Test your basic knowledge |

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






2. Heat transfer via electromagnetic waves.






3. A collision in which both kinetic energy and momentum are conserved.






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






5. 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.






6. 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.






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






8. The building blocks of all matter - quarks are the constituent parts of protons - neutrons - and mesons.






9. A form of radioactivity where an excited atom releases a photon of gamma radiation - thereby returning to a lower energy state. The atomic structure itself does not change in the course of gamma radiation.






10. The position - of an object according to a co-ordinate system measured in s of the angle of the object from a certain origin axis. Conventionally - this origin axis is the positive x-axis.






11. A vector of magnitude 1 along one of the coordinate axes. Generally - we take the basis vectors to be and - the vectors of length 1 along the x- and y-axes - respectively.






12. A vector quantity - L - that is the rotational analogue of linear momentum. For a single particle - the angular momentum is the cross product of the particle's displacement from the axis of rotation and the particle's linear momentum - . For a rigid






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






14. 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.






15. The energy associated with the configuration of bodies attracted to each other by the gravitational force. It is a measure of the amount of work necessary to get the two bodies from a chosen point of reference to their present position. This point of






16. For two given media - the smallest angle of incidence at which total internal reflection occurs.






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

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


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






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






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






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






22. 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.






23. 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.

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


24. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






25. 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

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


26. A nuclear reaction in which a high-energy neutron bombards a heavy - unstable atomic nucleus - causing it to split into two smaller nuclei - and releasing some neutrons and a vast amount of energy at the same time






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






28. The experience of being in free fall. If you are in a satellite - elevator - or other free-falling object - then you have a weight of zero Newtons relative to that object.






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






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 that retains its overall shape - meaning that the particles that make up the rigid body stay in the same position relative to one another.






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






33. An almost massless particle of neutral charge that is released along with a beta particle in beta decay.






34. There are a few versions of this law. One is that heat flows spontaneously from hot to cold - but not in the reverse direction. Another is that there is no such thing as a 100% efficient heat engine. A third states that the entropy - or disorder - of






35. The center of a mirror or lens.






36. 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






37. 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.






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






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






40. A number - Z - associated with the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom. Every element can be defined in s of its atomic number - since every atom of a given element has the same number of protons.






41. A sheet - film - or screen with a pattern of equally spaced slits. Typically the width of the slits and space between them is chosen to generate a particular diffraction pattern.






42. 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.






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






44. Any vector can be expressed as the sum of two mutually perpendicular component vectors. Usually - but not always - these components are multiples of the basis vectors - and ; that is - vectors along the x-axis and y-axis. We define these two vectors






45. 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






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






47. Waves in which the medium moves in the direction perpendicular to the propagation of the wave. Waves on a stretched string - water waves - and electromagnetic waves are all examples of transverse waves.






48. An image created by a mirror or lens in such a way that light does actually come from where the image appears to be. If you place a screen in front of a real image - the image will be projected onto the screen.






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






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