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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 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.






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






3. Waves in which the medium moves in the direction perpendicular to the propagation of the wave. Waves on a stretched string - water waves - and electromagnetic waves are all examples of transverse waves.






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






5. A form of radioactive decay where a heavy element emits an alpha particle and some energy - thus transforming into a lighter - more stable - element.






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

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7. A particle - identical to an electron. Beta particles are ejected from an atom in the process of beta decay.






8. 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






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






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






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






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. 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.






14. The application of kinematics to understand why objects move the way they do. More precisely - dynamics is the study of how forces cause motion.






15. A collision in which the colliding particles stick together.






16. 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.






17. 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






18. 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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19. The sum of a system's potential and kinetic energy. In many systems - including projectiles - pulleys - pendulums - and motion on frictionless surfaces - mechanical energy is conserved. One important type of problem in which mechanical energy is not






20. A wave on a string that is tied to a pole at one end will reflect back toward its source - producing a wave that is the mirror-image of the original and which travels in the opposite direction.






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






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






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






24. A unit vector is a vector with length 1.






25. The number of digits that have been accurately measured. When combining several measurements in a formula - the resulting calculation can only have as many significant digits as the measurement that has the smallest number of significant digits.






26. Occurs when every point in the rigid body moves in a circular path around a line called the axis of rotation.






27. 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.






28. 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.






29. The longest side of a right triangle - opposite to the right angle.






30. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






31. 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.






32. 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).






33. Relates the angle of incidence to the angle of refraction: .

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34. A class of elementary particle whose mass is between that of a proton and that of an electron. A common kind of meson is the pion.






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






36. The two shorter sides of a right triangle that meet at the right angle.






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






38. A wedge or a slide. The dynamics of objects sliding down inclined planes is a popular topic on SAT II Physics.






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

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40. If a line is drawn from the sun to the planet - then the area swept out by this line in a given time interval is constant.

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41. An electromagnetic wave of very high frequency.






42. If the net torque acting on a rigid body is zero - then the angular momentum of the body is constant or conserved.






43. The force transmitted along a rope or cable.






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






45. A vector quantity defined as the rate of change of the velocity vector with time.






46. The force involved in beta decay that changes a proton to a neutron and releases an electron and a neutrino.






47. The energy of a particle rotating around an axis.






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

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50. 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