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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 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.






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






3. 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.






4. Waves in which the medium moves in the direction perpendicular to the propagation of the wave. Waves on a stretched string - water waves - and electromagnetic waves are all examples of transverse waves.






5. 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.






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






7. 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.






8. The amount heat necessary to cause a substance to undergo a phase transition.






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






10. 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






11. 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.






12. 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 -






13. 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.






14. The property by which a charge moving in a magnetic field creates an electric field.






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






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






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






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






19. 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.






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






21. 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.






22. Life- The amount of time it takes for one-half of a radioactive sample to decay.






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






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






25. The process by which a solid turns directly into gas - because it cannot exist as a liquid at a certain pressure.






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






27. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






35. The sum of a system's potential and kinetic energy. In many systems - including projectiles - pulleys - pendulums - and motion on frictionless surfaces - mechanical energy is conserved. One important type of problem in which mechanical energy is not






36. 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.






37. A small particle-like bundle of electromagnetic radiation.






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






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






40. 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.






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






42. The lowest theoretical temperature a material can have - where the molecules that make up the material have no kinetic energy. Absolute zero is reached at 0 K or -273º C.






43. 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.






44. Energy associated with an object's position in space - or configuration in relation to other objects. This is a latent form of energy - where the amount of potential energy reflects the amount of energy that potentially could be released as kinetic e






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






46. The amplification of one wave by another - identical wave of the same sign. Two constructively interfering waves are said to be "in phase."






47. 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.






48. 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.






49. 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






50. 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