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






2. A pendulum consists of a bob connected to a rod or rope. At small angles - a pendulum's motion approximates simple harmonic motion as it swings back and forth without friction.






3. Defined as the rate at which work is done - or the rate at which energy is transformed. P is measured in joules per second (J/s) - or watts (W).






4. A pulley is a simple machine that consists of a rope that slides around a disk or block.






5. An object that retains its overall shape - meaning that the particles that make up the rigid body stay in the same position relative to one another.






6. 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.






7. 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.






8. 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






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






10. 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.






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

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12. 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






13. 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






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






15. 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.






16. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






22. 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 -






23. 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.






24. A scalar quantity that tells us how fast an object is moving. It measures the rate of change in distance over time. Speed is to be contrasted with velocity in that there is no direction associated with speed.






25. A scale for measuring temperature - defined such that 0K is the lowest theoretical temperature a material can have. 273K = 0ºC.






26. The units of frequency - defined as inverse-seconds (1 Hz = 1 s-1). "Hertz" can be used interchangeably with "cycles per second."






27. The force between two surfaces that are not moving relative to one another. The force of static friction is parallel to the plane of contact between the two objects and resists the force pushing or pulling on the object.






28. 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.






29. Any vector can be expressed as the sum of two mutually perpendicular component vectors. Usually - but not always - these components are multiples of the basis vectors - and ; that is - vectors along the x-axis and y-axis. We define these two vectors






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






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






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






33. A unit of measurement for energy on atomic levels. 1 eV = J.






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






35. The amplification of one wave by another - identical wave of the same sign. Two constructively interfering waves are said to be "in phase."






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






37. A means of defining the direction of the cross product vector. To define the direction of the vector - position your right hand so that your fingers point in the direction of A - and then curl them around so that they point in the direction of B. Th






38. 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.






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






40. A constant in the numerator of a formula.






41. The points on a standing wave where total destructive interference causes the medium to remain fixed at its equilibrium position.






42. The cancellation of one wave by another wave that is exactly out of phase with the first. Despite the dramatic name of this phenomenon - nothing is "destroyed" by this interference—the two waves emerge intact once they have passed each other.






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






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






45. 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.






46. A nuclear reaction in which a high-energy neutron bombards a heavy - unstable atomic nucleus - causing it to split into two smaller nuclei - and releasing some neutrons and a vast amount of energy at the same time






47. A machine that operates by taking heat from a hot place - doing some work with that heat - and then exhausting the rest of the heat into a cool place. The internal combustion engine of a car is an example of a heat engine.






48. 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






49. With spherical mirrors - the center of the sphere of which the mirror is a part. All of the normals pass through it.






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