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






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






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






4. The amount of error that's possible in a given measurement.






5. The force that binds protons and neutrons together in the atomic nucleus.






6. A reference frame in which Newton's First Law is true. Two inertial reference frames move at a constant velocity relative to one another. According to the first postulate of Einstein's theory of special relativity - the laws of physics are the same i






7. 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.






8. An experiment by Ernest Rutherford that proved for the first time that atoms have nuclei.






9. 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






10. 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.






11. 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.






12. When a light ray strikes a surface - the angle of incidence is the angle between the incident ray and the normal.






13. To every action - there is an equal and opposite reaction. If an object A exerts a force on another object B - B will exert on A a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force exerted by A.

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






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






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






17. The line that every particle in the rotating rigid body circles about.






18. The square of the amplitude of a sound wave is called the sound's loudness - or volume.






19. A form of vector multiplication - where two vectors are multiplied to produce a scalar. The dot product of two vectors - A and B - is expressed by the equation A · B = AB cos .






20. For an oscillating spring - the restoring force exerted by the spring is directly proportional to the displacement. That is - the more the spring is displaced - the stronger the force that will pull toward the equilibrium position. This law is expres

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21. A constant - - not to be confused with wavelength - that defines the speed at which a radioactive element undergoes decay. The greater is - the faster the element decays.






22. The center of a mirror or lens.






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






24. An object that moves about a stable equilibrium point and experiences a restoring force that is directly proportional to the oscillator's displacement.






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






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






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






28. Also called a converging lens - a lens that is thicker in the middle than at the edges. Convex lenses refract light through a focal point.






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






30. 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






31. Energy associated with the state of motion. The translational kinetic energy of an object is given by the equation .






32. 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.






33. If two systems - A and B - are in thermal equilibrium and if B and C are also in thermal equilibrium - then systems A and C are necessarily in thermal equilibrium.






34. A mirror that is curved such that its center is closer to the viewer than the edges - such as a doorknob. Convex mirrors reflect light away from a focal point.






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






36. A vector quantity defined as the rate of change of the displacement vector with time. It is to be contrasted with speed - which is a scalar quantity for which no direction is specified.






37. In the graphical representation of vectors - the tip of the arrow is the pointy end.






38. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.






39. 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.






40. The gravitational force exerted on a given mass.






41. A wave that interferes with its own reflection so as to produce oscillations which stand still - rather than traveling down the length of the medium. Standing waves on a string with both ends tied down make up the harmonic series.






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






43. Life- The amount of time it takes for one-half of a radioactive sample to decay.






44. A particle - which consists of two protons and two neutrons. It is identical to the nucleus of a helium atom and is ejected by heavy particles undergoing alpha decay.






45. When two waves of slightly different frequencies interfere with one another - they produce a "beating" interference pattern that alternates between constructive (in-phase) and destructive (out-of-phase). In the case of sound waves - this sort of inte






46. 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






47. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.






48. The effect of force on rotational motion.






49. 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.






50. 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.