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






2. A transverse traveling wave created by the oscillations of an electric field and a magnetic field. Electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light - m/s. Examples include microwaves - X rays - and visible light.






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






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






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






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






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






8. Relates the angle of incidence to the angle of refraction: .

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9. 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.






10. 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






11. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.






12. 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.






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






14. A logorithmic unit for measuring the volume of sound - which is the square of the amplitude of sound waves.






15. 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






16. 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.






17. 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






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






19. 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.






20. The series of standing waves supported by a string with both ends tied down. The first member of the series - called the fundamental - has two nodes at the ends and one anti-node in the middle. The higher harmonics are generated by placing an integra






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






22. If the net torque acting on a rigid body is zero - then the angular momentum of the body is constant or conserved.






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






24. Body diagram- Illustrates the forces acting on an object - drawn as vectors originating from the center of the object.






25. 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.






26. The standing wave with the lowest frequency that is supported by a string with both ends tied down is called the fundamental - or resonance - of the string. The wavelength of the fundamental is twice the length of the string - .






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






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






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






30. Energy cannot be made or destroyed; energy can only be changed from one place to another or from one form to another.






31. 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






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






33. The experience of being in free fall. If you are in a satellite - elevator - or other free-falling object - then you have a weight of zero Newtons relative to that object.






34. A nuclear reaction in which a high-energy neutron bombards a heavy - unstable atomic nucleus - causing it to split into two smaller nuclei - and releasing some neutrons and a vast amount of energy at the same time






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






36. 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.






37. An area of high air pressure that acts as the wave trough for sound waves. The spacing between successive rarefactions is the wavelength of sound - and the number of successive areas of rarefaction that arrive at the ear per second is the frequency -






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






39. Linear momentum - p - commonly called "momentum" for short - is a vector quantity defined as the product of an object's mass - m - and its velocity - v.






40. A wave with wave crests that propagate down the length of the medium - in contrast to stationary standing waves. The velocity at which a crest propagates is called the wave speed.






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






42. 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.






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






44. 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 -






45. The position - of an object according to a co-ordinate system measured in s of the angle of the object from a certain origin axis. Conventionally - this origin axis is the positive x-axis.






46. A vector quantity defined as the rate of change of the velocity vector with time.






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






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






49. The center of a mirror or lens.






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