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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. For a reflected light ray - . In other words - a ray of light reflects of a surface in the same plane as the incident ray and the normal - and at an angle to the normal that is equal to the angle between the incident ray and the normal.






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






3. Two quantities are inversely proportional if an increase in one results in a proportional decrease in the other - and a decrease in one results in a proportional increase in the other. In a formula defining a certain quantity - those quantities to wh






4. 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.






5. 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






6. A measurement of a body's inertia - or resistance to being accelerated.






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






8. 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.






9. The gravitational force exerted on a given mass.






10. 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






11. The force between two surfaces that are not moving relative to one another. The force of static friction is parallel to the plane of contact between the two objects and resists the force pushing or pulling on the object.






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






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






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






15. The two shorter sides of a right triangle that meet at the right angle.






16. 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






17. For a heat engine - the ratio of work done by the engine to heat intake. Efficiency is never 100%.






18. A scale for measuring temperature - defined such that 0K is the lowest theoretical temperature a material can have. 273K = 0ºC.






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






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






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






22. Also called a diverging lens - a lens that is thinner in the middle than at the edges. Concave lenses refract light away from a focal point.






23. An electromagnetic wave of very high frequency.






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






25. A model for the atom developed in 1913 by Niels Bohr. According to this model - the electrons orbiting a nucleus can only orbit at certain particular radii. Excited electrons may jump to a more distant radii and then return to their ground state - em






26. The points midway between nodes on a standing wave - where the oscillations are largest.






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






28. The disorder of a system.






29. A body or set of bodies that we choose to analyze as a group.






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






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






32. 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.






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

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34. A back-and-forth movement about an equilibrium position. Springs - pendulums - and other oscillators experience harmonic motion.






35. A class of elementary particle whose mass is between that of a proton and that of an electron. A common kind of meson is the pion.






36. 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.






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






38. The effect of force on rotational motion.






39. Waves carried by variations in air pressure. The speed of sound waves in air at room temperature and pressure is roughly 343 m/s.






40. 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.






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






42. A form of vector multiplication - where two vectors are multiplied to produce a third vector. The cross product of two vectors - A and B - separated by an angle - - is - where is a unit vector perpendicular to both A and B. To deine which direction






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






44. A transverse traveling wave created by the oscillations of an electric field and a magnetic field. Electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light - m/s. Examples include microwaves - X rays - and visible light.






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






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






47. An experiment in 1879 that showed that the speed of light is constant to all observers. Einstein used the results of this experiment as support for his theory of special relativity.






48. A reference frame in which Newton's First Law is true. Two inertial reference frames move at a constant velocity relative to one another. According to the first postulate of Einstein's theory of special relativity - the laws of physics are the same i






49. The force transmitted along a rope or cable.






50. A collision in which momentum is conserved but kinetic energy is not.