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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 amount of heat necessary to transform a solid at a given temperature into a liquid of the same temperature - or the amount of heat needed to be removed from a liquid of a given temperature to transform it into a solid of the same temperature.






2. 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.






3. 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.






4. A quantity that possesses a magnitude but not a direction. Mass and length are common examples.






5. Given the period - T - and semimajor axis - a - of a planet's orbit - the ratio is the same for every planet.

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






7. The building blocks of all matter - atoms are made up of a nucleus consisting of protons and neutrons - and a number of electrons that orbit the nucleus. An electrically neutral atom has as many protons as it has electrons.






8. A mirror that is curved such that its center is closer to the viewer than the edges - such as a doorknob. Convex mirrors reflect light away from a focal point.






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






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






11. A constant in the numerator of a formula.






12. Waves produced by a source that is moving with respect to the observer will seem to have a higher frequency and smaller wavelength if the motion is towards the observer - and a lower frequency and longer wavelength if the motion is away from the obse






13. 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.






14. The time - T - required for a rigid body to complete one revolution.






15. The amount of heat of a material required to raise the temperature of either one kilogram or one gram of that material by one degree Celsius. Different units may be used depending on whether specific heat is measured in s of grams or kilograms - and






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






17. 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 -






18. The amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. 1 cal = 4.19 J.






19. 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.






20. 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






21. 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






22. 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






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






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






25. The center of a mirror or lens.






26. There are a few versions of this law. One is that heat flows spontaneously from hot to cold - but not in the reverse direction. Another is that there is no such thing as a 100% efficient heat engine. A third states that the entropy - or disorder - of






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






28. 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.






29. The process by which unstable nuclei spontaneously release particles and/or energy so as to come to a more stable arrangement. The most common forms of radioactive decay are alpha decay - beta decay - and gamma decay.






30. An object cannot be cooled to absolute zero.






31. A neutrally charged particle that - along with protons - constitutes the nucleus of an atom.






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






33. The force of gravity - F - between two particles of mass and - separated by a distance r - has a magnitude of - where G is the gravitational constant. The force is directed along the line joining the two particles.

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






35. The energy associated with the configuration of bodies attracted to each other by the gravitational force. It is a measure of the amount of work necessary to get the two bodies from a chosen point of reference to their present position. This point of






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






37. An image created by a mirror or lens in such a way that light does not actually come from where the image appears to be.






38. For a gas held at a constant temperature - pressure and volume are inversely proportional.

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






40. An equation - PV = nRT - that relates the pressure - volume - temperature - and quantity of an ideal gas. An ideal gas is one that obeys the approximations laid out in the kinetic theory of gases.






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






42. 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.






43. 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 -






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






45. 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.






46. 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






47. 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.






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






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






50. 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.