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






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






3. 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.






4. 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.






5. The temperature at which a material will change phase from solid to liquid or liquid to solid.






6. The center of a mirror or lens.






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






8. 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.






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






10. 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.






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






12. The two shorter sides of a right triangle that meet at the right angle.






13. 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






14. 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.


15. 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






16. A constant in the numerator of a formula.






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






18. 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






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






20. 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.






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






22. The joule (J) is the unit of work and energy. A joule is 1 N · m or 1 kg · m2/s2.






23. 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.






24. The units of frequency - defined as inverse-seconds (1 Hz = 1 s-1). "Hertz" can be used interchangeably with "cycles per second."






25. The ray of light that is reflected from a mirror or other reflecting surface.






26. 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






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






28. In a right triangle - the sine of a given angle is the length of the side opposite the angle divided by the length of the hypotenuse.






29. 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.






30. 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






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






32. A vector quantity defined as the product of the force acting on a body multiplied by the time interval over which the force is exerted.






33. 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






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






35. 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.






36. The unit for measuring pressure. One Pascal is equal to one Newton per meter squared - 1 Pa = 1 N/m2.






37. 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.






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






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


40. For a gas held at a constant temperature - pressure and volume are inversely proportional.


41. 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.






42. An area of high air pressure that acts as the wave crest for sound waves. The spacing between successive compressions is the wavelength of sound - and the number of successive areas of compression that arrive at the ear per second is the frequency -






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






44. Two materials are in thermal equilibrium if they are at the same temperature.






45. 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.






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






47. The process by which unstable nuclei spontaneously release particles and/or energy so as to come to a more stable arrangement. The most common forms of radioactive decay are alpha decay - beta decay - and gamma decay.






48. For a reflected light ray - . In other words - a ray of light reflects of a surface in the same plane as the incident ray and the normal - and at an angle to the normal that is equal to the angle between the incident ray and the normal.






49. Two oscillators that have the same frequency and amplitude - but reach their maximum displacements at different times - are said to have different phases. Similarly - two waves are in phase if their crests and troughs line up exactly - and they are o






50. An electromagnetic wave of very high frequency.