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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 longest side of a right triangle - opposite to the right angle.






2. 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.






3. In an interference or diffraction pattern - the places where there is the most light.






4. The bending of light at the corners of objects or as it passes through narrow slits or apertures.






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






6. 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






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






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

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9. 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






10. 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 .






11. The amount of error that's possible in a given measurement.






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






13. 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






14. The dot product of the area and the magnetic field passing through it. Graphically - it is a measure of the number and length of magnetic field lines passing through that area. It is measured in Webers (Wb).






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






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






17. The index of refraction n = c/v of a substance characterizes the speed of light in that substance - v. It also characterizes - by way of Snell's Law - the angle at which light refracts in that substance.






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






19. The force that causes simple harmonic motion. The restoring force is always directed toward an object's equilibrium position.






20. A body or set of bodies that we choose to analyze as a group.






21. F = ma. The net force - F - acting on an object causes the object to accelerate - a. The magnitude of the acceleration is directly proportional to the net force on the object and inversely proportional to the mass - m - of the object.

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22. 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.






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






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






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






26. 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.






27. An equation - PV = nRT - that relates the pressure - volume - temperature - and quantity of an ideal gas. An ideal gas is one that obeys the approximations laid out in the kinetic theory of gases.






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






29. The substance that is displaced as a wave propagates through it. Air is the medium for sound waves - the string is the medium of transverse waves on a string - and water is the medium for ocean waves. Note that even if the waves in a given medium tra






30. 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.






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






32. 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






33. The mass difference between a nucleus and the sum of the masses of the constituent protons and neutrons.






34. The separation of different color light via refraction.






35. The amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. 1 cal = 4.19 J.






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






37. The stable position of a system where the net force acting on the object is zero.






38. The straight line that runs through the focal point and the vertex of a mirror or lens.






39. The coefficient of kinetic friction - - for two materials is the constant of proportionality between the normal force and the force of kinetic friction. It is always a number between zero and one.






40. A coefficient that tells how much a material will expand or contract lengthwise when it is heated or cooled.






41. 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.






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






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






44. The force involved in beta decay that changes a proton to a neutron and releases an electron and a neutrino.






45. 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.






46. In a right triangle - the tangent of a given angle is the length of the side opposite the angle divided by the length of the side adjacent to the triangle.






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






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






49. 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.






50. 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.