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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. In a right triangle - the tangent of a given angle is the length of the side opposite the angle divided by the length of the side adjacent to the triangle.






2. A push or a pull that causes an object to accelerate.






3. The angle between a reflected ray and the normal.






4. The energy of a particle moving in space. It is defined in s of a particle's mass - m - and velocity - v - as (1/2)mv2.






5. 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






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






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






8. 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.






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






10. 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






11. 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.






12. An electromagnetic wave of very high frequency.






13. The energy of a particle rotating around an axis.






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






15. The tendency of an object to remain at a constant velocity - or its resistance to being accelerated. Newton's First Law is alternatively called the Law of Inertia because it describes this tendency.






16. The state of a nonrotating object upon whom the net torque acting is zero.






17. In an interference or diffraction pattern - the places where there is the least light.






18. 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.






19. The speed at which a wave crest or trough propagates. Note that this is not the speed at which the actual medium (like the stretched string or the air particles) moves.






20. 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






21. A unit vector is a vector with length 1.






22. The ray of light that is reflected from a mirror or other reflecting surface.






23. A vector quantity defined as the rate of change of the displacement vector with time. It is to be contrasted with speed - which is a scalar quantity for which no direction is specified.






24. A measure of the average kinetic energy of the molecules in a system. Temperature is related to heat by the specific heat of a given substance.






25. Energy cannot be made or destroyed; energy can only be changed from one place to another or from one form to another.






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






27. 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.






28. The study of the properties of visible light - i.e. - the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths between 360 and 780 nm (1 nm = m/s).






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






30. A unit for measuring angles; also called a "rad." 2p rad = 360º.






31. The straight line that runs through the focal point and the vertex of a mirror or lens.






32. Occurs when every point in the rigid body moves in a circular path around a line called the axis of rotation.






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






34. 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.

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35. 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.






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






37. 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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38. 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 -






39. The points of maximum displacement along a wave. In traveling waves - the crests move in the direction of propagation of the wave. The crests of standing waves - also called anti-nodes - remain in one place.






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

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41. 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).






42. A wavelength - given by = h/mv - which is associated with matter. Louis de Broglie proposed the idea that matter could be treated as waves in 1923 and applied this theory successfully to small particles like electrons.






43. 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.






44. For two given media - the smallest angle of incidence at which total internal reflection occurs.






45. The phenomenon of light bouncing off a surface - such as a mirror.






46. 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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47. 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






48. 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.






49. 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.






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