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






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






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






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






5. 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






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






7. The number of hydrogen atoms in one gram of hydrogen - equal to . When counting the number of molecules in a gas - it is often convenient to count them in moles.






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






9. 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.






10. The property of a vector that distinguishes it from a scalar: while scalars have only a magnitude - vectors have both a magnitude and a direction. When graphing vectors in the xy-coordinate space - direction is usually given by the angle measured cou






11. 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.






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






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






14. The disorder of a system.






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. 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.






17. The study of the properties of visible light - i.e. - the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths between 360 and 780 nm (1 nm = m/s).






18. A form of radioactive decay where a heavy element emits an alpha particle and some energy - thus transforming into a lighter - more stable - element.






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






20. 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.






21. 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






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






23. 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






24. 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.






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






26. A quantity that possesses a magnitude but not a direction. Mass and length are common examples.






27. 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






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






29. 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.






30. 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






31. An electromagnetic wave of very high frequency.






32. A transfer of thermal energy. We don't speak about systems "having" heat - but about their "transferring" heat - much in the way that dynamical systems don't "have" work - but rather "do" work.






33. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






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






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

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36. 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.






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






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






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






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






41. A vector quantity - or vector - is an object possessing - and fully described by - a magnitude and a direction. Graphically a vector is depicted as an arrow with its magnitude given by the length of the arrow and its direction given by where the arro






42. 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.






43. A unit of measurement for energy on atomic levels. 1 eV = J.






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






45. The mass number - A - is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in a nucleus. It is very close to the weight of that nucleus in atomic mass units.






46. Two quantities are inversely proportional if an increase in one results in a proportional decrease in the other - and a decrease in one results in a proportional increase in the other. In a formula defining a certain quantity - those quantities to wh






47. A law - || = - which states that the induced emf is the change in magnetic flux in a certain time.

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






49. When objects collide - each object feels a force for a short amount of time. This force imparts an impulse - or changes the momentum of each of the colliding objects. The momentum of a system is conserved in all kinds of collisions. Kinetic energy is






50. Essentially a restatement of energy conservation - it states that the change in the internal energy of a system is equal to the heat added plus the work done on the system.