Period
Rotational motion
Speed
Electron
9. The phenomenon of light bouncing off a surface - such as a mirror.
Law of conservation of energy
Inclined plane
Reflection
Directly proportional
10. A vector of magnitude 1 along one of the coordinate axes. Generally - we take the basis vectors to be and - the vectors of length 1 along the x- and y-axes - respectively.
Basis vector
Hypotenuse
Melting point
Tension force
11. The spectrum containing all the different kinds of electromagnetic waves - ranging in wavelength and frequency.
Electromagnetic spectrum
De Broglie wavelength
Total internal reflection
Crest
12. The process by which a gas turns directly into a solid because it cannot exist as a liquid at certain pressures.
Dispersion
Dynamics
Deposition
Basis vector
13. If a line is drawn from the sun to the planet - then the area swept out by this line in a given time interval is constant.
14. A system that no external net force acts upon. Objects within the system may exert forces upon one another - but they cannot receive any impulse from outside forces. Momentum is conserved in isolated systems.
Phase
Isolated system
Moment of inertia
Destructive interference
15. When two waves of slightly different frequencies interfere with one another - they produce a "beating" interference pattern that alternates between constructive (in-phase) and destructive (out-of-phase). In the case of sound waves - this sort of inte
Center of mass
Beats
Half
Gamma decay
16. The acceleration of a body experiencing uniform circular motion. This acceleration is always directed toward the center of the circle.
Sound
Gamma ray
Centripetal acceleration
Component
17. A measure of the average kinetic energy of the molecules in a system. Temperature is related to heat by the specific heat of a given substance.
Kepler's First Law
Frictional force
Temperature
Gravitational constant
18. 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
Center of curvature
Third Law of Thermodynamics
Distance
Coefficient of volume expansion
19. A constant - - not to be confused with wavelength - that defines the speed at which a radioactive element undergoes decay. The greater is - the faster the element decays.
Force
Diffraction
Decay constant
Speed
20. A unit vector is a vector with length 1.
Neutron
Radiation
Angular momentum
Unit vector
21. 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.
Weak nuclear force
Entropy
Crest
Isotope
22. A quantity that possesses a magnitude but not a direction. Mass and length are common examples.
Total internal reflection
Scalar
Center of curvature
Constructive interference
23. 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.
Heat engine
Inversely proportional
Latent heat of transformation
Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics
24. F = ma. The net force - F - acting on an object causes the object to accelerate - a. The magnitude of the acceleration is directly proportional to the net force on the object and inversely proportional to the mass - m - of the object.
25. The unit for measuring pressure. One Pascal is equal to one Newton per meter squared - 1 Pa = 1 N/m2.
Hertz (Hz)
Quark
Angular position
Pascals
26. 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
Magnetic flux
Induced current
Rutherford nuclear model
Right-hand rule
27. The state of a nonrotating object upon whom the net torque acting is zero.
Equilibrium
Neutron
Normal force
Internal energy
28. The square of the amplitude of a sound wave is called the sound's loudness - or volume.
Celsius
Loudness
Superposition
Displacement
29. 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.
Inertial reference frame
Loudness
Angular acceleration
Node
30. The movement of a rigid body's center of mass in space.
Melting point
Uncertainty principle
Translational motion
Pulley
31. A scale for measuring temperature - defined such that water freezes at 0ºC and boils at 100ºC. 0ºC = 273 K.
Half
Celsius
Optics
Instantaneous velocity
32. The bending of light at the corners of objects or as it passes through narrow slits or apertures.
Angular frequency
Component
Trough
Diffraction
33. The mass difference between a nucleus and the sum of the masses of the constituent protons and neutrons.
Mass defect
Newton's Second Law
Faraday's Law
Normal force
34. 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
Isolated system
Snell's Law
Focal point
De Broglie wavelength
35. 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
Newton
Traveling waves
Michelson-Morley experiment
36. For two given media - the smallest angle of incidence at which total internal reflection occurs.
Critical angle
Radian
Oscillation
Moment of inertia
37. For an oscillating spring - the restoring force exerted by the spring is directly proportional to the displacement. That is - the more the spring is displaced - the stronger the force that will pull toward the equilibrium position. This law is expres
38. A number - Z - associated with the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom. Every element can be defined in s of its atomic number - since every atom of a given element has the same number of protons.
Period
Neutrino
Atomic number
Maxima
39. A constant - J · s - which is useful in quantum physics. A second constant associated with Planck's constant is .
40. A measurement of a body's inertia - or resistance to being accelerated.
Center of mass
Mass
Celsius
Displacement
41. When an object is held in circular motion about a massive body - like a planet or a sun - due to the force of gravity - that object is said to be in orbit. Objects in orbit are in perpetual free fall - and so are therefore weightless.
Orbit
Pressure
Critical angle
Kinetic theory of gases
42. The principle stating that for any isolated system - linear momentum is constant with time.
Conservation of momentum
Coherent light
Proton
Melting point
43. Another word for the frequency of a sound wave.
Pitch
De Broglie wavelength
Potential energy
Rotational motion
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
Spring constant
Power
Absolute zero
Third Law of Thermodynamics
45. A principle derived by Werner Heisenberg in 1927 that tells us that we can never know both the position and the momentum of a particle at any given time.
Uncertainty principle
Center of mass
Electromagnetic induction
Energy
46. The gravitational force exerted on a given mass.
Convex mirror
Oscillation
Kinetic friction
Weight
47. An almost massless particle of neutral charge that is released along with a beta particle in beta decay.
Frequency
Motional emf
Centripetal acceleration
Neutrino
48. The ratio of the size of the image produced by a mirror or lens to the size of the original object. This number is negative if the image is upside-down.
Magnification
First Law of Thermodynamics
Traveling waves
Direction
49. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.
Angular acceleration
Convection
Law of reflection
Coefficient of volume expansion
50. A form of radioactive decay where a heavy element ejects a beta particle and a neutrino - becoming a lighter element in the process.
Frequency
Beta decay
Destructive interference
Sine