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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. The emf created by the motion of a charge through a magnetic field.






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

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3. The process by which a solid turns directly into gas - because it cannot exist as a liquid at a certain pressure.






4. 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.






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






6. A system with many parts in periodic - or repetitive - motion. The oscillations in one part cause vibrations in nearby parts.






7. 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.






8. The number of cycles executed by a system in one second. Frequency is the inverse of period - f = 1/T. Frequency is measured in hertz - Hz.






9. The principle stating that for any isolated system - linear momentum is constant with time.






10. 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






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






13. A device that breaks incoming light down into spectral rays - so that one can see the exact wavelength constituents of the light.






14. 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.






15. 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






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






17. 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.






18. Two quantities are directly proportional if an increase in one results in a proportional increase in the other - and a decrease in one results in a proportional decrease in the other. In a formula defining a certain quantity - those quantities to whi






19. A model for the atom developed in 1913 by Niels Bohr. According to this model - the electrons orbiting a nucleus can only orbit at certain particular radii. Excited electrons may jump to a more distant radii and then return to their ground state - em






20. When objects collide - each object feels a force for a short amount of time. This force imparts an impulse - or changes the momentum of each of the colliding objects. The momentum of a system is conserved in all kinds of collisions. Kinetic energy is






21. A scalar quantity that tells us how fast an object is moving. It measures the rate of change in distance over time. Speed is to be contrasted with velocity in that there is no direction associated with speed.






22. The center of a mirror or lens.






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






24. 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






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






26. When two waves of slightly different frequencies interfere with one another - they produce a "beating" interference pattern that alternates between constructive (in-phase) and destructive (out-of-phase). In the case of sound waves - this sort of inte






27. 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.






28. 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.






29. The unit of magnetic flux - equal to one T · m2.






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






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.






32. A positively charged particle that - along with the neutron - occupies the nucleus of the atom.






33. Life- The amount of time it takes for one-half of a radioactive sample to decay.






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






35. A scale for measuring temperature - defined such that 0K is the lowest theoretical temperature a material can have. 273K = 0ºC.






36. A small particle-like bundle of electromagnetic radiation.






37. Done when energy is transferred by a force. The work done by a force F in displacing an object by s is W = F · s.






38. A constant - J · s - which is useful in quantum physics. A second constant associated with Planck's constant is .

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






40. In oscillation - a cycle occurs when an object undergoing oscillatory motion completes a "round-trip." For instance - a pendulum bob released at angle has completed one cycle when it swings to and then back to again. In period motion - a cycle is the






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






42. 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






43. 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






44. When dealing with reflection or refraction - the incident ray is the ray of light before it strikes the reflecting or refracting surface.






45. 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).






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






47. When electromagnetic radiation shines upon a metal - the surface of the metal releases energized electrons. The way in which these electrons are released contradicts classical theories of electromagnetic radiation and supports the quantum view accord






48. A measure of force per unit area. Pressure is measured in N/m2 or Pa.






49. An experiment by Ernest Rutherford that proved for the first time that atoms have nuclei.






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