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






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






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






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






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






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






7. 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.






8. In a right triangle - the tangent of a given angle is the length of the side opposite the angle divided by the length of the side adjacent to the triangle.






9. Waves that oscillate in the same direction as the propagation of the wave. Sound is carried by longitudinal waves - since the air molecules move back and forth in the same direction the sound travels.






10. 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






11. A system that no external net force acts upon. Objects within the system may exert forces upon one another - but they cannot receive any impulse from outside forces. Momentum is conserved in isolated systems.






12. 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 -






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

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






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






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






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






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






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






20. 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






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






22. 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 -






23. A device made of two coils - which converts current of one voltage into current of another voltage. In a step-up transformer - the primary coil has fewer turns than the secondary - thus increasing the voltage. In a step-down transformer - the seconda






24. 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.






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






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






27. 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






28. 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






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. 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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31. 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






32. The center of a mirror or lens.






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






34. 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.






35. 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.






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






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






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






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






40. 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.






41. A logorithmic unit for measuring the volume of sound - which is the square of the amplitude of sound waves.






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






43. The state of a nonrotating object upon whom the net torque acting is zero.






44. A form of radioactive decay where a heavy element ejects a beta particle and a neutrino - becoming a lighter element in the process.






45. Done when energy is transferred by a force. The work done by a force F in displacing an object by s is W = F · s.






46. The constant of proportionality in Newton's Law of Gravitation. It reflects the proportion of the gravitational force and - the product of two particles' masses divided by the square of the bodies' separation. N · m2/kg2.






47. An experiment in 1879 that showed that the speed of light is constant to all observers. Einstein used the results of this experiment as support for his theory of special relativity.






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






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






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

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