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






2. 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.






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






4. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






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






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






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






10. The amount of heat necessary to transform a liquid at a given temperature into a gas of the same temperature - or the amount of heat needed to be taken away from a gas of a given temperature to transform it into a liquid of the same temperature.






11. 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.






12. Heat transfer via electromagnetic waves.






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






14. Occurs when every point in the rigid body moves in a circular path around a line called the axis of rotation.






15. The unit for measuring pressure. One Pascal is equal to one Newton per meter squared - 1 Pa = 1 N/m2.






16. 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.






17. 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






18. 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






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






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

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21. 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.






22. The reaction force of the ground - a table - etc. - when an object is placed upon it. The normal force is a direct consequence of Newton's Third Law: when an object is placed on the ground - the ground pushes back with the same force that it is pushe






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






24. 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






25. 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.






26. The straight line that runs through the focal point and the vertex of a mirror or lens.






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






28. 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.






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






30. The disorder of a system.






31. 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






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






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






34. The net change - - in a point's angular position - . It is a scalar quantity.






35. The building blocks of all matter - quarks are the constituent parts of protons - neutrons - and mesons.






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. Atoms of the same element may have different numbers of neutrons and therefore different masses. Atoms of the same element but with different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes of the same element.






38. The angle between a reflected ray and the normal.






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






40. A vector quantity - - that reflects the change of angular displacement with time - and is typically given in units of rad/s. To find the direction of the angular velocity vector - take your right hand and curl your fingers along the particle or body






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

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42. 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.






43. In the graphical representation of vectors - the tail of the arrow is the blunt end (the end without a point).






44. The number of hydrogen atoms in one gram of hydrogen - equal to . When counting the number of molecules in a gas - it is often convenient to count them in moles.






45. A device that breaks incoming light down into spectral rays - so that one can see the exact wavelength constituents of the light.






46. 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 .






47. 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.






48. 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.






49. 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.






50. A rigid body's resistance to being rotated. The moment of inertia for a single particle is MR2 - where M is the mass of the rigid body and R is the distance to the rotation axis. For rigid bodies - calculating the moment of inertia is more complicate