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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 sheet - film - or screen with a pattern of equally spaced slits. Typically the width of the slits and space between them is chosen to generate a particular diffraction pattern.






2. 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.






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






4. A vector of magnitude 1 along one of the coordinate axes. Generally - we take the basis vectors to be and - the vectors of length 1 along the x- and y-axes - respectively.






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






6. A number - Z - associated with the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom. Every element can be defined in s of its atomic number - since every atom of a given element has the same number of protons.






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






8. 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.






9. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.






10. A push or a pull that causes an object to accelerate.






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






12. The gravitational force exerted on a given mass.






13. The bending of light at the corners of objects or as it passes through narrow slits or apertures.






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






15. A unit of measurement for energy on atomic levels. 1 eV = J.






16. 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.






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






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






19. 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.






20. 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






21. 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.






22. When a solid - liquid - or gas changes into another phase of matter.






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






24. 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






25. 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.






26. A wavelength - given by = h/mv - which is associated with matter. Louis de Broglie proposed the idea that matter could be treated as waves in 1923 and applied this theory successfully to small particles like electrons.






27. 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






28. 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.






29. 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.






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






31. A constant in the numerator of a formula.






32. 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






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






34. 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.






35. The property by which a charge moving in a magnetic field creates an electric field.






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






37. 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.






38. 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.






39. For two given media - the smallest angle of incidence at which total internal reflection occurs.






40. An electromagnetic wave of very high frequency.






41. With spherical mirrors - the center of the sphere of which the mirror is a part. All of the normals pass through it.






42. A conserved scalar quantity associated with the state or condition of an object or system of objects. We can roughly define energy as the capacity for an object or system to do work. There are many different types of energy - such as kinetic energy -






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






44. A system with many parts in periodic - or repetitive - motion. The oscillations in one part cause vibrations in nearby parts.






45. 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.






46. 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.






47. 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






48. An object at rest remains at rest - unless acted upon by a net force. An object in motion remains in motion - unless acted upon by a net force.


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






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