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Test your basic knowledge |
SAT Subject Test: hysics
Start Test
Study First
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 transverse traveling wave created by the oscillations of an electric field and a magnetic field. Electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light - m/s. Examples include microwaves - X rays - and visible light.
Coefficient of linear expansion
Electromagnetic wave
Period
Transverse waves
2. The net change - - in a point's angular position - . It is a scalar quantity.
Node
Angular displacement
Thermal energy
Coherent light
3. The energy of a particle moving in space. It is defined in s of a particle's mass - m - and velocity - v - as (1/2)mv2.
Instantaneous velocity
Optics
Translational kinetic energy
Centripetal force
4. 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.
Harmonic series
Momentum
Transverse waves
Translational motion
5. 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.
Speed
Michelson-Morley experiment
Sound
Angular acceleration
6. The center of an atom - where the protons and neutrons reside. Electrons then orbit this nucleus.
Activity
Nucleus
Newton's Second Law
Boiling point
7. The phenomenon by which light traveling from a high n to a low n material will reflect from the optical interface if the incident angle is greater than the critical angle.
Conduction
Work
Total internal reflection
Rotational motion
8. The amount heat necessary to cause a substance to undergo a phase transition.
Boiling point
Angular position
Inclined plane
Latent heat of transformation
9. The spectrum containing all the different kinds of electromagnetic waves - ranging in wavelength and frequency.
Kinetic energy
Pitch
Phase change
Electromagnetic spectrum
10. 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
Optics
Inversely proportional
Temperature
Photoelectron
11. 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.
Beta decay
Pulley
Nuclear fusion
Mass number
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 -
Legs
Weak nuclear force
Compression
Electromagnetic spectrum
13. The cosine of an angle in a right triangle is equal to the length of the side adjacent to the angle divided by the length of the hypotenuse.
Cosine
Latent heat of transformation
Dot product
Magnetic flux
14. The property by which a charge moving in a magnetic field creates an electric field.
Pendulum
Frequency
Electromagnetic induction
Torque
15. 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.
Temperature
Coefficient of static friction
Center of mass
Instantaneous velocity
16. The temperature at which a material will change phase from liquid to gas or gas to liquid.
Uniform circular motion
Boiling point
Refraction
Inertial reference frame
17. When dealing with reflection or refraction - the incident ray is the ray of light before it strikes the reflecting or refracting surface.
Magnitude
Deposition
Incident ray
Compression
18. A unit vector is a vector with length 1.
Uniform circular motion
Weightlessness
Speed
Unit vector
19. 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.
Crest
Energy
Rotational motion
Kepler's Third Law
20. The principle stating that for any isolated system - linear momentum is constant with time.
Standing wave
Conservation of momentum
Angle of reflection
Pitch
21. 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.
Uncertainty principle
Impulse
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Magnitude
22. Life- The amount of time it takes for one-half of a radioactive sample to decay.
Half
Velocity
Traveling waves
Motional emf
23. A measurement of a body's inertia - or resistance to being accelerated.
Mass
Wave speed
Unit vector
Reflection
24. Body diagram- Illustrates the forces acting on an object - drawn as vectors originating from the center of the object.
Loudness
Alpha particle
Orbit
Free
25. The process by which a solid turns directly into gas - because it cannot exist as a liquid at a certain pressure.
Displacement
Sublimation
Convex mirror
Photoelectric effect
26. The line that every particle in the rotating rigid body circles about.
Absolute zero
Axis of rotation
Electron
Node
27. A constant - - not to be confused with wavelength - that defines the speed at which a radioactive element undergoes decay. The greater is - the faster the element decays.
Decay constant
Spring
Third Law of Thermodynamics
Newton
28. The bending of light at the corners of objects or as it passes through narrow slits or apertures.
Kepler's Second Law
Hypotenuse
Latent heat of transformation
Diffraction
29. A wedge or a slide. The dynamics of objects sliding down inclined planes is a popular topic on SAT II Physics.
Inclined plane
Specific heat
Gravitational constant
Work
30. For a heat engine - the ratio of work done by the engine to heat intake. Efficiency is never 100%.
Electron
Efficiency
Axis of rotation
Charles's Law
31. The motion of a body in a circular path with constant speed.
Planck's constant
Incident ray
Uniform circular motion
Amplitude
32. A body or set of bodies that we choose to analyze as a group.
Rotational kinetic energy
Electromagnetic spectrum
Uncertainty principle
System
33. Waves carried by variations in air pressure. The speed of sound waves in air at room temperature and pressure is roughly 343 m/s.
Convex mirror
Hertz (Hz)
Sound
Dynamics
34. When a light ray strikes a surface - the angle of incidence is the angle between the incident ray and the normal.
Newton's Second Law
Angle of incidence
Dispersion
Phase
35. The sum of a system's potential and kinetic energy. In many systems - including projectiles - pulleys - pendulums - and motion on frictionless surfaces - mechanical energy is conserved. One important type of problem in which mechanical energy is not
Mechanical energy
Charles's Law
Neutrino
Sublimation
36. 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.
Orbit
Angle of refraction
Chain reaction
Work function
37. A small particle-like bundle of electromagnetic radiation.
Sublimation
Angle of incidence
Angular period
Photon
38. For two given media - the smallest angle of incidence at which total internal reflection occurs.
Critical angle
Convex lens
Thermal equilibrium
Ideal gas law
39. The points of maximum negative displacement along a wave. They are the opposite of wave crests.
Period
Isolated system
Spectroscope
Trough
40. 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.
Coefficient of volume expansion
Atomic number
Boiling point
Isolated system
41. Occurs when every point in the rigid body moves in a circular path around a line called the axis of rotation.
Radioactivity
Rotational motion
Maxima
Angular frequency
42. The lowest theoretical temperature a material can have - where the molecules that make up the material have no kinetic energy. Absolute zero is reached at 0 K or -273º C.
Convex lens
Absolute zero
Electromagnetic induction
System
43. 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.
Electronvolt
Isotope
Concave lens
Force
44. Energy associated with an object's position in space - or configuration in relation to other objects. This is a latent form of energy - where the amount of potential energy reflects the amount of energy that potentially could be released as kinetic e
Free
Coefficient of static friction
Potential energy
Atom
45. An experiment by Ernest Rutherford that proved for the first time that atoms have nuclei.
Atom
Gold foil experiment
Orbit
Inversely proportional
46. The amplification of one wave by another - identical wave of the same sign. Two constructively interfering waves are said to be "in phase."
Law of reflection
Constructive interference
Angle of reflection
Mutual Induction
47. 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.
Concave mirror
Kinematics
Angular frequency
Power
48. 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.
Alpha particle
Trough
Impulse
Decay constant
49. 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
Transformer
Conduction
Spring constant
Translational motion
50. 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
Normal force
Bohr atomic model
Coefficient of volume expansion
Planck's constant