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






2. Represented by R = 8.31 J/mol · K - the universal gas constant fits into the ideal gas law so as to relate temperature to the average kinetic energy of gas molecules.






3. The effect of force on rotational motion.






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






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

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6. A unit of measurement for energy on atomic levels. 1 eV = J.






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






8. 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.






9. Given the trajectory of an object or system - the center of mass is the point that has the same acceleration as the object or system as a whole would have if its mass were concentrated at that point. In terms of force - the center of mass is the poin






10. The series of standing waves supported by a string with both ends tied down. The first member of the series - called the fundamental - has two nodes at the ends and one anti-node in the middle. The higher harmonics are generated by placing an integra






11. An area of high air pressure that acts as the wave trough for sound waves. The spacing between successive rarefactions is the wavelength of sound - and the number of successive areas of rarefaction that arrive at the ear per second is the frequency -






12. A nuclear reaction that takes place only at very high temperatures. Two light atoms - often hydrogen - fuse together to form a larger single atom - releasing a vast amount of energy in the process.






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.

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14. 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.






15. 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.






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






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






18. To every action - there is an equal and opposite reaction. If an object A exerts a force on another object B - B will exert on A a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force exerted by A.

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






20. 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






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






22. The longest side of a right triangle - opposite to the right angle.






23. Waves that oscillate in the same direction as the propagation of the wave. Sound is carried by longitudinal waves - since the air molecules move back and forth in the same direction the sound travels.






24. 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.






25. The emf created by the motion of a charge through a magnetic field.






26. 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.






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






28. 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






29. A form of radioactive decay where a heavy element emits an alpha particle and some energy - thus transforming into a lighter - more stable - element.






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






31. 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.






32. 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






33. The particles and energy released by the fission or fusion of one atom may trigger the fission or fusion of further atoms. In a chain reaction - fission or fusion is rapidly transferred to a large number of atoms - releasing tremendous amounts of ene






34. The path of each planet around the sun is an ellipse with the sun at one focus.

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35. 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.






36. When objects collide - each object feels a force for a short amount of time. This force imparts an impulse - or changes the momentum of each of the colliding objects. The momentum of a system is conserved in all kinds of collisions. Kinetic energy is






37. The force that binds protons and neutrons together in the atomic nucleus.






38. A vector quantity defined as the rate of change of the velocity vector with time.






39. The constant of proportionality in Newton's Law of Gravitation. It reflects the proportion of the gravitational force and - the product of two particles' masses divided by the square of the bodies' separation. N · m2/kg2.






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






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






42. 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.






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






44. Linear momentum - p - commonly called "momentum" for short - is a vector quantity defined as the product of an object's mass - m - and its velocity - v.






45. An object that moves about a stable equilibrium point and experiences a restoring force that is directly proportional to the oscillator's displacement.






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






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

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49. The ray of light that is refracted through a surface into a different medium.






50. 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