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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 scale for measuring temperature - defined such that water freezes at 0ºC and boils at 100ºC. 0ºC = 273 K.






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






3. The experience of being in free fall. If you are in a satellite - elevator - or other free-falling object - then you have a weight of zero Newtons relative to that object.






4. The square of the amplitude of a sound wave is called the sound's loudness - or volume.






5. 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






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






7. The position - of an object according to a co-ordinate system measured in s of the angle of the object from a certain origin axis. Conventionally - this origin axis is the positive x-axis.






8. 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.






9. The building blocks of all matter - atoms are made up of a nucleus consisting of protons and neutrons - and a number of electrons that orbit the nucleus. An electrically neutral atom has as many protons as it has electrons.






10. 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.






11. 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.






12. 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






13. A number - Z - associated with the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom. Every element can be defined in s of its atomic number - since every atom of a given element has the same number of protons.






14. 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.






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






16. A neutrally charged particle that - along with protons - constitutes the nucleus of an atom.






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






18. The ray of light that is refracted through a surface into a different medium.






19. The process by which unstable nuclei spontaneously release particles and/or energy so as to come to a more stable arrangement. The most common forms of radioactive decay are alpha decay - beta decay - and gamma decay.






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






21. A collision in which momentum is conserved but kinetic energy is not.






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






23. 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






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






25. 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.






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






27. Essentially a restatement of energy conservation - it states that the change in the internal energy of a system is equal to the heat added plus the work done on the system.






28. An object cannot be cooled to absolute zero.






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






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






31. 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






32. 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 -






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






34. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.






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






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






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






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






39. 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.






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






41. The force that causes simple harmonic motion. The restoring force is always directed toward an object's equilibrium position.






42. The center of a mirror or lens.






43. The amount of heat necessary for a material undergoing sublimation to make a phase change from gas to solid or solid to gas - without a change in temperature.






44. 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






45. 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






46. A wave with wave crests that propagate down the length of the medium - in contrast to stationary standing waves. The velocity at which a crest propagates is called the wave speed.






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






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






49. An image created by a mirror or lens in such a way that light does not actually come from where the image appears to be.






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