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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 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






2. A device that breaks incoming light down into spectral rays - so that one can see the exact wavelength constituents of the light.






3. The center of an atom - where the protons and neutrons reside. Electrons then orbit this nucleus.






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






5. 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.






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






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






8. 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.






9. The center of a mirror or lens.






10. A process that aligns a wave of light to oscillate in one dimension rather than two.






11. Kinematics is the study and description of the motion of objects.






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






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






14. 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.






15. The tendency of an object to remain at a constant velocity - or its resistance to being accelerated. Newton's First Law is alternatively called the Law of Inertia because it describes this tendency.






16. Another word for the frequency of a sound wave.






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






18. 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






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

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20. States that the net work done on an object is equal to the object's change in kinetic energy.






21. The amount of heat of a material required to raise the temperature of either one kilogram or one gram of that material by one degree Celsius. Different units may be used depending on whether specific heat is measured in s of grams or kilograms - and






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






23. 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.






24. 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.






25. The particles and energy released by the fission or fusion of one atom may trigger the fission or fusion of further atoms. In a chain reaction - fission or fusion is rapidly transferred to a large number of atoms - releasing tremendous amounts of ene






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






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






28. 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.






29. An object cannot be cooled to absolute zero.






30. In the Bohr model of the atom - the state in which an electron has the least energy and orbits closest to the nucleus.






31. The number of cycles executed by a system in one second. Frequency is the inverse of period - f = 1/T. Frequency is measured in hertz - Hz.






32. A means of defining the direction of the cross product vector. To define the direction of the vector - position your right hand so that your fingers point in the direction of A - and then curl them around so that they point in the direction of B. Th






33. The points midway between nodes on a standing wave - where the oscillations are largest.






34. 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






35. 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






36. A negatively charged particle that orbits the nucleus of the atom.






37. The cancellation of one wave by another wave that is exactly out of phase with the first. Despite the dramatic name of this phenomenon - nothing is "destroyed" by this interference—the two waves emerge intact once they have passed each other.






38. 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.






39. The time it takes a system to pass through one cycle of its repetitive motion. The period - T - is the inverse of the motion's frequency - f = 1/T.






40. The energy of the molecules that make up an object. It is related to heat - which is the amount of energy transferred from one object to another object that is a different temperature.






41. When electromagnetic radiation shines upon a metal - the surface of the metal releases energized electrons. The way in which these electrons are released contradicts classical theories of electromagnetic radiation and supports the quantum view accord






42. 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






43. The separation of different color light via refraction.






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






45. In radioactive substances - the number of nuclei that decay per second. Activity - A - will be larger in large samples of radioactive material - since there will be more nuclei.






46. 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






47. The line perpendicular to a surface. There is only one normal for any given surface.






48. A mirror that is curved such that its center is farther from the viewer than the edges - such as the front of a spoon. Concave mirrors reflect light through a focal point.






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






50. In an interference or diffraction pattern - the places where there is the least light.