Test your basic knowledge |

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 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.






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


3. The force involved in beta decay that changes a proton to a neutron and releases an electron and a neutrino.






4. A pulley is a simple machine that consists of a rope that slides around a disk or block.






5. With spherical mirrors - the center of the sphere of which the mirror is a part. All of the normals pass through it.






6. 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






7. An object at rest remains at rest - unless acted upon by a net force. An object in motion remains in motion - unless acted upon by a net force.


8. The two shorter sides of a right triangle that meet at the right angle.






9. 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.






10. Relates the angle of incidence to the angle of refraction: .


11. 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






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






13. A device made of two coils - which converts current of one voltage into current of another voltage. In a step-up transformer - the primary coil has fewer turns than the secondary - thus increasing the voltage. In a step-down transformer - the seconda






14. A law - || = - which states that the induced emf is the change in magnetic flux in a certain time.


15. The force necessary to maintain a body in uniform circular motion. This force is always directed radially toward the center of the circle.






16. Heat transfer via electromagnetic waves.






17. 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 .






18. 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






19. 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.






20. F = ma. The net force - F - acting on an object causes the object to accelerate - a. The magnitude of the acceleration is directly proportional to the net force on the object and inversely proportional to the mass - m - of the object.


21. 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.






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






23. A device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy by rotating a coil in a magnetic field; sometimes called a "dynamo."






24. 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.






25. A machine that operates by taking heat from a hot place - doing some work with that heat - and then exhausting the rest of the heat into a cool place. The internal combustion engine of a car is an example of a heat engine.






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


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






28. The amount of energy that metal must absorb before it can release a photoelectron from the metal.






29. 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.






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






31. A means of defining the direction of the cross product vector. To define the direction of the vector - position your right hand so that your fingers point in the direction of A - and then curl them around so that they point in the direction of B. Th






32. A particle - identical to an electron. Beta particles are ejected from an atom in the process of beta decay.






33. 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






34. A process that aligns a wave of light to oscillate in one dimension rather than two.






35. 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.






36. A sheet - film - or screen with a pattern of equally spaced slits. Typically the width of the slits and space between them is chosen to generate a particular diffraction pattern.






37. 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.






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






39. The distance between the focal point and the vertex of a mirror or lens. For concave mirrors and convex lenses - this number is positive. For convex mirrors and concave lenses - this number is negative.






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






41. Objects that experience oscillatory or simple harmonic motion when distorted. Their motion is described by Hooke's Law.






42. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.






43. 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.






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






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






46. 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.






47. 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.






48. The principle by which the displacements from different waves traveling in the same medium add up. Superposition is the basis for interference.






49. Any vector can be expressed as the sum of two mutually perpendicular component vectors. Usually - but not always - these components are multiples of the basis vectors - and ; that is - vectors along the x-axis and y-axis. We define these two vectors






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