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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. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.






2. The joule (J) is the unit of work and energy. A joule is 1 N · m or 1 kg · m2/s2.






3. A frequency - f - defined as the number of revolutions a rigid body makes in a given time interval. It is a scalar quantity commonly denoted in units of Hertz (Hz) or s-1.






4. Two materials are in thermal equilibrium if they are at the same temperature.






5. 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.






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






7. The amount of energy that metal must absorb before it can release a photoelectron from the metal.






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






9. 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.






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






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






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






13. The speed at which a wave crest or trough propagates. Note that this is not the speed at which the actual medium (like the stretched string or the air particles) moves.






14. 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






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






16. 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






17. 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






18. The center of an atom - where the protons and neutrons reside. Electrons then orbit this nucleus.






19. A wave that interferes with its own reflection so as to produce oscillations which stand still - rather than traveling down the length of the medium. Standing waves on a string with both ends tied down make up the harmonic series.






20. 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.






21. 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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22. A unit of force: 1 N is equivalent to a 1 kg · m/s2.






23. 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.






24. 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






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






26. The five equations used to solve problems in kinematics in one dimension with uniform acceleration.






27. An object cannot be cooled to absolute zero.






28. The effect of force on rotational motion.






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






30. Heat transfer via electromagnetic waves.






31. 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.






32. A particle - which consists of two protons and two neutrons. It is identical to the nucleus of a helium atom and is ejected by heavy particles undergoing alpha decay.






33. 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






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






35. The ray of light that is reflected from a mirror or other reflecting surface.






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






37. Body diagram- Illustrates the forces acting on an object - drawn as vectors originating from the center of the object.






38. 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.






39. The disorder of a system.






40. 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.






41. 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






42. 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.






43. 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






44. 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 -






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






46. Waves carried by variations in air pressure. The speed of sound waves in air at room temperature and pressure is roughly 343 m/s.






47. 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.






48. 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.






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






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