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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 property by which a charge moving in a magnetic field creates an electric field.






2. A wave on a string that is tied to a pole at one end will reflect back toward its source - producing a wave that is the mirror-image of the original and which travels in the opposite direction.






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






4. 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.






5. 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






6. The unit of magnetic flux - equal to one T · m2.






7. 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






8. 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






9. A back-and-forth movement about an equilibrium position. Springs - pendulums - and other oscillators experience harmonic motion.






10. An image created by a mirror or lens in such a way that light does not actually come from where the image appears to be.






11. States that the current induced in a circuit by a change in magnetic flux is in the direction that will oppose that change in flux. Using the right-hand rule - point your thumb in the opposite direction of the change in magnetic flux. The direction y

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12. A scale for measuring temperature - defined such that water freezes at 0ºC and boils at 100ºC. 0ºC = 273 K.






13. The number of digits that have been accurately measured. When combining several measurements in a formula - the resulting calculation can only have as many significant digits as the measurement that has the smallest number of significant digits.






14. A measurement of a body's inertia - or resistance to being accelerated.






15. 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






16. 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.






17. The building blocks of all matter - atoms are made up of a nucleus consisting of protons and neutrons - and a number of electrons that orbit the nucleus. An electrically neutral atom has as many protons as it has electrons.






18. 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.






19. A unit of force: 1 N is equivalent to a 1 kg · m/s2.






20. The standing wave with the lowest frequency that is supported by a string with both ends tied down is called the fundamental - or resonance - of the string. The wavelength of the fundamental is twice the length of the string - .






21. A particle - identical to an electron. Beta particles are ejected from an atom in the process of beta decay.






22. 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.






23. 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.






24. A measure of the average kinetic energy of the molecules in a system. Temperature is related to heat by the specific heat of a given substance.






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






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






27. Done when energy is transferred by a force. The work done by a force F in displacing an object by s is W = F · s.






28. The points on a standing wave where total destructive interference causes the medium to remain fixed at its equilibrium position.






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






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






31. Linear momentum - p - commonly called "momentum" for short - is a vector quantity defined as the product of an object's mass - m - and its velocity - v.






32. The process by which a gas turns directly into a solid because it cannot exist as a liquid at certain pressures.






33. In reference to oscillation - amplitude is the maximum displacement of the oscillator from its equilibrium position. Amplitude tells how far an oscillator is swinging back and forth. In periodic motion - amplitude is the maximum displacement in each






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






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






36. When dealing with reflection or refraction - the incident ray is the ray of light before it strikes the reflecting or refracting surface.






37. A neutrally charged particle that - along with protons - constitutes the nucleus of an atom.






38. 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.






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






40. A constant in the numerator of a formula.






41. The reaction force of the ground - a table - etc. - when an object is placed upon it. The normal force is a direct consequence of Newton's Third Law: when an object is placed on the ground - the ground pushes back with the same force that it is pushe






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






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






44. The force between two surfaces moving relative to one another. The frictional force is parallel to the plane of contact between the two objects and in the opposite direction of the sliding object's motion.






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






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






47. 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.






48. The point of a mirror or lens where all light that runs parallel to the principal axis will be focused. Concave mirrors and convex lenses are designed to focus light into the focal point. Convex mirrors and concave lenses focus light away from the fo






49. 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.






50. 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.