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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. 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
Inelastic collision
Chain reaction
Inversely proportional
Spring
2. When a solid - liquid - or gas changes into another phase of matter.
Isolated system
Phase change
Inertia
Pascals
3. 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
4. An object that moves about a stable equilibrium point and experiences a restoring force that is directly proportional to the oscillator's displacement.
Instantaneous velocity
Center of mass
Sublimation
Simple harmonic oscillator
5. In an interference or diffraction pattern - the places where there is the most light.
Maxima
Mass defect
Coherent light
Cycle
6. 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.
Destructive interference
Atomic number
Standing wave
Absolute zero
7. 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.
Gamma decay
Planck's constant
Sine
Power
8. The building blocks of all matter - quarks are the constituent parts of protons - neutrons - and mesons.
Sound
Quark
Photon
Heat
9. With spherical mirrors - the center of the sphere of which the mirror is a part. All of the normals pass through it.
Convection
Direction
Scalar
Center of curvature
10. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.
Proton
Convection
Strong nuclear force
Diffraction grating
11. 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
Virtual image
Inversely proportional
Angular position
Kepler's Third Law
12. 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.
Standing wave
Kinetic friction
Coefficient of static friction
Wave speed
13. 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
Radius of curvature
Rutherford nuclear model
Cross product
Equilibrium
14. The ray of light that is reflected from a mirror or other reflecting surface.
Reflected ray
Kepler's Second Law
Diffraction
Velocity
15. A measure of force per unit area. Pressure is measured in N/m2 or Pa.
Specific heat
Pressure
Photon
Entropy
16. A nuclear reaction in which a high-energy neutron bombards a heavy - unstable atomic nucleus - causing it to split into two smaller nuclei - and releasing some neutrons and a vast amount of energy at the same time
Reflection
Quark
Harmonic series
Nuclear fission
17. The bending of light at the corners of objects or as it passes through narrow slits or apertures.
Work function
Kepler's Third Law
Constructive interference
Diffraction
18. A rough approximation of how gases work - that is quite accurate in everyday conditions. According to the kinetic theory - gases are made up of tiny - round molecules that move about in accordance with Newton's Laws - and collide with one another and
Kinetic theory of gases
Static friction
Inelastic collision
Latent heat of transformation
19. 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.
Polarization
Decibel
Dynamics
Basis vector
20. 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.
Angular acceleration
Diffraction grating
Mass number
Melting point
21. 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.
Pascals
Real image
Angular momentum
Medium
22. In reference to oscillation - amplitude is the maximum displacement of the oscillator from its equilibrium position. Amplitude tells how far an oscillator is swinging back and forth. In periodic motion - amplitude is the maximum displacement in each
Amplitude
Beats
Electron
Photoelectron
23. 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
Transformer
Phase
Refraction
Sound
24. Life- The amount of time it takes for one-half of a radioactive sample to decay.
Pitch
Reflected ray
Half
Neutron number
25. In radioactive substances - the number of nuclei that decay per second. Activity - A - will be larger in large samples of radioactive material - since there will be more nuclei.
Rotational motion
Weight
Mutual Induction
Activity
26. The force transmitted along a rope or cable.
Electromagnetic wave
Antinode
Atom
Tension force
27. A unit for measuring angles; also called a "rad." 2p rad = 360º.
Reflection
Doppler shift
Concave lens
Radian
28. 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.
29. A neutrally charged particle that - along with protons - constitutes the nucleus of an atom.
Conservation of momentum
Direction
Energy
Neutron
30. A scale for measuring temperature - defined such that water freezes at 0ºC and boils at 100ºC. 0ºC = 273 K.
Celsius
Isotope
Dynamics
Critical angle
31. A positively charged particle that - along with the neutron - occupies the nucleus of the atom.
Crest
Beta decay
Vector
Proton
32. 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.
Velocity
Coefficient of static friction
Alpha decay
Proton
33. A property of a metal - the minimum frequency of electromagnetic radiation that is necessary to release photoelectrons from that metal.
Phase change
Lenz's Law
Threshold frequency
Period
34. 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.
Latent heat of fusion
Gamma decay
Amplitude
Vertex
35. An experiment by Ernest Rutherford that proved for the first time that atoms have nuclei.
Gold foil experiment
Oscillation
Constructive interference
Celsius
36. 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.
Momentum
Alpha particle
Michelson-Morley experiment
Neutron number
37. A form of radioactive decay where a heavy element emits an alpha particle and some energy - thus transforming into a lighter - more stable - element.
Alpha decay
Radian
Charles's Law
Joule
38. The gravitational force exerted on a given mass.
Internal energy
Newton
Weight
Photoelectric effect
39. The units of frequency - defined as inverse-seconds (1 Hz = 1 s-1). "Hertz" can be used interchangeably with "cycles per second."
Inertia
Frictional force
Hertz (Hz)
Significant digits
40. In the graphical representation of vectors - the tip of the arrow is the pointy end.
Spring
Joule
Electronvolt
Tip
41. If the net torque acting on a rigid body is zero - then the angular momentum of the body is constant or conserved.
Neutron number
Velocity
Conservation of Angular Momentum
Kinematics
42. The angle between a reflected ray and the normal.
Kelvin
Angle of reflection
Rotational kinetic energy
Coefficient of kinetic friction
43. A vector quantity - - that reflects the change of angular displacement with time - and is typically given in units of rad/s. To find the direction of the angular velocity vector - take your right hand and curl your fingers along the particle or body
Directly proportional
Newton's Third Law
Angular velocity
Angular displacement
44. 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.
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Universal gas constant
Temperature
Electric generator
45. 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
Displacement
Kepler's First Law
Maxima
Decibel
46. A logorithmic unit for measuring the volume of sound - which is the square of the amplitude of sound waves.
Refracted ray
Margin of error
Newton
Decibel
47. 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 -
Chain reaction
Rotational kinetic energy
Rarefaction
Normal
48. A quantity that possesses a magnitude but not a direction. Mass and length are common examples.
Coherent light
Scalar
Kinetic theory of gases
Speed
49. 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.
Centripetal acceleration
Concave mirror
Internal energy
Cosine
50. A number - Z - associated with the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom. Every element can be defined in s of its atomic number - since every atom of a given element has the same number of protons.
Atomic number
Weight
Displacement
Concave mirror