Test your basic knowledge |

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. 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.






2. A law - || = - which states that the induced emf is the change in magnetic flux in a certain time.


3. In the Bohr model of the atom - the state in which an electron has the least energy and orbits closest to the nucleus.






4. A property common to both vectors and scalars. In the graphical representation of a vector - the vector's magnitude is equal to the length of the arrow.






5. The separation of different color light via refraction.






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






7. 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.






8. 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.


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






10. The application of kinematics to understand why objects move the way they do. More precisely - dynamics is the study of how forces cause motion.






11. A collision in which the colliding particles stick together.






12. 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.






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






14. When a light ray strikes a surface - the angle of incidence is the angle between the incident ray and the normal.






15. A wedge or a slide. The dynamics of objects sliding down inclined planes is a popular topic on SAT II Physics.






16. A neutrally charged particle that - along with protons - constitutes the nucleus of an atom.






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.






18. The phenomenon by which light traveling from a high n to a low n material will reflect from the optical interface if the incident angle is greater than the critical angle.






19. 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






20. 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.






21. A form of vector multiplication - where two vectors are multiplied to produce a scalar. The dot product of two vectors - A and B - is expressed by the equation A · B = AB cos .






22. The force that binds protons and neutrons together in the atomic nucleus.






23. A unit of force: 1 N is equivalent to a 1 kg · m/s2.






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






25. 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.






26. The series of standing waves supported by a string with both ends tied down. The first member of the series - called the fundamental - has two nodes at the ends and one anti-node in the middle. The higher harmonics are generated by placing an integra






27. 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.






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






29. A coefficient that tells how much the volume of a solid will change when it is heated or cooled.






30. A vector quantity defined as the product of the force acting on a body multiplied by the time interval over which the force is exerted.






31. The building blocks of all matter - atoms are made up of a nucleus consisting of protons and neutrons - and a number of electrons that orbit the nucleus. An electrically neutral atom has as many protons as it has electrons.






32. 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






33. 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.






34. 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.






35. For a gas held at constant pressure - temperature and volume are directly proportional.


36. 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.






37. The current induced in a circuit by a change in magnetic flux.






38. 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.


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






40. The process by which a gas turns directly into a solid because it cannot exist as a liquid at certain pressures.






41. 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






42. An object that retains its overall shape - meaning that the particles that make up the rigid body stay in the same position relative to one another.






43. The force involved in beta decay that changes a proton to a neutron and releases an electron and a neutrino.






44. If the net torque acting on a rigid body is zero - then the angular momentum of the body is constant or conserved.






45. 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.






46. Two oscillators that have the same frequency and amplitude - but reach their maximum displacements at different times - are said to have different phases. Similarly - two waves are in phase if their crests and troughs line up exactly - and they are o






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






48. 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






49. Another word for the frequency of a sound wave.






50. 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