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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. 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






2. 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.






3. The index of refraction n = c/v of a substance characterizes the speed of light in that substance - v. It also characterizes - by way of Snell's Law - the angle at which light refracts in that substance.






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






5. 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.






6. 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.






7. For a heat engine - the ratio of work done by the engine to heat intake. Efficiency is never 100%.






8. 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






9. The line that every particle in the rotating rigid body circles about.






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






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






12. A coefficient that tells how much the volume of a solid will change when it is heated or cooled.






13. The points on a standing wave where total destructive interference causes the medium to remain fixed at its equilibrium position.






14. 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






15. 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






16. Represented by R = 8.31 J/mol · K - the universal gas constant fits into the ideal gas law so as to relate temperature to the average kinetic energy of gas molecules.






17. 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






18. A negatively charged particle that orbits the nucleus of the atom.






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






20. A constant in the numerator of a formula.






21. An electromagnetic wave of very high frequency.






22. Two materials are in thermal equilibrium if they are at the same temperature.






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






24. 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.






25. The center of a mirror or lens.






26. 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 -






27. A principle derived by Werner Heisenberg in 1927 that tells us that we can never know both the position and the momentum of a particle at any given time.






28. A body or set of bodies that we choose to analyze as a group.






29. 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.






30. The temperature at which a material will change phase from liquid to gas or gas to liquid.






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






32. 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.






33. The property by which a charge moving in a magnetic field creates an electric field.






34. 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






35. The net change - - in a point's angular position - . It is a scalar quantity.






36. 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.






37. 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.






38. A quantity that possesses a magnitude but not a direction. Mass and length are common examples.






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






40. 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






41. 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.






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






43. 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






44. The center of an atom - where the protons and neutrons reside. Electrons then orbit this nucleus.






45. A rigid body's resistance to being rotated. The moment of inertia for a single particle is MR2 - where M is the mass of the rigid body and R is the distance to the rotation axis. For rigid bodies - calculating the moment of inertia is more complicate






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






47. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






48. The coefficient of kinetic friction - - for two materials is the constant of proportionality between the normal force and the force of kinetic friction. It is always a number between zero and one.






49. 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.






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