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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 system that no external net force acts upon. Objects within the system may exert forces upon one another - but they cannot receive any impulse from outside forces. Momentum is conserved in isolated systems.






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






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






4. In a right triangle - the tangent of a given angle is the length of the side opposite the angle divided by the length of the side adjacent to the triangle.






5. 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.






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






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. 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

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






10. 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.






11. 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.






12. The application of kinematics to understand why objects move the way they do. More precisely - dynamics is the study of how forces cause motion.






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






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






15. Waves that oscillate in the same direction as the propagation of the wave. Sound is carried by longitudinal waves - since the air molecules move back and forth in the same direction the sound travels.






16. An experiment in 1879 that showed that the speed of light is constant to all observers. Einstein used the results of this experiment as support for his theory of special relativity.






17. Atoms of the same element may have different numbers of neutrons and therefore different masses. Atoms of the same element but with different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes of the same element.






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






19. Light such that all of the associated waves have the same wavelength and are in phase.






20. The amount of heat necessary to transform a solid at a given temperature into a liquid of the same temperature - or the amount of heat needed to be removed from a liquid of a given temperature to transform it into a solid of the same temperature.






21. 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.






22. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.






23. 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






24. 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






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






26. The state of a nonrotating object upon whom the net torque acting is zero.






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






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






29. The time - T - required for a rigid body to complete one revolution.






30. 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.






31. 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






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






33. 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






34. The velocity at any given instant in time. To be contrasted with average velocity - which is a measure of the change in displacement over a given time interval.






35. Indicates how "bouncy" or "stiff" a spring is. More specifically - the spring constant - k - is the constant of proportionality between the restoring force exerted by the spring - and the spring's displacement from equilibrium. The greater the value






36. For a gas held at constant pressure - temperature and volume are directly proportional.

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37. 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.






38. 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






39. The point of a mirror or lens where all light that runs parallel to the principal axis will be focused. Concave mirrors and convex lenses are designed to focus light into the focal point. Convex mirrors and concave lenses focus light away from the fo






40. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.






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






42. 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.






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






44. A pulley is a simple machine that consists of a rope that slides around a disk or block.






45. The force between two surfaces moving relative to one another. The frictional force is parallel to the plane of contact between the two objects and in the opposite direction of the sliding object's motion.






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






47. 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.






48. A vector quantity - commonly denoted by the vector s - which reflects an object's change in spatial position. The displacement vector points from the object's starting position to the object's current position in space. If an object is moved from poi






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






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