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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 amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. 1 cal = 4.19 J.






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






3. 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.






4. 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.






5. 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






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

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7. The angle between a refracted ray and the line normal to the surface.






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






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






10. A conserved scalar quantity associated with the state or condition of an object or system of objects. We can roughly define energy as the capacity for an object or system to do work. There are many different types of energy - such as kinetic energy -






11. An electromagnetic wave of very high frequency.






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






13. In the Bohr model of the atom - the state in which an electron has the least energy and orbits closest to the nucleus.






14. 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.






15. Given the period - T - and semimajor axis - a - of a planet's orbit - the ratio is the same for every planet.

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16. The distance between the focal point and the vertex of a mirror or lens. For concave mirrors and convex lenses - this number is positive. For convex mirrors and concave lenses - this number is negative.






17. When an object is held in circular motion about a massive body - like a planet or a sun - due to the force of gravity - that object is said to be in orbit. Objects in orbit are in perpetual free fall - and so are therefore weightless.






18. 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.






19. 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






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






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






22. 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






23. 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






24. 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






25. A back-and-forth movement about an equilibrium position. Springs - pendulums - and other oscillators experience harmonic motion.






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






27. 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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28. Energy associated with the state of motion. The translational kinetic energy of an object is given by the equation .






29. The stable position of a system where the net force acting on the object is zero.






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






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






32. 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.






33. The energy associated with the configuration of bodies attracted to each other by the gravitational force. It is a measure of the amount of work necessary to get the two bodies from a chosen point of reference to their present position. This point of






34. The property of a vector that distinguishes it from a scalar: while scalars have only a magnitude - vectors have both a magnitude and a direction. When graphing vectors in the xy-coordinate space - direction is usually given by the angle measured cou






35. A device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy by rotating a coil in a magnetic field; sometimes called a "dynamo."






36. If two systems - A and B - are in thermal equilibrium and if B and C are also in thermal equilibrium - then systems A and C are necessarily in thermal equilibrium.






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






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






39. 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.






40. Light such that all of the associated waves have the same wavelength and are in phase.






41. The mass number - A - is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in a nucleus. It is very close to the weight of that nucleus in atomic mass units.






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






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






44. 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.






45. 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






46. States that the net work done on an object is equal to the object's change in kinetic energy.






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






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






49. For a reflected light ray - . In other words - a ray of light reflects of a surface in the same plane as the incident ray and the normal - and at an angle to the normal that is equal to the angle between the incident ray and the normal.






50. The points midway between nodes on a standing wave - where the oscillations are largest.