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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 application of kinematics to understand why objects move the way they do. More precisely - dynamics is the study of how forces cause motion.






2. 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






3. A constant in the numerator of a formula.






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






5. An object cannot be cooled to absolute zero.






6. Heat transfer via electromagnetic waves.






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






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






9. 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.






10. 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






11. Life- The amount of time it takes for one-half of a radioactive sample to decay.






12. In radioactive substances - the number of nuclei that decay per second. Activity - A - will be larger in large samples of radioactive material - since there will be more nuclei.






13. 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






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






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






16. The spectrum containing all the different kinds of electromagnetic waves - ranging in wavelength and frequency.






17. 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






18. 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






19. The line that every particle in the rotating rigid body circles about.






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






21. In a right triangle - the sine of a given angle is the length of the side opposite the angle divided by the length of the hypotenuse.






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


23. 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






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






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






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






27. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






28. 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


29. 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.






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






31. An object at rest remains at rest - unless acted upon by a net force. An object in motion remains in motion - unless acted upon by a net force.


32. A property common to both vectors and scalars. In the graphical representation of a vector - the vector's magnitude is equal to the length of the arrow.






33. The time - T - required for a rigid body to complete one revolution.






34. A unit for measuring angles; also called a "rad." 2p rad = 360º.






35. The phenomenon of light bouncing off a surface - such as a mirror.






36. A property of a metal - the minimum frequency of electromagnetic radiation that is necessary to release photoelectrons from that metal.






37. A vector quantity - - that reflects the change of angular displacement with time - and is typically given in units of rad/s. To find the direction of the angular velocity vector - take your right hand and curl your fingers along the particle or body






38. 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.






39. The amount of heat necessary to transform a solid at a given temperature into a liquid of the same temperature - or the amount of heat needed to be removed from a liquid of a given temperature to transform it into a solid of the same temperature.






40. A quantity that possesses a magnitude but not a direction. Mass and length are common examples.






41. The amount of heat necessary to transform a liquid at a given temperature into a gas of the same temperature - or the amount of heat needed to be taken away from a gas of a given temperature to transform it into a liquid of the same temperature.






42. 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.






43. A unit vector is a vector with length 1.






44. If two systems - A and B - are in thermal equilibrium and if B and C are also in thermal equilibrium - then systems A and C are necessarily in thermal equilibrium.






45. 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.






46. 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






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


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






49. 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.






50. 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