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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 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.






2. 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






3. The units of frequency - defined as inverse-seconds (1 Hz = 1 s-1). "Hertz" can be used interchangeably with "cycles per second."






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






5. 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.






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






7. 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.






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






9. The dot product of the area and the magnetic field passing through it. Graphically - it is a measure of the number and length of magnetic field lines passing through that area. It is measured in Webers (Wb).






10. A collision in which both kinetic energy and momentum are conserved.






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






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






13. 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.






14. The application of kinematics to understand why objects move the way they do. More precisely - dynamics is the study of how forces cause motion.






15. 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.






16. The force between two surfaces moving relative to one another. The frictional force is parallel to the plane of contact between the two objects and in the opposite direction of the sliding object's motion.






17. The mass difference between a nucleus and the sum of the masses of the constituent protons and neutrons.






18. 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.






19. 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.






20. 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






21. The position - of an object according to a co-ordinate system measured in s of the angle of the object from a certain origin axis. Conventionally - this origin axis is the positive x-axis.






22. 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.






23. The disorder of a system.






24. 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.






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

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26. 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.






27. 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






28. 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.






29. For an oscillating spring - the restoring force exerted by the spring is directly proportional to the displacement. That is - the more the spring is displaced - the stronger the force that will pull toward the equilibrium position. This law is expres

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






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






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






33. 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.






34. The effect of force on rotational motion.






35. 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






36. The movement of a rigid body's center of mass in space.






37. A constant in the numerator of a formula.






38. A form of vector multiplication - where two vectors are multiplied to produce a third vector. The cross product of two vectors - A and B - separated by an angle - - is - where is a unit vector perpendicular to both A and B. To deine which direction






39. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






40. The distance between successive wave crests - or troughs. Wavelength is measured in meters and is related to frequency and wave speed by = v/f.






41. Kinematics is the study and description of the motion of objects.






42. The bending of light as it passes from one medium to another. Light refracts toward the normal when going from a less dense medium into a denser medium and away from the normal when going from a denser medium into a less dense medium.






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






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






45. 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.






46. 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.






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






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






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. An image created by a mirror or lens in such a way that light does actually come from where the image appears to be. If you place a screen in front of a real image - the image will be projected onto the screen.