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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. The acceleration of a body experiencing uniform circular motion. This acceleration is always directed toward the center of the circle.






2. To every action - there is an equal and opposite reaction. If an object A exerts a force on another object B - B will exert on A a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force exerted by A.

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3. A collision in which both kinetic energy and momentum are conserved.






4. 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






5. A coefficient that tells how much a material will expand or contract lengthwise when it is heated or cooled.






6. The amount of energy that metal must absorb before it can release a photoelectron from the metal.






7. The motion of a body in a circular path with constant speed.






8. A vector quantity - L - that is the rotational analogue of linear momentum. For a single particle - the angular momentum is the cross product of the particle's displacement from the axis of rotation and the particle's linear momentum - . For a rigid






9. A system with many parts in periodic - or repetitive - motion. The oscillations in one part cause vibrations in nearby parts.






10. 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.






11. A push or a pull that causes an object to accelerate.






12. A device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy by rotating a coil in a magnetic field; sometimes called a "dynamo."






13. In an interference or diffraction pattern - the places where there is the most light.






14. A wave that interferes with its own reflection so as to produce oscillations which stand still - rather than traveling down the length of the medium. Standing waves on a string with both ends tied down make up the harmonic series.






15. The separation of different color light via refraction.






16. 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.






17. 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






18. Given the trajectory of an object or system - the center of mass is the point that has the same acceleration as the object or system as a whole would have if its mass were concentrated at that point. In terms of force - the center of mass is the poin






19. 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.






20. A quantity that possesses a magnitude but not a direction. Mass and length are common examples.






21. Waves that oscillate in the same direction as the propagation of the wave. Sound is carried by longitudinal waves - since the air molecules move back and forth in the same direction the sound travels.






22. The longest side of a right triangle - opposite to the right angle.






23. 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.






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






25. 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.






26. For a gas held at a constant temperature - pressure and volume are inversely proportional.

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27. Any vector can be expressed as the sum of two mutually perpendicular component vectors. Usually - but not always - these components are multiples of the basis vectors - and ; that is - vectors along the x-axis and y-axis. We define these two vectors






28. An object cannot be cooled to absolute zero.






29. The state of a nonrotating object upon whom the net torque acting is zero.






30. A constant - J · s - which is useful in quantum physics. A second constant associated with Planck's constant is .

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31. Energy cannot be made or destroyed; energy can only be changed from one place to another or from one form to another.






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






33. When dealing with reflection or refraction - the incident ray is the ray of light before it strikes the reflecting or refracting surface.






34. Given the period - T - and semimajor axis - a - of a planet's orbit - the ratio is the same for every planet.

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35. 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.






36. The gravitational force exerted on a given mass.






37. The number of cycles executed by a system in one second. Frequency is the inverse of period - f = 1/T. Frequency is measured in hertz - Hz.






38. An almost massless particle of neutral charge that is released along with a beta particle in beta decay.






39. An electromagnetic wave of very high frequency.






40. The points of maximum negative displacement along a wave. They are the opposite of wave crests.






41. A vector quantity - commonly denoted by the vector s - which reflects an object's change in spatial position. The displacement vector points from the object's starting position to the object's current position in space. If an object is moved from poi






42. 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.






43. Also called a converging lens - a lens that is thicker in the middle than at the edges. Convex lenses refract light through a focal point.






44. A form of radioactive decay where a heavy element ejects a beta particle and a neutrino - becoming a lighter element in the process.






45. 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.






46. An object at rest remains at rest - unless acted upon by a net force. An object in motion remains in motion - unless acted upon by a net force.

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47. 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






48. Heat transfer via electromagnetic waves.






49. The property by which a charge moving in a magnetic field creates an electric field.






50. An area of high air pressure that acts as the wave trough for sound waves. The spacing between successive rarefactions is the wavelength of sound - and the number of successive areas of rarefaction that arrive at the ear per second is the frequency -