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SAT Subject Test: hysics

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. With spherical mirrors - the radius of the sphere of which the mirror is a part.






2. Body diagram- Illustrates the forces acting on an object - drawn as vectors originating from the center of the object.






3. 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.






4. The amplification of one wave by another - identical wave of the same sign. Two constructively interfering waves are said to be "in phase."






5. 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.






6. A device that breaks incoming light down into spectral rays - so that one can see the exact wavelength constituents of the light.






7. The phenomenon of light bouncing off a surface - such as a mirror.






8. A unit for measuring angles; also called a "rad." 2p rad = 360º.






9. In reference to oscillation - amplitude is the maximum displacement of the oscillator from its equilibrium position. Amplitude tells how far an oscillator is swinging back and forth. In periodic motion - amplitude is the maximum displacement in each






10. A unit vector is a vector with length 1.






11. The movement of a rigid body's center of mass in space.






12. The points on a standing wave where total destructive interference causes the medium to remain fixed at its equilibrium position.






13. The index of refraction n = c/v of a substance characterizes the speed of light in that substance - v. It also characterizes - by way of Snell's Law - the angle at which light refracts in that substance.






14. The principle by which the displacements from different waves traveling in the same medium add up. Superposition is the basis for interference.






15. The temperature at which a material will change phase from solid to liquid or liquid to solid.






16. There are a few versions of this law. One is that heat flows spontaneously from hot to cold - but not in the reverse direction. Another is that there is no such thing as a 100% efficient heat engine. A third states that the entropy - or disorder - of






17. The line perpendicular to a surface. There is only one normal for any given surface.






18. An experiment by Ernest Rutherford that proved for the first time that atoms have nuclei.






19. 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.






20. An object is called radioactive if it undergoes radioactive decay.






21. A rough approximation of how gases work - that is quite accurate in everyday conditions. According to the kinetic theory - gases are made up of tiny - round molecules that move about in accordance with Newton's Laws - and collide with one another and






22. A property of a metal - the minimum frequency of electromagnetic radiation that is necessary to release photoelectrons from that metal.






23. 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.






24. 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.






25. A form of radioactivity where an excited atom releases a photon of gamma radiation - thereby returning to a lower energy state. The atomic structure itself does not change in the course of gamma radiation.






26. 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.






27. 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.






28. A negatively charged particle that orbits the nucleus of the atom.






29. 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.






30. The temperature at which a material will change phase from liquid to gas or gas to liquid.






31. 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






32. The building blocks of all matter - quarks are the constituent parts of protons - neutrons - and mesons.






33. 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.






34. In an interference or diffraction pattern - the places where there is the least light.






35. A scale for measuring temperature - defined such that water freezes at 0ºC and boils at 100ºC. 0ºC = 273 K.






36. The amount of error that's possible in a given measurement.






37. The process by which unstable nuclei spontaneously release particles and/or energy so as to come to a more stable arrangement. The most common forms of radioactive decay are alpha decay - beta decay - and gamma decay.






38. A positively charged particle that - along with the neutron - occupies the nucleus of the atom.






39. Waves produced by a source that is moving with respect to the observer will seem to have a higher frequency and smaller wavelength if the motion is towards the observer - and a lower frequency and longer wavelength if the motion is away from the obse






40. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.






41. The process by which a solid turns directly into gas - because it cannot exist as a liquid at a certain pressure.






42. The emf created by the motion of a charge through a magnetic field.






43. Kinematics is the study and description of the motion of objects.






44. The reaction force of the ground - a table - etc. - when an object is placed upon it. The normal force is a direct consequence of Newton's Third Law: when an object is placed on the ground - the ground pushes back with the same force that it is pushe






45. The cosine of an angle in a right triangle is equal to the length of the side adjacent to the angle divided by the length of the hypotenuse.






46. 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.






47. A transfer of thermal energy from one system to another.






48. The unit of magnetic flux - equal to one T · m2.






49. In radioactive substances - the number of nuclei that decay per second. Activity - A - will be larger in large samples of radioactive material - since there will be more nuclei.






50. The property by which a changing current in one coil of wire induces an emf in another.