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






2. 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.






3. The force transmitted along a rope or cable.






4. 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






5. 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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6. 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






7. A process that aligns a wave of light to oscillate in one dimension rather than two.






8. 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.






9. 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.






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

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






12. With spherical mirrors - the radius of the sphere of which the mirror is a part.






13. Energy associated with the state of motion. The translational kinetic energy of an object is given by the equation .






14. 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






15. 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.






16. When two waves of slightly different frequencies interfere with one another - they produce a "beating" interference pattern that alternates between constructive (in-phase) and destructive (out-of-phase). In the case of sound waves - this sort of inte






17. 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.






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






20. The ray of light that is refracted through a surface into a different medium.






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






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






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






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






25. If a line is drawn from the sun to the planet - then the area swept out by this line in a given time interval is constant.

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






27. The number - N - of neutrons in an atomic nucleus.






28. A small particle-like bundle of electromagnetic radiation.






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






30. 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.






31. Kinematics is the study and description of the motion of objects.






32. The force necessary to maintain a body in uniform circular motion. This force is always directed radially toward the center of the circle.






33. The distance between the focal point and the vertex of a mirror or lens. For concave mirrors and convex lenses - this number is positive. For convex mirrors and concave lenses - this number is negative.






34. Waves that oscillate in the same direction as the propagation of the wave. Sound is carried by longitudinal waves - since the air molecules move back and forth in the same direction the sound travels.






35. Objects that experience oscillatory or simple harmonic motion when distorted. Their motion is described by Hooke's Law.






36. The energy of a particle rotating around an axis.






37. Represented by R = 8.31 J/mol · K - the universal gas constant fits into the ideal gas law so as to relate temperature to the average kinetic energy of gas molecules.






38. A constant in the numerator of a formula.






39. The amount of energy that metal must absorb before it can release a photoelectron from the metal.






40. A device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy by rotating a coil in a magnetic field; sometimes called a "dynamo."






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






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






43. 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.






44. 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.






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






46. 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.






47. When a light ray strikes a surface - the angle of incidence is the angle between the incident ray and the normal.






48. Heat transfer via electromagnetic waves.






49. For a heat engine - the ratio of work done by the engine to heat intake. Efficiency is never 100%.






50. Waves produced by a source that is moving with respect to the observer will seem to have a higher frequency and smaller wavelength if the motion is towards the observer - and a lower frequency and longer wavelength if the motion is away from the obse