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. 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.






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.






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






4. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.






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






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






7. The force necessary to maintain a body in uniform circular motion. This force is always directed radially toward the center of the circle.






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.






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






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.






11. The spectrum containing all the different kinds of electromagnetic waves - ranging in wavelength and frequency.






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






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.






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






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






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. 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






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.






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






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.






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






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.






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.






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






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






28. The square of the amplitude of a sound wave is called the sound's loudness - or volume.






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.






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






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






32. The bending of light at the corners of objects or as it passes through narrow slits or apertures.






33. The mass difference between a nucleus and the sum of the masses of the constituent protons and neutrons.






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






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 -






36. For two given media - the smallest angle of incidence at which total internal reflection occurs.






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.






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.






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.






42. The principle stating that for any isolated system - linear momentum is constant with time.






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






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






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.






46. The gravitational force exerted on a given mass.






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






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.






49. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.






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