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






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






3. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






4. 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 .






5. 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.






6. 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.






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






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






9. 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.






10. 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.






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






12. 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.






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


14. 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.






15. The angle between a refracted ray and the line normal to the surface.






16. 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






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






18. A rough approximation of how gases work - that is quite accurate in everyday conditions. According to the kinetic theory - gases are made up of tiny - round molecules that move about in accordance with Newton's Laws - and collide with one another and






19. 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.






20. A form of radioactivity where an excited atom releases a photon of gamma radiation - thereby returning to a lower energy state. The atomic structure itself does not change in the course of gamma radiation.






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






22. A law - || = - which states that the induced emf is the change in magnetic flux in a certain time.


23. The gravitational force exerted on a given mass.






24. 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.






25. A vector quantity - equal to the rate of change of the angular velocity vector with time. It is typically given in units of rad/s2.






26. 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.






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






28. An image created by a mirror or lens in such a way that light does actually come from where the image appears to be. If you place a screen in front of a real image - the image will be projected onto the screen.






29. 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 -






30. 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






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






32. A wedge or a slide. The dynamics of objects sliding down inclined planes is a popular topic on SAT II Physics.






33. The disorder of a system.






34. 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.






35. A negatively charged particle that orbits the nucleus of the atom.






36. A force caused by the roughness of two materials in contact - deformations in the materials - and a molecular attraction between the materials. Frictional forces are always parallel to the plane of contact between two surfaces and opposite the direct






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






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






39. The force between two surfaces moving relative to one another. The frictional force is parallel to the plane of contact between the two objects and in the opposite direction of the sliding object's motion.






40. 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.






41. The force of gravity - F - between two particles of mass and - separated by a distance r - has a magnitude of - where G is the gravitational constant. The force is directed along the line joining the two particles.


42. The two shorter sides of a right triangle that meet at the right angle.






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






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






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


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






47. An area of high air pressure that acts as the wave trough for sound waves. The spacing between successive rarefactions is the wavelength of sound - and the number of successive areas of rarefaction that arrive at the ear per second is the frequency -






48. 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.






49. 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.






50. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.