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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. The net change - - in a point's angular position - . It is a scalar quantity.






2. The bending of light at the corners of objects or as it passes through narrow slits or apertures.






3. 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.






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






5. 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.






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






7. A form of vector multiplication - where two vectors are multiplied to produce a scalar. The dot product of two vectors - A and B - is expressed by the equation A · B = AB cos .






8. The unit for measuring pressure. One Pascal is equal to one Newton per meter squared - 1 Pa = 1 N/m2.






9. The time it takes a system to pass through one cycle of its repetitive motion. The period - T - is the inverse of the motion's frequency - f = 1/T.






10. 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.






11. A model for the atom developed in 1913 by Niels Bohr. According to this model - the electrons orbiting a nucleus can only orbit at certain particular radii. Excited electrons may jump to a more distant radii and then return to their ground state - em






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

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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. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.






15. 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.






16. For an oscillating spring - the restoring force exerted by the spring is directly proportional to the displacement. That is - the more the spring is displaced - the stronger the force that will pull toward the equilibrium position. This law is expres

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17. The process by which a solid turns directly into gas - because it cannot exist as a liquid at a certain pressure.






18. 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






19. The mass number - A - is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in a nucleus. It is very close to the weight of that nucleus in atomic mass units.






20. F = ma. The net force - F - acting on an object causes the object to accelerate - a. The magnitude of the acceleration is directly proportional to the net force on the object and inversely proportional to the mass - m - of the object.

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21. 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.






22. A measurement of a body's inertia - or resistance to being accelerated.






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

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24. The points of maximum displacement along a wave. In traveling waves - the crests move in the direction of propagation of the wave. The crests of standing waves - also called anti-nodes - remain in one place.






25. 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






26. 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 -






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






28. In reference to oscillation - amplitude is the maximum displacement of the oscillator from its equilibrium position. Amplitude tells how far an oscillator is swinging back and forth. In periodic motion - amplitude is the maximum displacement in each






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






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






31. 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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32. A principle derived by Werner Heisenberg in 1927 that tells us that we can never know both the position and the momentum of a particle at any given time.






33. The line perpendicular to a surface. There is only one normal for any given surface.






34. 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






35. A sheet - film - or screen with a pattern of equally spaced slits. Typically the width of the slits and space between them is chosen to generate a particular diffraction pattern.






36. 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.






37. The index of refraction n = c/v of a substance characterizes the speed of light in that substance - v. It also characterizes - by way of Snell's Law - the angle at which light refracts in that substance.






38. A collision in which both kinetic energy and momentum are conserved.






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






40. The reaction force of the ground - a table - etc. - when an object is placed upon it. The normal force is a direct consequence of Newton's Third Law: when an object is placed on the ground - the ground pushes back with the same force that it is pushe






41. The name of an electron released from the surface of a metal due to the photoelectric effect.






42. A nuclear reaction that takes place only at very high temperatures. Two light atoms - often hydrogen - fuse together to form a larger single atom - releasing a vast amount of energy in the process.






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






44. 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.






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






46. A coefficient that tells how much a material will expand or contract lengthwise when it is heated or cooled.






47. The gravitational force exerted on a given mass.






48. A push or a pull that causes an object to accelerate.






49. 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






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