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






2. 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.






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






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






5. In oscillation - a cycle occurs when an object undergoing oscillatory motion completes a "round-trip." For instance - a pendulum bob released at angle has completed one cycle when it swings to and then back to again. In period motion - a cycle is the






6. The number - N - of neutrons in an atomic nucleus.






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






8. 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.






9. 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.






10. Essentially a restatement of energy conservation - it states that the change in the internal energy of a system is equal to the heat added plus the work done on the system.






11. The angle between a refracted ray and the line normal to the surface.






12. A transfer of thermal energy. We don't speak about systems "having" heat - but about their "transferring" heat - much in the way that dynamical systems don't "have" work - but rather "do" work.






13. The time it takes a system to pass through one cycle of its repetitive motion. The period - T - is the inverse of the motion's frequency - f = 1/T.






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






15. A wave on a string that is tied to a pole at one end will reflect back toward its source - producing a wave that is the mirror-image of the original and which travels in the opposite direction.






16. 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.






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






18. 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.






19. The tendency of an object to remain at a constant velocity - or its resistance to being accelerated. Newton's First Law is alternatively called the Law of Inertia because it describes this tendency.






20. In a right triangle - the sine of a given angle is the length of the side opposite the angle divided by the length of the hypotenuse.






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






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






23. 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






24. 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






25. The name of an electron released from the surface of a metal due to the photoelectric effect.






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






27. 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






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






29. Objects that experience oscillatory or simple harmonic motion when distorted. Their motion is described by Hooke's Law.






30. The standing wave with the lowest frequency that is supported by a string with both ends tied down is called the fundamental - or resonance - of the string. The wavelength of the fundamental is twice the length of the string - .






31. The force that causes simple harmonic motion. The restoring force is always directed toward an object's equilibrium position.






32. A particle - which consists of two protons and two neutrons. It is identical to the nucleus of a helium atom and is ejected by heavy particles undergoing alpha decay.






33. The center of an atom - where the protons and neutrons reside. Electrons then orbit this nucleus.






34. The line that every particle in the rotating rigid body circles about.






35. 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.






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






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

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38. The model of the atom according to which negatively charged electrons orbit a positively charged nucleus. This model was developed by Ernest Rutherford in light of the results from his gold foil experiment.






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






40. Energy associated with the state of motion. The translational kinetic energy of an object is given by the equation .






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






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






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

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44. The coefficient of kinetic friction - - for two materials is the constant of proportionality between the normal force and the force of kinetic friction. It is always a number between zero and one.






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






46. 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.






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






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






49. 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 .






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