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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 energy of the molecules that make up an object. It is related to heat - which is the amount of energy transferred from one object to another object that is a different temperature.






2. Also called a diverging lens - a lens that is thinner in the middle than at the edges. Concave lenses refract light away from a focal point.






3. 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.






4. In the graphical representation of vectors - the tip of the arrow is the pointy end.






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






6. 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






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






8. 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.






9. 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.






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

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11. A constant - - not to be confused with wavelength - that defines the speed at which a radioactive element undergoes decay. The greater is - the faster the element decays.






12. 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.






13. 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.






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






15. 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






16. The units of frequency - defined as inverse-seconds (1 Hz = 1 s-1). "Hertz" can be used interchangeably with "cycles per second."






17. The bending of light at the corners of objects or as it passes through narrow slits or apertures.






18. The force between two surfaces moving relative to one another. The frictional force is parallel to the plane of contact between the two objects and in the opposite direction of the sliding object's motion.






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






20. States that the current induced in a circuit by a change in magnetic flux is in the direction that will oppose that change in flux. Using the right-hand rule - point your thumb in the opposite direction of the change in magnetic flux. The direction y

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21. When a solid - liquid - or gas changes into another phase of matter.






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






23. The current induced in a circuit by a change in magnetic flux.






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






25. 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.






26. In the graphical representation of vectors - the tail of the arrow is the blunt end (the end without a point).






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






28. A mirror that is curved such that its center is farther from the viewer than the edges - such as the front of a spoon. Concave mirrors reflect light through a focal point.






29. 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






30. The center of a mirror or lens.






31. The building blocks of all matter - quarks are the constituent parts of protons - neutrons - and mesons.






32. A measurement of a body's inertia - or resistance to being accelerated.






33. The motion of a body in a circular path with constant speed.






34. The number - N - of neutrons in an atomic nucleus.






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






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






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






38. For a gas held at a constant temperature - pressure and volume are inversely proportional.

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39. In an interference or diffraction pattern - the places where there is the most light.






40. 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 -






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






42. 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.






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






44. With spherical mirrors - the radius of the sphere of which the mirror is a part.






45. A nuclear reaction that takes place only at very high temperatures. Two light atoms - often hydrogen - fuse together to form a larger single atom - releasing a vast amount of energy in the process.






46. A vector quantity - or vector - is an object possessing - and fully described by - a magnitude and a direction. Graphically a vector is depicted as an arrow with its magnitude given by the length of the arrow and its direction given by where the arro






47. A property of a metal - the minimum frequency of electromagnetic radiation that is necessary to release photoelectrons from that metal.






48. 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






49. 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






50. A transverse traveling wave created by the oscillations of an electric field and a magnetic field. Electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light - m/s. Examples include microwaves - X rays - and visible light.






Can you answer 50 questions in 15 minutes?



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