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Test your basic knowledge |
SAT Subject Test: hysics
Start Test
Study First
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 measurement of a body's inertia - or resistance to being accelerated.
Mass
Scalar
Nuclear fission
Critical angle
2. A body or set of bodies that we choose to analyze as a group.
Neutron
Motional emf
Pascals
System
3. The phenomenon of light bouncing off a surface - such as a mirror.
Phase change
Reflection
Pitch
Mutual Induction
4. 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
Focal length
Meson
Kinematic equations
Chain reaction
5. 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
Magnetic flux
Spring constant
Electronvolt
Standing wave
6. The cancellation of one wave by another wave that is exactly out of phase with the first. Despite the dramatic name of this phenomenon - nothing is "destroyed" by this interference—the two waves emerge intact once they have passed each other.
Elastic collision
Destructive interference
Concave mirror
Angle of reflection
7. An object that moves about a stable equilibrium point and experiences a restoring force that is directly proportional to the oscillator's displacement.
Simple harmonic oscillator
Minima
Deposition
Elastic collision
8. A conserved scalar quantity associated with the state or condition of an object or system of objects. We can roughly define energy as the capacity for an object or system to do work. There are many different types of energy - such as kinetic energy -
Energy
Cycle
Strong nuclear force
Angular frequency
9. A scalar quantity. If an object is moved from point A to point B in space along path AB - the distance that the object has traveled is the length of the path AB. Distance is to be contrasted with displacement - which is simply a measure of the distan
Decibel
Distance
Angle of reflection
Work
10. 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.
Period
Standing wave
Diffraction grating
Faraday's Law
11. The amplification of one wave by another - identical wave of the same sign. Two constructively interfering waves are said to be "in phase."
Weight
Inertia
Spring constant
Constructive interference
12. 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
Inertial reference frame
Kepler's Second Law
Hypotenuse
Right-hand rule
13. The velocity at any given instant in time. To be contrasted with average velocity - which is a measure of the change in displacement over a given time interval.
Index of refraction
Gamma decay
Instantaneous velocity
Kinematics
14. Two oscillators that have the same frequency and amplitude - but reach their maximum displacements at different times - are said to have different phases. Similarly - two waves are in phase if their crests and troughs line up exactly - and they are o
Strong nuclear force
Work function
Phase
Axis of rotation
15. 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 -
Significant digits
Compression
Centripetal force
Latent heat of transformation
16. In an interference or diffraction pattern - the places where there is the least light.
Minima
Spring constant
Inclined plane
Sublimation
17. The force that binds protons and neutrons together in the atomic nucleus.
Uncertainty principle
Temperature
Translational kinetic energy
Strong nuclear force
18. 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.
Refraction
Photoelectron
Unit vector
Weightlessness
19. 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).
Equilibrium
Destructive interference
Angular momentum
Magnetic flux
20. The force between two surfaces that are not moving relative to one another. The force of static friction is parallel to the plane of contact between the two objects and resists the force pushing or pulling on the object.
Static friction
Inclined plane
Kelvin
Dispersion
21. A particle - identical to an electron. Beta particles are ejected from an atom in the process of beta decay.
Beta particle
Proton
Chain reaction
Diffraction
22. 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.
Rotational kinetic energy
Mole
Magnification
Transverse waves
23. The ray of light that is reflected from a mirror or other reflecting surface.
Heat transfer
Angular position
Newton
Reflected ray
24. With spherical mirrors - the center of the sphere of which the mirror is a part. All of the normals pass through it.
Potential energy
Center of curvature
Speed
Decay constant
25. A property common to both vectors and scalars. In the graphical representation of a vector - the vector's magnitude is equal to the length of the arrow.
Magnitude
Conservation of Angular Momentum
Inertia
Basis vector
26. The process by which a solid turns directly into gas - because it cannot exist as a liquid at a certain pressure.
Sublimation
Minima
Standing wave
Angle of reflection
27. 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.
Hypotenuse
Longitudinal waves
Newton
Impulse
28. The movement of a rigid body's center of mass in space.
Force
Translational motion
Weightlessness
Reflection
29. 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.
Center of mass
Phase change
Index of refraction
Mole
30. For two given media - the smallest angle of incidence at which total internal reflection occurs.
Kelvin
Mutual Induction
Mass defect
Critical angle
31. 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.
Torque
Newton
Photoelectron
Period
32. 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
Refracted ray
Strong nuclear force
Potential energy
Magnetic flux
33. A wave on a string that is tied to a pole at one end will reflect back toward its source - producing a wave that is the mirror-image of the original and which travels in the opposite direction.
Rutherford nuclear model
Third Law of Thermodynamics
Reflect
Phase
34. A wave with wave crests that propagate down the length of the medium - in contrast to stationary standing waves. The velocity at which a crest propagates is called the wave speed.
Absolute zero
Traveling waves
Inversely proportional
Dispersion
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.
Cycle
Momentum
Conservation of momentum
Half
36. Energy associated with the state of motion. The translational kinetic energy of an object is given by the equation .
Hypotenuse
Inversely proportional
Kinetic energy
Weight
37. A pendulum consists of a bob connected to a rod or rope. At small angles - a pendulum's motion approximates simple harmonic motion as it swings back and forth without friction.
Pendulum
Critical angle
Isotope
Significant digits
38. The separation of different color light via refraction.
Oscillation
Centripetal force
Speed
Dispersion
39. A scale for measuring temperature - defined such that water freezes at 0ºC and boils at 100ºC. 0ºC = 273 K.
Nucleus
Refraction
Celsius
Momentum
40. The point of a mirror or lens where all light that runs parallel to the principal axis will be focused. Concave mirrors and convex lenses are designed to focus light into the focal point. Convex mirrors and concave lenses focus light away from the fo
Angular period
Focal point
Temperature
Pitch
41. The path of each planet around the sun is an ellipse with the sun at one focus.
42. A unit for measuring angles; also called a "rad." 2p rad = 360º.
Electric generator
Radian
Torque
Coefficient of linear expansion
43. The amount heat necessary to cause a substance to undergo a phase transition.
Latent heat of transformation
Newton
Ideal gas law
Tip
44. 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.
Angular position
Angular momentum
Boiling point
Axis of rotation
45. The principle stating that for any isolated system - linear momentum is constant with time.
Conservation of momentum
Constant of proportionality
Deposition
Real image
46. 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
Calorie
Gravitational Potential Energy
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Photoelectron
47. 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.
Coefficient of kinetic friction
Convex lens
Constant of proportionality
Michelson-Morley experiment
48. 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.
Nucleus
Gold foil experiment
Gravitational constant
Acceleration
49. The experience of being in free fall. If you are in a satellite - elevator - or other free-falling object - then you have a weight of zero Newtons relative to that object.
Hooke's Law
Transformer
Weightlessness
Significant digits
50. The unit for measuring pressure. One Pascal is equal to one Newton per meter squared - 1 Pa = 1 N/m2.
Thermal equilibrium
Transverse waves
Angle of incidence
Pascals