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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 bending of light as it passes from one medium to another. Light refracts toward the normal when going from a less dense medium into a denser medium and away from the normal when going from a denser medium into a less dense medium.






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






3. 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.






4. An electromagnetic wave of very high frequency.






5. A positively charged particle that - along with the neutron - occupies the nucleus of the atom.






6. 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






7. 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.






8. A constant in the numerator of a formula.






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






10. 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.






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






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






13. A vector quantity defined as the rate of change of the velocity vector with time.






14. A vector quantity defined as the rate of change of the displacement vector with time. It is to be contrasted with speed - which is a scalar quantity for which no direction is specified.






15. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.






16. Waves carried by variations in air pressure. The speed of sound waves in air at room temperature and pressure is roughly 343 m/s.






17. 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.






18. 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.






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






20. An object that moves about a stable equilibrium point and experiences a restoring force that is directly proportional to the oscillator's displacement.






21. When a solid - liquid - or gas changes into another phase of matter.






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






23. A wavelength - given by = h/mv - which is associated with matter. Louis de Broglie proposed the idea that matter could be treated as waves in 1923 and applied this theory successfully to small particles like electrons.






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






26. A scalar quantity. If an object is moved from point A to point B in space along path AB - the distance that the object has traveled is the length of the path AB. Distance is to be contrasted with displacement - which is simply a measure of the distan






27. The process by which unstable nuclei spontaneously release particles and/or energy so as to come to a more stable arrangement. The most common forms of radioactive decay are alpha decay - beta decay - and gamma decay.






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






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






30. The points of maximum negative displacement along a wave. They are the opposite of wave crests.






31. 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






32. Atoms of the same element may have different numbers of neutrons and therefore different masses. Atoms of the same element but with different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes of the same element.






33. The property by which a changing current in one coil of wire induces an emf in another.






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






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






36. 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






37. 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






38. 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.






39. 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.






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






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






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






43. An experiment in 1879 that showed that the speed of light is constant to all observers. Einstein used the results of this experiment as support for his theory of special relativity.






44. 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.






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






46. 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.






47. 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.






48. Occurs when every point in the rigid body moves in a circular path around a line called the axis of rotation.






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






50. A wave with wave crests that propagate down the length of the medium - in contrast to stationary standing waves. The velocity at which a crest propagates is called the wave speed.